Cheap Smart Bulbs

Spon Farmer

Hi,

I'm trying to find cheap multi-coloured smart bulbs. I can't afford the likes of Philips Hue or LIFX.

Can anyone post me in the right direction?

I Googled it earlier and found a brand called Sengled but they are only for sale in the US.

Is the lifespan of a Philips Hue bulb really 15 years?:eek:

davegilly

Spon Farmer wrote: »

Hi,

I'm trying to find cheap multi-coloured smart bulbs. I can't afford the likes of Philips Hue or LIFX.

Can anyone post me in the right direction?

I Googled it earlier and found a brand called Sengled but they are only for sale in the US.

Is the lifespan of a Philips Hue bulb really 15 years?:eek:

Colour bulb - https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-led-bulb-e27-600-lumen-wireless-dimmable-colour-and-white-spectrum-opal-white-art-00408612/

White bulb - https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-led-bulb-e27-1000-lumen-wireless-dimmable-warm-white-opal-white-art-60338452/

They work with the Hue bridge also.

DopeTech

davegilly wrote: »

Colour bulb - https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-led-bulb-e27-600-lumen-wireless-dimmable-colour-and-white-spectrum-opal-white-art-00408612/

White bulb - https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-led-bulb-e27-1000-lumen-wireless-dimmable-warm-white-opal-white-art-60338452/

They work with the Hue bridge also.

Can they be connected to Google home? Do they have an app of their own like the sonoff plugs?

Spon Farmer

davegilly wrote: »

Colour bulb - https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-led-bulb-e27-600-lumen-wireless-dimmable-colour-and-white-spectrum-opal-white-art-00408612/

White bulb - https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-led-bulb-e27-1000-lumen-wireless-dimmable-warm-white-opal-white-art-60338452/

They work with the Hue bridge also.

Thank you. I completely forgot to check Ikea because of old man brain. :rolleyes:

If they work with Philips Hue that means HomeKit so that is perfect

Cheers

Spon Farmer

Sir Dosser wrote: »

Can they be connected to Google home? Do they have an app of their own like the sonoff plugs?

They have an app of their own but davegilly says they work with Philips Hue so I guess whatever app can control Hue works with these.

ted1

I find yeelight to be great. there wifi so no hub needed and they work with alexa etc.

https://www.gearbest.com/yeelight-_gear/

Spon Farmer

ted1 wrote: »

I find yeelight to be great. there wifi so no hub needed and they work with alexa etc.

https://www.gearbest.com/yeelight-_gear/

Thank you.

Do you know if they only work with the Yeelight app or will they work with HomeKit?

EDIT: I just read that Yeelight is working on HomeKit compatibility.

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

If they work with Philips Hue that means HomeKit so that is perfect

No, these Ikea bulbs or any third party bulb won't work with Homekit. They will work with the Hue bridge, but Apple has strict rules that only certified and official devices will work with it.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

No, these Ikea bulbs or any third party bulb won't work with Homekit. They will work with the Hue bridge, but Apple has strict rules that only certified and official devices will work with it.

You have confused me.

All the bulbs and other devices that work with HomeKit are third party. Apple doesn't have it own range of bulbs.

davegilly

bk wrote: »

No, these Ikea bulbs or any third party bulb won't work with Homekit. They will work with the Hue bridge, but Apple has strict rules that only certified and official devices will work with it.

If thats the case then you need to dump the homekit or whatever it is and buy Smartthings instead. Pretty much everything works with smartthings either natively, through open source development or IFTTT.

opus

ted1 wrote: »

I find yeelight to be great. there wifi so no hub needed and they work with alexa etc.

https://www.gearbest.com/yeelight-_gear/

+1 on the yeelights, I've two of them working with Google Home, no hubs or anything needed.

Rew

bk wrote: »

No, these Ikea bulbs or any third party bulb won't work with Homekit. They will work with the Hue bridge, but Apple has strict rules that only certified and official devices will work with it.

Ikea works with HomeKit you just need the bridge

Spon Farmer

Rew wrote: »

Ikea works with HomeKit you just need the bridge

Are you an owner of Ikea smart bulbs, Hue Bridge and HomeKit?:)

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

You have confused me.

All the bulbs and other devices that work with HomeKit are third party. Apple doesn't have it own range of bulbs.

As in only Philips Hue bulbs, switches and dimmer connected to a Hue Hub will work with Homekit. Ikea Bulbs, Innr, etc. and other zigbee bulbs connected to the Hue hub are considered third party bulbs compared to Hue and thus don't appear in Homekit.

Or to put it another way, Philips Hue bulbs, etc. are certified by apple to work with Homekit, but Ikea bulbs, etc. are not certified to work with Homekit, even if connected to the Hue hub.

Hue and Apple do know that these bulbs are not official Hue bulbs, they are clearly identified as Ikea bulbs on the Hue bridge.

I hope that makes sense.

davegilly wrote: »

If thats the case then you need to dump the homekit or whatever it is and buy Smartthings instead. Pretty much everything works with smartthings either natively, through open source development or IFTTT.

Homekit/Siri is Apples equivalent of Google Home/Alexa. It is important to many Apple users.

There is a reason for this and it is security. Apple are very strict about security and they will only allow devices that follow very strict security rules to connect.

By comparison, the likes of SmartThings will connect to absolutely anything, but the downside of that is that it opens up the security of your home. It is a trade off.

bk

Rew wrote: »

Ikea works with HomeKit you just need the bridge

Not if you are using the Hue bridge, though it will work if you use the Ikea bridge. But then you lose all the niceness of Hue.

This mess is why I recommend forgetting about the Ikea bulbs and just get Hue bulbs during sales if you want the niceness of Hue's ecosystem.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

As in only Philips Hue bulbs, switches and dimmer connected to a Hue Hub will work with Homekit. Ikea Bulbs, Innr, etc. and other zigbee bulbs connected to the Hue hub are considered third party bulbs compared to Hue and thus don't appear in Homekit.

Or to put it another way, Philips Hue bulbs, etc. are certified by apple to work with Homekit, but Ikea bulbs, etc. are not certified to work with Homekit, even if connected to the Hue hub.

Hue and Apple do know that these bulbs are not official Hue bulbs, they are clearly identified as Ikea bulbs on the Hue bridge.

I hope that makes sense.

Yes, it does. I had thought by their very mature Philips items were third party nut for the purpose of HomeKit obviously not.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

Not if you are using the Hue bridge, though it will work if you use the Ikea bridge. But then you lose all the niceness of Hue.

This mess is why I recommend forgetting about the Ikea bulbs and just get Hue bulbs during sales if you want the niceness of Hue's ecosystem.

They are very expenses (even at a sale price I'd imagine) and I was hoping for a less pricey way to test a bunch of colouring changing smart bulbs in the living room.

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

Yes, it does. I had thought by their very mature Philips items were third party nut for the purpose of HomeKit obviously not.

I mean you are correct, they are third party to Apple.

It is more of a case that Apple allows all Hue bulbs connected to a Hue hub to work with Homekit and allows all Ikea bulbs connected to an Ikea bridge to work with Homekit.

But they don't allow for non Hue bulbs on the Hue bridge or non Ikea bulbs on the Ikea bridge, etc. That is what I meant by third party. Third party to the bridge in question.

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

They are very expenses (even at a sale price I'd imagine) and I was hoping for a less pricey way to test a bunch of colouring changing smart bulbs in the living room.

They end up not being much more expensive in deals during sales, a little, but worth it IMO.

I once added up how much I spent on my Hues over the years in sales and compared it to Ikea prices and it actually worked out roughly the same.

I suppose it is a case of you get what you pay for. Philips Hue ecosystem is simply second to non, it is by far the best home automation system by far. Works with everything, lots of cool third party apps, massive range of lights and other devices.

Ikea is decent, nice to see some competition, but it is nowhere near the same level of integration and ecosystem.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

I mean you are correct, they are third party to Apple.

It is more of a case that Apple allows all Hue bulbs connected to a Hue hub to work with Homekit and allows all Ikea bulbs connected to an Ikea bridge to work with Homekit.

But they don't allow for non Hue bulbs on the Hue bridge or non Ikea bulbs on the Ikea bridge, etc. That is what I meant by third party. Third party to the bridge in question.

Hold on. Ikea smart bulbs and their hubs work with HomeKit directly?

Spon Farmer

Okay, I don't know how I missed that when scrolling through the Ikea support pages.

"Do the IKEA smart lighting products work with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant?

All the IKEA smart lighting products are now compatible with Apple HomeKit and Amazon Alexa (if available in your market). With our devices, it’s possible to voice control the lighting through Amazon Alexa, as well as set up and adjust the lights using Apple’s Home app and Siri voice commands. Google Assistant is not supported at the moment, but we’re working to release a software update for our smart lighting products that will make them compatible as soon as possible."

Spon Farmer

I had mistaken the information that the Ikea bulbs worked with Hue Bridge as being the only way to connect to HomeKit.

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

Hold on. Ikea smart bulbs and their hubs work with HomeKit directly?

Yep, they added it recently.

But then you lose all the nice integrations with Hue. But that might be fine for you, depends on what you want to do with them.

Spon Farmer

Rew wrote: »

Ikea works with HomeKit you just need the bridge

Sorry I thought you were referring to the Philips Hue Bridge, not the Ikea bridge.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

Yep, they added it recently.

But then you lose all the nice integrations with Hue. But that might be fine for you, depends on what you want to do with them.

I had misunderstood a lot of what was being posted here and it made me forget that Ikea has their own bridge device.

Yes, with the difference in price I can imagine the Ikea lights will not have the "niceness" of the Philips ones but the Ikea ones would be less expensive way to test what use we would make of technology.

If we really enjoyed I wouldn't mind upgrading to Philips and I could easily sell the Ikea set on eBay or give it to my sister.

EDIT:. How do LIFX smart bulbs compare to Philips Hue?

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

If we really enjoyed I wouldn't mind upgrading to Philips and I could easily sell the Ikea set on eBay or give it to my sister.

EDIT:. How do LIFX smart bulbs compare to Philips Hue?

That is the thing, in my experience, I tried going with cheaper options and then regretted it and ended up with the slightly more expensive option, which of course is a waste in the long term and costs more.

You could just pick up a Hue bridge and one or two bulb bundle during the upcoming sales and try it that way. No need to buy all the bulbs in one go. I just bought one or two Hue bulbs at a time during sales over a 4 years, no need to change every bulb at once.

LIFX is fine if you just want to try out one bulb to see what you think. But if you want to get more then one I'd go for a system with a bridge like Hue or Ikea. It ends up more reliable for a whole home and you have motion sensors, switches, etc.

Rew

Ikea added HomeKit support a year ago via their hub/bridge. I have Hue and I have Ikea, I control everything through HomeKit. Hue's accessories are much better especially things like the motion sensor. I don't use Hue app much except when messing with the colours of my outside lights and never use the Ikea app. For what i have it all works great except the Ikea magnetic dimmers which are very unreliable.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

That is the thing, in my experience, I tried going with cheaper options and then regretted it and ended up with the slightly more expensive option, which of course is a waste in the long term and costs more.

You could just pick up a Hue bridge and one or two bulb bundle during the upcoming sales and try it that way. No need to buy all the bulbs in one go. I just bought one or two Hue bulbs at a time during sales over a 4 years, no need to change every bulb at once.

LIFX is fine if you just want to try out one bulb to see what you think. But if you want to get more then one I'd go for a system with a bridge like Hue or Ikea. It ends up more reliable for a whole home and you have motion sensors, switches, etc.

I read that Hue are far less likely to lose connection than LIFX.

The living room is the real test and future requires five bulbs. Using one won't show the effect.

bk

Spon Farmer wrote: »

I read that Hue are far less likely to lose connection than LIFX.

The living room is the real test and future requires five bulbs. Using one won't show the effect.

Perhaps one in a lamp as a touch of colour? You don't really need all five for mode lighting I found, at least not to start with.

I'd definitely would go for Hue or Ikea for 5 lights.

Spon Farmer

bk wrote: »

Perhaps one in a lamp as a touch of colour? You don't really need all five for mode lighting I found, at least not to start with.

I'd definitely would go for Hue or Ikea for 5 lights.

You are right.

No harm in trying one bulb in the living to see it in action.;)

OldRio

I've been using the ElectriQ smart bulbs from 'laptopsdirect' in the UK.
Cost is 42 pound sterling for three.

I purchased these last year and they were a pain. Kept dropping out. Had to reset a lot of the time. The app was a nightmare.

Then sometime this year the app was upgraded and they have worked perfectly for the last 8 months. The app is Tuya. Works great with Alexa.

Anyhow just purchased 5 lights for the kitchen from the same crowd.

Yamanoto

ted1 wrote: »

I find yeelight to be great. there wifi so no hub needed and they work with alexa etc.

https://www.gearbest.com/yeelight-_gear/

I found these periodically drop out, requiring you to log into the Yeelight app again & go through the set up rigmarole.

Never the slightest issue with Hue IME.