A Complete Information for UK Consumers

As a fervent admirer of Philips Hue, I’ve devoted a lot of the previous 12 months to reviewing their merchandise. Initially, I solely bought a few bulbs, doubting I’d ever prolong past that. Nevertheless, resulting from my obsessive tendencies and propensity for impulsive spending, I’ve considerably broadened my Hue system all through my residence. 

If you happen to’re acquainted with my evaluations, you may know that I continuously give attention to a product’s worth. I am not in opposition to investing a considerable sum right into a product, however I are usually hypercritical relating to premium costs. Conversely, with extra affordably priced merchandise, I am extra forgiving of their imperfections. 

Given the premium value of Philips Hue, one may suppose I’d scrutinise them extra rigorously, and maybe I ought to. Nevertheless, in my expertise, no different good lighting model matches Hue’s high quality. It is not solely in regards to the lights themselves, but in addition contains the sensors, switches, the Hue app, and the model’s sturdy assist throughout third-party techniques. 

Regardless of being relatively frugal – a trait frequent in us Northerners – I have not totally dedicated to Philips Hue. As a substitute, my good residence know-how is an assortment of assorted manufacturers, together with Aqara, TP-Hyperlink Kasa, TP-Hyperlink Tapo, and Wiz Related. 

Whereas it’s miles from excellent, most of my house is now smart-enabled, incorporating gentle switches and plug sockets.

Converging all the things into one system

As my Hue system has expanded just lately, I’ve began contemplating the prospect of consolidating all the things right into a single system. Initially, I deliberate to utilise Homey for controlling all gadgets. Whereas the Homey Bridge is superb, it necessitates a continuing web connection. I subsequently encountered difficulties buying the brand new Homey Professional, main me to lean in the direction of correctly establishing House Assistant.

As well as, I am toying with the concept of giving SmartThings one other go, provided that the V3 hub is appropriate with Matter and operates as a Thread Border Router.

Can Philips Hue Management Different Bulbs?

A realistic answer for my good lighting necessities may be to combine all the things into Philips Hue. Whereas most of my main lights utilise Hue, those in much less frequented rooms and spotlights would want changing. I am additionally contemplating good gentle switches.

The Philips Hue system is able to controlling different good bulbs which might be appropriate with the Zigbee protocol, the wi-fi communication know-how that Hue employs. This might incorporate bulbs from manufacturers akin to Innr, IKEA (Tradfri), Cree, Sengled, and OSRAM/Sylvania.

Caveats of utilizing different bulbs with Philips Hue?

There are, in fact, some caveats when utilizing third celebration bulbs:

1. Not all options could also be obtainable with third-party bulbs, akin to sure color settings or synchronisation with music or motion pictures.
2. Some third-party bulbs could require further configuration steps to work with the Hue system, and others will not be recognised in any respect.
3. Philips has sometimes up to date their software program to dam third-party bulbs from working with the Hue system, citing high quality management and consumer expertise points.
4. Utilizing third-party bulbs can technically void your Philips Hue guarantee.
5. Non-hue bulbs could show a barely completely different shade of color than anticipated when chosen on the app. They might additionally react to on/off/change color at a special tempo.
6. Some bulbs don’t dim down in addition to Hue.

One particular person on Reddit made a helpful remark stating that they really feel like:

Osram @1% is brighter than Innr @1%, which is brighter than Hue @1%.

Subsequently, you most likely don’t wish to combine bulbs when in the identical room and utilizing them multi functional scene, as this will trigger inconsistencies with lighting.

What third-party bulbs work with Philips Hue?

I’ve compiled this checklist as a UK purchaser. Many of those choices will probably be obtainable to US patrons, however not all. Similarily, US patrons will seemingly have lots of choices that are more durable to get within the UK.

Ikea Trådfri

Instance Merchandise:

Ikea Trådfri lights are appropriate with Amazon Alexa, Google House, and Apple HomeKit. They make use of Zigbee for connectivity and could be immediately linked to the Hue Bridge. Nevertheless, the setup course of for these lights is just not as simple as it’s for Hue bulbs. As a way to join IKEA bulbs to the Hue system, one should change the bulbs on and off six instances to permit the hub to detect them. Whereas the brightness of their white bulbs is roughly equal to Hue’s, their color bulbs will not be fairly as brilliant. Moreover, it is not doable to replace the firmware of third-party bulbs, akin to these, through the Hue system.

Lidl Livarno Lux

Sensible bulbs from Lidl, below the model identify Livarno Lux, could be synchronised to operate with Hue. The white bulbs are distinctive and continuously emit brighter gentle than their Hue counterparts. Nevertheless, the color bulbs from Lidl could not reproduce colors as precisely because the Hue bulbs do.

With these being from Lidl, availability could be inconsistent. You may’t purchase them on-line, and Lidl will randomly inventory down their center aisles. As a result of reasonably priced nature of them, many good residence lovers will probably be all of them up.

Innr

Instance Merchandise:

Innr seems to be a extensively favoured selection. Based by a former Philips worker, it is not shocking that Innr, a European firm, boasts glorious compatibility with the Hue bridge. Innr bulbs, obtainable in a broad vary of codecs, enable one to equip most areas of a house at an affordable worth. Regardless of each Hue and Innr offering 805 lumens of sunshine, the Innr bulbs are inclined to shine brighter. Moreover, each manufacturers provide related color accuracy, boasting 16 million colors and a color temperature vary of 2000K-6500K.

Innr Caveats

I’ve seen a couple of criticisms of Innr lights which I believe are price declaring:

• You can’t replace the firmware of the bulbs with out an Innr hub.
• Gradual transitions, akin to residence assistant circadian lighting, are noticeable as step modifications on the Innr GU10s, whereas on the Hue bulbs, they aren’t.
• The colors do not align completely, resulting in a mismatch when three Hue bulbs and one Innr bulb have been utilized in the identical room.
• The Innr E27 bulbs do not appear to dim as a lot because the Hue bulbs. When the lounge lights have been set to step by step brighten at sundown, the Innr bulbs appeared noticeably brighter than the Hue ones.
• It is unsure whether or not Innr bulbs function as successfully on the mesh community. The GU10s within the toilet beforehand required a number of presses from a Hue distant to change, and infrequently one out of 4 would not reply in any respect. Nevertheless, this concern appeared to resolve itself as soon as Hue GU10s have been put in within the hallway, between the Innr toilet bulbs and the Hue hub. It is unclear whether or not it is a particular concern with Innr, as these signs have not been skilled with Hue bulbs.

Linkind

Instance Merchandise:

Linkind has a variety of dumb bulbs, however in addition they have a smaller vary of good bulbs. They’ve each Zigbee and WiFi bulbs, so if you wish to use Philips Hue, you will have to pick the Zigbee bulbs.

On the time of writing, they solely have one choice available for purchase, the Linkind Sensible E14 LED Candle Bulbs.

Osram Sensible+

Instance Product:

Osram are one other firm with a variety of lighting merchandise which incorporates each conventional dumb bulbs and good bulbs. You, subsequently, wish to search for the Osram Sensible+ bulbs and it would be best to make certain it’s listed as being Zigbee (some are Bluetooth solely it appears).

Osram Sensible+ bulbs are appropriate with Hue in Europe. Nevertheless, if these bulbs have been imported from the USA, they utilise a special Zigbee normal (ZHA), which is not appropriate with the Hue system.

Random Manufacturers on Amazon

As I’m certain you’re acquainted with, Amazon will typically have lots of random manufacturers that make appealing-looking merchandise which might be attractively priced. These are usually Chinese language manufacturers with some weird names, they’ll typically be well-reviewed however as a result of nature of Amazon, you possibly can’t all the time belief the evaluations.  

They’re price making an attempt although, and I’d advocate studying any evaluations correctly, you possibly can usually simply inform the distinction between actual and pretend evaluations.

Some choices embody:

I’m a UK tech blogger and have been within the business for over 10 years now, operating Mighty Gadget and its sister websites and contributing to different websites across the internet. I’m obsessed with all tech, together with cellular, wearables, and residential automation. I’m additionally a health fanatic, so I cowl as a lot health tech as doable.

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