Philips Hue FAQ

I just ordered this neat cover for the light switch which holds the Hue Dimmer:







€15.32 on eBay, released every Sunday at 7pm.

That zigbee protocol is fantastic, put a bulb in between a long distance and picked up the bulbs that were too far away immediately!!!

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Yep.

When I had bulbs randomly scattered around the house, a lot of the times, The furthest ones away were hard to reach, and regularly uncontrollable, but since going 100% Hue, each and every bulb is available all of the time!

Main bulbs are Hue and outside bulbs are Ikea. No issues at all. Totally in awe.

Double check all the apps, some of them are tricky, especially if you used a lot of them to test at the start.

I have a bedroom bulb in wake up mode (from fully dimmed to bright at some minutes intervals) at the very same time all week and also can't remember which app I set it up with.

I wake up at that time anyway, so it doesn't bother me yet, but will get to the bottom of this one day

THE ALM wrote: »

Got the controller yesterday and set up last night. Connected everything up and was picked up by the Hue Hub straight away. One thing to note if adding a RGBW strip is that the light strip is split into two when added to Hue, a RGB light and a White light, so you can either keep the separate or create a group with the two.

Have put them temporarily on top of the kitchen units before looking at a more permanent solution.

Might send an email to the Chinese supplier and get a price direct from them, these came from a supplier in Germany.

So do you have one controller and three seperate lightstrips? Can you only set them all the same?

Simona1986 wrote: »

Cool, think I'll get some.of those controllers so. Which led strips did you use? It's a decent saving over the official ones.

Simona, there are loads of RGB and RGBW strips like this or this, think I got mine from china originally. You also will need a good suitable 12v power supply, I am using this, and also suitable led strip connectors depending if you are going RGB or RGBW, something like these.

Hi All

I was originally thinking of switching light switches to smart switches in my mother's house. But it turns out the smart switches need a neutral wire.

I posted in another thread and was redirected to here saying that installing smart bulbs is much less hassle.

So from reading some of the thread, I need the following for hue to work.

* phillips bulbs or compatible ones
* dimmer switches
* 1 bridge

Do I pair the dimmer switches to each set of light switches, what happens if they are 2 or 3 gang switches?

Maybe someone on here has encountered a similar setup?

exactly right. for example what i did in my living room was.

1. took the main light switch off and just connected the two wires together in a connector block and then put a cover over where the old light switch was. I then put the dimmer switch here which acts just like a remote for the lights. It now looks like it was wired in there even though it is battery operated. 

This dimmer switch then controls three switches in my house. these three lights are the light on the ceiling and the tow lamps which are plugged into sockets. So these three bulbds are controlled with the dimmer switch over the hub. I hope this makes it more simple

ablelocks wrote: »

is there a way to connect an older living colours lamp to the hue bridge 2?

anyone?

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

Yeah for me it would be fine with just phone and hub. For my mother I think I would need the dimmer switches where needed.

Is it a case of one switch per light or how would that work ?

1 Hue Dimmer switch can control up to 2 'hue' rooms (though a room can have as many bulbs in it as you want).

i.e.
I have a hue dimmer switch in my kitchen, and it controls a total of 12 bulbs (10 GU10 spots & 2 light strips) (kitchen/dining room is set up as 1 room in Hue).
we have another 2 hue dimmer switches in the master bedroom and they both control the 3 lights in the room (2 bedside lamps & a bloom behind the TV, as well as controlling the ensuite (which is set up as another room)). Both these dimmers are set up exactly the same, just one on my side, and one on her side, and they are controlling 2 'rooms' (containing a total of 4 bulbs).

another hue dimmer switch in the living room controls 2 lamps and a bloom.

In both the bedroom & living room, the dimmer doesn't control the centre light which aren't used very often, hence they are set up as different rooms so they dont come on with the lamps when activated with the hue dimmer switch (i.e. master bedroom centre etc..)

I set up hue lights in my own mothers house (she has about 8 now), and they're all set on timers (Hue call them routines), and they are a very good way to completely automate the whole Hue experience. I can even remotely adjust the timers for her, though hue will even do the shorter/longer days offset for you if you want all by itself.

I've my own entire house running off various routines, so I hardly ever have to use the dimmers anyway, only just for 'out of hours' operation.

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

1 Hue Dimmer switch can control up to 2 'hue' rooms (though a room can have as many bulbs in it as you want).

i.e.
I have a hue dimmer switch in my kitchen, and it controls a total of 12 bulbs (10 GU10 spots & 2 light strips) (kitchen/dining room is set up as 1 room in Hue).
we have another 2 hue dimmer switches in the master bedroom and they both control the 3 lights in the room (2 bedside lamps & a bloom behind the TV, as well as controlling the ensuite (which is set up as another room)). Both these dimmers are set up exactly the same, just one on my side, and one on her side, and they are controlling 2 'rooms' (containing a total of 4 bulbs).

another hue dimmer switch in the living room controls 2 lamps and a bloom.

In both the bedroom & living room, the dimmer doesn't control the centre light which aren't used very often, hence they are set up as different rooms so they dont come on with the lamps when activated with the hue dimmer switch (i.e. master bedroom centre etc..)

I set up hue lights in my own mothers house (she has about 8 now), and they're all set on timers (Hue call them routines), and they are a very good way to completely automate the whole Hue experience. I can even remotely adjust the timers for her, though hue will even do the shorter/longer days offset for you if you want all by itself.

I've my own entire house running off various routines, so I hardly ever have to use the dimmers anyway, only just for 'out of hours' operation.

Thanks for the help Andy

With regard to your mothers' house and the 8 hue bulbs on timers. Does she manually use them too via the switch or her phone?

I'm thinking to put one downstairs replacing the 3-way switch running (hall, landing, outside)

And one upstairs replacing the 2 way (bathroom, landing)

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

She prefers to have them on timers (routines), particularly the sitting room, hallway and 2 outside porch lights, as well as a lamp in the kitchen.

She does have the ability to control them on her iPad, but I don't think she uses it as a means to control her lights that often, as with the timers, she doesn't need to.

I did give her a hue dimmer switch for her bedroom (controlling 2 bedside lamps), and she does use that one quite a bit, so perhaps as her system expands I'll need to get her more hue dimmer switches (I have another 5 white only Hue bulbs that I no longer need, so they'll be going down to her house soon, giving her a total of about 14 bulbs).

If your going to do landing/bathrooms etc... Hue Dimmers would be the best bet, although have you thought about sensors? they are very good as well.

Sounds a right set up.

I haven't really thought about sensors but they could be a good option.

Thinking about getting a couple of these to block off the old switches



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Philips-Hue-Dimmer-UK-Light-Switch-Converter-Adapter-Cover/192445966940

bk wrote: »

I find I use different control methods in different rooms.

Living Room - Come on based on a "timer" routine set to come on 30 minutes before sunset.
Hall, Bathrooms, Utility room - Motion sensor, light comes on as you enter, goes off a few minutes after you leave
Bedrooms - Hue Dimmer Switch

Of course I can also use Google Home Voice, Harmony Remote and app, but the above are the primary control for each room.

Im pretty much the same except the bedroom lights come on on a timer. Only switched off with a dimmer. Really after a while with the Hue system you use the switches very little. I even started removing dimmers as i ran out of space on the bridge.

Its sounds fantastic tbh and I'm defn gonna go ahead and get the starter kit and just add bit by bit.
Having triggers like "sunset come on" are a great feature and also from reading the IFTTT commands makes it the perfect option.

I do have one question regarding running Alexa. How many Alexa & dot would I need for an average 3/4 bed semi?

Is there any work around for having the sensor switch off lights?

(Ideally like to set that if I'm in the office the rest of the house switches off, but that doesn't seem to be an option)