A Complete Information for UK Patrons

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. Nonetheless, on account of my obsessive tendencies and propensity for impulsive spending, I’ve considerably broadened my Hue system all through my house. 

Should you’re acquainted with my evaluations, you will know that I often deal with a product’s value. I am not towards investing a considerable sum right into a product, however I are typically hypercritical in the case of premium costs. Conversely, with extra affordably priced merchandise, I am extra forgiving of their imperfections. 

Given the premium price of Philips Hue, one may suppose I’d scrutinise them extra rigorously, and maybe I ought to. Nonetheless, in my expertise, no different sensible lighting model matches Hue’s high quality. It isn’t solely concerning the lights themselves, but additionally consists of the sensors, switches, the Hue app, and the model’s strong help throughout third-party programs. 

Regardless of being slightly frugal – a trait widespread in us Northerners – I have never totally dedicated to Philips Hue. As an alternative, my sensible house expertise is an assortment of varied manufacturers, together with Aqara, TP-Hyperlink Kasa, TP-Hyperlink Tapo, and Wiz Linked. 

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

Converging every little thing into one system

As my Hue system has expanded not too long ago, I’ve began contemplating the prospect of consolidating every little thing right into a single system. Initially, I deliberate to utilise Homey for controlling all gadgets. Whereas the Homey Bridge is superb, it necessitates a relentless web connection. I subsequently encountered difficulties buying the brand new Homey Professional, main me to lean in direction of correctly organising House Assistant.

As well as, I am toying with the thought of giving SmartThings one other go, on condition that the V3 hub is suitable with Matter and operates as a Thread Border Router.

Can Philips Hue Management Different Bulbs?

A realistic answer for my sensible lighting necessities is likely to be to combine every little thing into Philips Hue. Whereas most of my main lights utilise Hue, those in much less frequented rooms and spotlights would wish changing. I am additionally contemplating sensible mild switches.

The Philips Hue system is able to controlling different sensible bulbs which might be suitable with the Zigbee protocol, the wi-fi communication expertise that Hue employs. This might incorporate bulbs from manufacturers resembling 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 get together bulbs:

1. Not all options could also be obtainable with third-party bulbs, resembling 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 person expertise points.
4. Utilizing third-party bulbs can technically void your Philips Hue guarantee.
5. Non-hue bulbs could show a barely totally different shade of color than anticipated when chosen on the app. They could additionally react to on/off/change color at a unique 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 in all probability don’t wish to combine bulbs when in the identical room and utilizing them multi function scene, as this may occasionally trigger inconsistencies with lighting.

What third-party bulbs work with Philips Hue?

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

Ikea Trådfri

Instance Merchandise:

Ikea Trådfri lights are suitable with Amazon Alexa, Google House, and Apple HomeKit. They make use of Zigbee for connectivity and may be straight linked to the Hue Bridge. Nonetheless, the setup course of for these lights just isn’t as easy as it’s for Hue bulbs. So as to join IKEA bulbs to the Hue system, one should change the bulbs on and off six occasions to permit the hub to detect them. Whereas the brightness of their white bulbs is roughly equal to Hue’s, their color bulbs usually are not fairly as vivid. Moreover, it isn’t potential to replace the firmware of third-party bulbs, resembling these, through the Hue system.

Lidl Livarno Lux

Good bulbs from Lidl, beneath the model identify Livarno Lux, may be synchronised to operate with Hue. The white bulbs are distinctive and often emit brighter mild than their Hue counterparts. Nonetheless, the color bulbs from Lidl could not reproduce colors as precisely because the Hue bulbs do.

With these being from Lidl, availability may be inconsistent. You possibly can’t purchase them on-line, and Lidl will randomly inventory down their center aisles. As a result of inexpensive nature of them, many sensible house lovers will likely be all of them up.

Innr

Instance Merchandise:

Innr seems to be a broadly favoured selection. Based by a former Philips worker, it isn’t stunning that Innr, a European firm, boasts wonderful compatibility with the Hue bridge. Innr bulbs, obtainable in a broad vary of codecs, permit one to equip most areas of a house at an affordable value. Regardless of each Hue and Innr offering 805 lumens of sunshine, the Innr bulbs are likely to shine brighter. Moreover, each manufacturers provide comparable color accuracy, boasting 16 million colors and a color temperature vary of 2000K-6500K.

Innr Caveats

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

• You can not replace the firmware of the bulbs with out an Innr hub.
• Gradual transitions, resembling house assistant circadian lighting, are noticeable as step modifications on the Innr GU10s, whereas on the Hue bulbs, they don’t seem to be.
• The colors do not align completely, resulting in a mismatch when three Hue bulbs and one Innr bulb had 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 had been set to progressively 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 rest room beforehand required a number of presses from a Hue distant to change, and sometimes one out of 4 would not reply in any respect. Nonetheless, this situation appeared to resolve itself as soon as Hue GU10s had been put in within the hallway, between the Innr rest room bulbs and the Hue hub. It is unclear whether or not this can be a particular situation with Innr, as these signs have not been skilled with Hue bulbs.

Linkind

Instance Merchandise:

Linkind has a variety of dumb bulbs, however additionally they have a smaller vary of sensible 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 possibility that can be purchased, the Linkind Good E14 LED Candle Bulbs.

Osram Good+

Instance Product:

Osram are one other firm with a variety of lighting merchandise which incorporates each conventional dumb bulbs and sensible bulbs. You, due to this fact, wish to search for the Osram Good+ bulbs and it would be best to ensure it’s listed as being Zigbee (some are Bluetooth solely it appears).

Osram Good+ bulbs are suitable with Hue in Europe. Nonetheless, if these bulbs have been imported from the USA, they utilise a unique Zigbee normal (ZHA), which is not suitable with the Hue system.

Random Manufacturers on Amazon

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

They’re price attempting although, and I’d suggest studying any evaluations correctly, you possibly can usually simply inform the distinction between actual and faux evaluations.

Some choices embrace:

I’m a UK tech blogger and have been within the trade for over 10 years now, operating Mighty Gadget and its sister websites and contributing to different websites across the net. I’m keen about all tech, together with cell, wearables, and residential automation. I’m additionally a health fanatic, so I cowl as a lot health tech as potential.

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