Had been eyeing these for a while, and just got some for Christmas. After using them for a few days, they are definitely worth it. I'm currently in a single bedroom apartment so the 3 light starter kit can pretty much fill it up.

But the lights are bright enough to replace the bulbs I had before, the whole system just works with absolutely no hassle, the hub can store timers and schedules so the lights can change automatically. You don't realize how useful it is to have programmable, colour changing lights until you have them.

The rest api is really easy to use too, you can literally do it all in JavaScript if you want to. It uses zigbee protocol, I haven't looked into if it's possible to pair generic zigbee devices with it.

Overall, I highly recommend them if you want to make your life just a little more listed for cheap (compared to other things...).

If you have a nice home theater setup, they add a really nice touch to have different scenes for movies/tv/games.

12/27/2014 10:16:25 PM

Can you place these lights in lamps and in-ceiling can lights?

We got can lighting all over the house... I could see the costs adding up quickly.

12/28/2014 12:30:54 AM

Yeah I have some in a Desk lamp, and a lamp with a shade.

They can get expensive, instead of looking to replace all the cans, I'd recommend getting the starter kit and a portable lamp like this: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31RJKv57y-L._AA160_.jpg

That way you can test out how a light would look in a room, whether you need all the lamps replaced to achieve your effect, and then worst case, have to rewire some cans to not use the light switch.

They have other sized bulbs though, but I haven't looked into that.

12/28/2014 1:46:28 AM

[Edited on December 28, 2014 at 1:46 AM. Reason : ]

12/28/2014 1:46:28 AM

My only complaint with mine is that they can't dim down very close to zero light -- the lowest setting is still pretty bright. But I understand that is a problem all LED lights have.

12/28/2014 11:36:08 AM

how well do they work for BR30 type can lights?

Also, stupid question, but these still work like normal at a wall switch right? And if already "on" you can make adjustments to the color, dim them, and turn on and off from your phone etc?

12/28/2014 2:24:43 PM

^^
Yeah once your eyes adjust, the lowest setting seems bright. My workaround is to just put them on a deep red or purple.

^
Yeah if you toggle the wall switch it resets to a white light. You're supposed to keep the switch in the on position to use the lights, which I haven't found to be an issue.

I have to commend philips for doing a good job on dimming, there's no real flicker on the lights. A lot of lights have an obvious pulsing when dim, but not these lights.

12/28/2014 5:07:13 PM

This whole system seems really great, ignoring the price tag.

How neat would it be to have them lighting up the entire room the same color as the shit on your TV? I imagine it'd be annoying as hell after a minute or so, but still.

If you already have arduino hardware and an xbee shield, or something similar, do you even need the base? Could you just buy a light and go to town?

[Edited on December 30, 2014 at 8:53 AM. Reason : ]

12/30/2014 8:52:17 AM

http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/30/syfy-12-monkeys-philips-hue/

SyFy has some shows that sync.

If you have a philips AmbiLight TV, they will sync anything you're watching.

It probably would be really easy to write a raspberrypi program that uses a webcam to make any show/game work with it.

12/30/2014 9:17:21 AM

Quote :

"Yeah if you toggle the wall switch it resets to a white light. You're supposed to keep the switch in the on position to use the lights, which I haven't found to be an issue."

Thanks.

My only thought then is that this is not intended really for lights that are turned off and on a lot. I was already planning to replace the CFL can lights in our kitchen as they are the only lights in the whole house that I really dislike: I don't like the color and they take a long time to warm up, unlike other can lights or other lights period in our house - all of which are CFL except a few decorative traditional bulbs. These lights kind of excited me to use in the kitchen; however, it really would be most convenient to turn these lights on and off at the wall switch so I don't think those are good candidates.

Can any of these in this series be used outside yet? Could be fun for covered porch can lights. I think I read previously that they weren't intended for below 32F. I could see this being really nice for exterior lights.



[Edited on December 30, 2014 at 9:47 AM. Reason : ]

12/30/2014 9:25:21 AM

^^ that's pretty cool.

^ I think I read they are "damp rated" - but I have no idea what that means. I do know they recommend against using them in enclosed fixtures.

[Edited on December 30, 2014 at 10:20 AM. Reason : ]

12/30/2014 10:20:20 AM

^^how old are they? I'm happy with the Target-branded CFL lights I got, they seem a lot better than the lights I got a year ago. I think quality (and price) have improved a lot, the color of these looks a lot better and there is no warm-up delay or anything that I notice.

12/30/2014 2:09:19 PM

^It is possible they are just crappy and older. They came with the house (5 years ago).

In general, I have no problem with CFLs. Everything else we have indoors is CFLs as well and I am happy with the color and lack of noticeable warm up delay. These particular ones just suck and I've been too lazy to replace them yet.

12/30/2014 5:01:43 PM

I bought 3 CFLs...ONCE. They all died in under a month.

12/30/2014 6:44:33 PM

^^^^^
I think they make light switches that connect to the hub to control the scenes.

But it sounds like for that application, regular lighting would work best.

12/30/2014 11:03:38 PM

do these have a greater dim range than other LED lights? I replaced our entire house with LED's (except for a few CFLs in lamps that I am happy with) but still have a incadescent bulb in one of the lights in the bedroom so I can dim it at night. The LED lights were either too bright at their lowest brightness or not bright enough at their brightness, I couldn't find one with an acceptable rance to replace the dimmable incandescent in the bedroom.

12/31/2014 8:35:41 AM

They don't, in terms of absolute brightness, but at their dimmest level with a red hue, they "appear" dimmer than a regular bulb (i have both in my bedroom).

12/31/2014 10:10:26 AM

Quote :

"^^^^^ I think they make light switches that connect to the hub to control the scenes. But it sounds like for that application, regular lighting would work best."

I agree.

I still should have clarified my full thought process in my first post though. I was thinking these could be cool in a kitchen because it is a room that could benefit from very bright clear light when cooking or doing prep work but could benefit from softer, warm lighting when entertaining.

However, I think my solution will be getting better CFLs for the can lights for normal lighting and then putting in some pendant lights with incandescent bulbs for "mood" lighting.

12/31/2014 1:15:35 PM

Quote :

"do these have a greater dim range than other LED lights?"

yes.




I've been using Hue for about a year or so, here's my feedback:

Great system
Annoying that colors don't "stick" (set a color in the app, turn off the light, turn it back on and the default color comes on instead of what you set)
Dimming works better than any other LED I've seen
Bulbs are expensive, but worth it (you can get some non-color Hue lights now, actually)

geo-fencing feature means you have to turn the lights on/off a lot less than you'd think
Scheduling your lights to come on can be done through the app or through IFTTT, also tremendously cuts down the level of "playing" you have to do

1/1/2015 9:09:07 AM

I have had hue lights in my home theater for a little over a year. I mainly got them because they're controllable by the Harmony line of remotes which means I can set different scenes for movies/tv/games etc that automatically activate when those modes are chosen on the remote.

That being said, I find them to be more of a novelty than anything. They are WAY too expensive to use all over my house, especially when equally energy efficient CREE LED bulbs can be had for $5 a piece. The fact that I can't dim them with an in-wall dimmer is pretty annoying sometimes too. It's not often that I want to pull out my phone, unlock it, open an app, and wait for it to connect just to dim my lights. Also, I can't remember the last time I used the color changing feature. It's neat for a party trick, or if you live in a dorm and your idea of good looking decor includes black lights, but after about 5 minutes I always just find myself going back to using them as regular dimmable white lights.

1/6/2015 3:47:42 PM

are these the lights that the new SyFy show 12 Monkeys will be linking with to provide scene specific hue changes?

1/6/2015 4:18:56 PM

^ yep

1/6/2015 5:12:45 PM

12 monkeys was pretty cool with the lights.

1/18/2015 6:23:25 PM

^^^^

Thanks for posting that. I've been considering buying some of these lights, and have gone back and forth on them.

Mostly, I think the draw is that it's new technology, and I'd have some fun with it like a new gadget, but then i'd get bored with it. which would be fine, except

Quote :

"The fact that I can't dim them with an in-wall dimmer is pretty annoying sometimes too. It's not often that I want to pull out my phone, unlock it, open an app, and wait for it to connect just to dim my lights."

this kills the practicality of it. the app control should be a value added enhancement, not mandatory for basic control.

1/22/2015 10:51:19 AM

I just recently replaced all the lights in my house with LEDs (literally every light except for ceiling fan halogen bulbs that don't come in LED size). Philips LED, in fact. These came out probably 3 months after I did that. I got excited about it, and briefly considered upgrading again because the pitch for them sounds dope, and I like toys.

Agree with most sentiment in this thread that they're a great idea/poor execution that will be remedied in a few years once IOT becomes commonplace across an entire household, and then not only will they be cheaper per bulb, but also have all the functionality kinks worked out.

1/22/2015 1:26:00 PM