Philip Hue is a long-established preeminent smart lighting designer and manufacturer that sets the standard for smart lighting. The Philips Hue 2021 collection builds on his amazing legacy.
Gadget Guy has been covering Philips Hue since 2013, when the term “smart home” was almost a pipe dream due to the lack of standards like Wi-Fi, BT, Zigbee, Z-Wave or competing standards. In fact, Philips decided to create a lighting control bridge, eventually linking it to new standards like Google Assistant and Siri.
Now it’s part of the new IoT “matter” movement. The full line of Philips Hue 2021 smart lights, bridges and accessories will receive an OTA firmware update (by Q4 2021). This means that any standard Matter smart home controller can control and interact with a wide variety of Smart Matter compatible home devices. For example, an ambient light sensor may change the light level/hue according to the ambient light.
We have some new units to test – more on that later – but I wanted to start with this range so you can see how it fits.
It starts with Hue-enabled lighting (in BC and ES) connected to a Hue bridge (an Ethernet-connected Zigbee controller) that connects to the Hue app.
You leave the light switch on and the bulb turns on/off in the socket. So if the internet goes down, you can still use them as standard lights. The application allows you to choose different colors and patterns (in the case of colored light bulbs) and connects to a voice assistant.
This includes the Bridge V2 ($99.95) and some lights. With Bridge, you can support up to 50 lights and accessories (dimmers and sensors). Actually it can support more, but you can overload Bridge. If you choose Hue, especially for ceiling lights, it’s easy to get more than 50 lights!
You can now add a second (or more) Hue bridge, but you will need to invest in a smart hub controller like Samsung SmartThings or Apple HomeKit to manage multiple bridges.
Interestingly, each Hue bulb acts as a bridge repeater (mesh), so you’re not limited to 20/30 meters of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth range. We successfully ran a line of sight from a 60m lamp to one of the 120m and 180m lamps. Indoors, the maximum range through walls is about 25-30m, but mesh networks (unlike Wi-Fi) can increase this range. As with Wi-Fi, make sure the hub is in the center of the light and not stuck in the garage.
All lamps use low voltage and light bulbs have built-in transformers so they can usually be replaced with power plugs. They consume a few watts rather than the 60/100/250 watts they replace. Most lamps have a lifespan of at least 25,000 hours.
Before you kill the cost, keep in mind that this is at least 25,000 hours of useful life – at least 10-20 years of typical use. They consume about 5-9 watts, which means almost no work (for example, 0.001 cents per hour). If you replace a 50 x 60W light bulb, the cost is still less than 5 cents an hour and almost 70 cents. A typical home alone can save hundreds of dollars every year.
While counterfeits and fakes are not much of a problem, there is a thriving gray market, a parallel import business. These lights are not certified in Australia, may not have the RCM C-Tick logo on the device or packaging, and are not covered by the Signify Australia warranty. You can find them on shopping sites like Kogan, Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.
Beware of so-called damaged carton lots (shrink wrap is a win-win), as they are usually used or remanufactured. There are also many generic Philips Hue cables, bridges and transformers that claim to be compatible with Philips Hue but in reality only turn off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth with the voice assistant.
The app features multiple scenes and a continuously adjustable color wheel subtly displaying other related light color options. When you use the voice assistant, it will access the app’s last setting, or you can ask it to change the color to one of the many default presets or change the brightness percentage.
You can play with automation including what to do when you wake up, bedtime, coming home, leaving home, timers and custom settings. You can also connect to IFTTT (if this, then this) to set up nested commands such as “If the motion sensor on the door activates, turn on the door light and ring the bell (Arlo).
Lily is a spotlight and although it has a light output of 15W, its light output is nowhere near as good as the old Para spotlights. That’s close to a 90W incandescent bulb, but more than enough for its purpose of illuminating large areas like a trail or small backyard.
The setup also requires some planning. This is a low voltage device (24V/15W) and requires a weatherproof extension cable and a Philips low voltage power supply.
Fortunately, with the release of the Philips 100W power supply, things have become easier – more on that later. But you will need to plan the route of the cable as it can be mounted on a wall or garden post.
It’s IP65, which means it’s dust and weather resistant – no rain issues, and it’s nicely wrapped in aluminum.
It comes with a hood and garden spikes. The expansion pack includes a 2.5m cable and tee, but you’ll still need a power supply.
If the Lily XL is too big, Philips has a standard Lily size and a range of base, wall and strip lights.
When I bought my first street light, the power supply was only 40 watts. The 100W now has two cable connectors that can each run 30 meters and support 50W per cable. The Lily XL is 15W, the outdoor 5m strip is 37.5W (it has a lot of tiny LEDs on it) and the base is 8W so I can plug them all into one power supply. It has an IP67 rating – waterproof.
With a little planning, you can use a 12 x 8W base light that covers 30 meters (12 x 2.5m extension cables $29.95 each using the same power supply).
A physical dimmer might seem out of place when you have voice control, but sometimes you may need it.
First, it is linked to the Bridge, and you can turn on/off/dim any, group, or all lights connected to the Bridge (mutually exclusive). It can be suitable for stairwells, lobbies, garages, or indoor use without voice assistant control.
Philips recently made some of its Bluetooth lights app-controlled (not connected to a bridge). Dimmers can control up to 10 in a group.
It uses a CR2450 battery that lasts for years. It can be attached with magnets to a wall plate or to a portable device.
As you can imagine, I have a smart home full of IoT (Internet of Things), smart devices, speakers, security cameras/systems and well-integrated Google – about 80 different devices lately.
Inexpensive regular flashlights are usually Wi-Fi connected to a Chinese app/cloud and always crash at least once a week.
Everything is fine as long as we don’t have internet or power cuts. And then, as my wife likes to say, “we screwed up,” albeit more politely. Because we – nothing works.
When the internet or electricity returns, there are only two things we can rely on to get started: Arlo security and Philips Hue. Both have the same characteristics – they use a hub. No whimsical Wi-Fi connections or interruptions – they work 24/7.
It’s not about getting rid of Wi-Fi IoT. Why? Because they mostly rely on Wi-Fi quality to work, and most of them have cheap, nasty AC1600 routers or very unreliable cheap mesh routers from their NBN provider. Get a good, reliable router (at least an AC5400 or preferably an AX11000) with good signal strength/bandwidth and range, and your Wi-Fi will never be a problem again.
Hello Ben. As for the bridge setup, it’s pretty good. If you have Bridge style in mind, please tell me about other brands and we can look into them. If you mean Wi-Fi indicators, your comment is irrelevant.
Post time: Oct-14-2022
