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Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

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Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#41

Post by faet »

alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

I've got smart bulbs and they're great. We recently did a reno and wanted dimmable leds. The cost to properly rewire the existing circuitry to support low voltage dimming exceeded the cost of the smart bulbs. "Normal" leds with a traditional dimmable switch would have worked, but flickered. Additionally, the cost difference was minimal. So we swapped everything to smart bulbs (2), under-cabinet lights (2), and cans (5).

My dumb switches works fine. I can turn it off when I leave the kitchen. When I return and flick it on it sets it to a default brightness/color. If I am entertaining I can have it pulse with the music or set the mood with a specific brightness/color. When guests visit/stay they have no idea it's a 'smart bulb' and it works as a normal light switch to them.

If I forget to turn it off at night I can turn off the bulbs from my phone. If I'm not in the kitchen and the light switch is off, yeah I can't turn it on, but who cares? A normal switch would be off anyway. When I actually go into the kitchen I just flip it on and it returns to a pre-set brightness/color.

Additionally, the Hues in particular support a wide temperature range. So if I want 'warm' or 'cool' light I can set it. With a normal LED I'd have to pick at the time of purchase.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#42

Post by TeMPOraL »

anyfoo wrote: post #39
TeMPOraL wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. When I bought my Hue lights, this turned out to be an unexpected pain point. Not only did guests routinely used the switch, I myself had a really hard time unlearning the habit of using it. ... and then I realized that using a phone instead of a switch is much less convenient. Because on poweroff, Hue bulbs revert to ugly, warm color (I bought the color ones to have some mood lights), I wrote a script tha…

A somewhat recent update to Hue bulbs lets you set up what they should do when they receive power, including the ability to tell them to just revert to the previous state. As stated in another comment however, I prefer them just turning on at (almost) full brightness, as I use the regular switch for turning them on when coming into a room.

Thanks for letting me know. I still have one Hue bulb in operation at our current place, though I unplugged the Hub and just deal with the ugly orange. This will be a good motivation to finally update the firmware (which I was avoiding for the past year), so that I can just fix the default color.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#43

Post by z3t4 »

alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

You need some basic electrical knowledge to change the switches, and the insurance company might have a clause that electric wiring need to be done by a professional. but anyone can handle a bulb.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#44

Post by ekidd »

alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

I have a bunch of smart bulbs, and actually, I really like them.

For starters, the Hue bulbs are fairly high quality LEDs. They don't flicker excessively, they distort colors less than cheaper bulbs, and I haven't had one burn out yet. Oh, and the default color is apparently now programmable.

We normally run ours off of old-fashioned switches, with the exception of one or two rooms where the switches are badly positioned and I'm too lazy to reopen the walls.

But even years after installing the bulbs, we still use our phones to override the colors on the bulbs, or set up custom lighting configurations.

The biggest downside is that after a power outage, every light turns on. That's happened once or twice at 2am, and it meant a grumpy search for the nearest phone.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#46

Post by enoch_r »

alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

Our house is old. There are three separate switches to turn on/off three separate lights in our kitchen. Having an electrician fix this would have been thousands of dollars, so instead we bought three smart bulbs. Similar story in our living room, except with 5 lamps because we have no ceiling fixtures there.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#47

Post by anyfoo »

anyfoo wrote: post #37
alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

I bought a few Hue smart bulbs out of curiosity, and liked it so much that I bought more. I did not buy a smart switch. First, let’s talk about switching on instead: It turned out that there are a lot of situation where I really want to switch the bulb on using the button. However, you can set up what the bulb should do when it starts getting power, and I set it up to turn on at reasonable brightness. So when I come…

A few additional points:

I don’t have smart bulbs in the bathrooms. I don’t think they add anything. Bathrooms are usually turn light on, stay for a (relatively) short time, turn light off. This is the same reason why when I originally switched to energy saving bulbs, back when those were still very slow, I kept normal bulbs. I want the light in the bathroom to turn on fast, and I spend a short enough time in it to not waste too much energy.

As for guests: Not a problem. If they stay overnight, they will likely use the regular switch and turn their bulb into a dumb one. That’s okay and make sense. If they don’t stay overnight, they are usually not roaming around so much that they have to worry about lights. In the rare cases that they do, the lights temporarily turn into dumb lights, until I make them “smart” again. I don’t remember when this last happened.

Finally, especially if you don’t live alone, lying in bad and just being able to turn everything off, and not just your lights, was worth it so far.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#48

Post by Hamuko »

ekidd wrote: post #44
alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

I have a bunch of smart bulbs, and actually, I really like them. For starters, the Hue bulbs are fairly high quality LEDs. They don't flicker excessively, they distort colors less than cheaper bulbs, and I haven't had one burn out yet. Oh, and the default color is apparently now programmable. We normally run ours off of old-fashioned switches, with the exception of one or two rooms where the switches are badly positi…

>The biggest downside is that after a power outage, every light turns on.

Set your lights to return to the last state after power recovery.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#49

Post by gambiting »

alkonaut wrote: post #24

Stop buying smart bulbs. It’s an absolutely horrible idea from beginning to end. What people want is a way to switch a lamp on and off. For that you need a smart switch . For it to work you can’t have a dumb switch in your wall first - because when the dumb switch is in the “off” position, the smart lightbulb doesn’t work! What do people that buy smart bulbs do, tape their light switches in the “on” position so you c…

1) we have one in our bedroom - wife loves to crotchet in bed, but of course then inevitably I'm the one being kicked out of the bed to switch the light off. Smart bulb solved that issue, I can just switch it off from my phone.

2) yeah smart switches sound great but it's physically impossible to get them installed in the UK thanks to the unique way our electrical wiring is done - the switch on the wall only has the positive terminal in, the ground is wired directly into the bulb socket. So smart switches just don't work as they don't have anywhere to pull their own electricity from.

Re: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs [video]

#50

Post by Theodores »

Do people buy smart lightbulbs these days? Is there any innovation to drive sales?

In the olden days they would be part of your weekly shop, somewhere in the house a bulb would need replacing or you would be running low on them. Maybe 'weekly shop' is overstating it, but you wouldn't want to be without a spare bulb on hand.

All of those filament bulbs have been replaced. The lights you have are the lights you have. People that wanted the smart bulbs must have got them by now, old timers who don't care for such things are not going to get them. The old user interface of the switch on the wall is what most people want. The idea of having to get your phone out to turn on a light isn't of appeal to those okay with the existing arrangements. This is particularly so in the world of light pollution where it is never truly dark in built up areas.

I notice some people in the comments talk about replacing all the bulbs to smart bulbs. In America it is okay to just do this but in more frugal parts of the world there would be the aspect of waste to consider - never mind expense. Ad-hoc replacement of filament bulbs that blow with novelty smart bulbs is one thing but chucking out perfectly fit for purpose bulbs to get smart bulbs isn't how people do things outside America. Exceptions to this are when getting a new house but the housing market is kaput at the moment in most of Europe.

How is this smart bulb market going? Has it reached a plateau with everyone who wants them having them and the market declining? Or are these new bulbs that don't need a Hue base station making it happen?

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