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Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

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Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#91

Post by rale00 »

abletonlive wrote: post #32
MrAwesome wrote: post #6

It seems like there has been a lot of buzz lately about the importance of reducing light exposure at night and the impact it has on your health. I can certainly speak to it anecdotally - getting a nice pair of blackout curtains and putting electrical tape over the electronics LEDs in my bedroom seemed to do wonders for my sleep. A quick search for sources led me to this article, which has a nice collection of links t…

I'm not convinced about blackout curtains being healthy. Why is it that when you go camping you feel so refreshed and good when the sun comes up and wakes you up? Did our far ancestors use blackout curtains? How did they deal with the sun waking them up everyday? My guess is that it's the optimal way to wake up actually.

I set up an automation to slowly open my curtains when I want to wake up. It's a much nicer way to wake up than an alarm.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#92

Post by pineconewarrior »

sumedh wrote: post #46
pineconewarrior wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have LifX come back from the dead yet? They've been struggling super hard to get products back on the shelf and their support has been like, comatose, according to Reddit etc I really wanted to try their products because I hear the color bulbs are INSANE, but they were always out of stock, never on sale, and I heard so many horror stories...

Not sure what horror stories you have heard but supply is not too bad in Australia, I see them in stock in retail stores, I have had Lifx for a long time, still going strong.

I am not quick to give any credence to companies when I hear of poor support from the company. Perhaps I was a victim of the classic supply chain issues in this case, or I am gullible to angry Reddit reviewers. I'd really love to be wrong! I have heard the colors on those bulbs are out of control amazing.

I will keep an eye out for a bargain or better bulb if I can find one. I am definitely hoping to be impressed now that I am a lifelong consumer of these things.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#93

Post by pineconewarrior »

sumedh wrote: post #43
bin_bash wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

huh? https://www.bestbuy.com/site/philips-hue-white-and-color-amb...

I didnt know Hue launched a 1600 lumen bulb, for a long time they had lower lumens than that which were not as bright as the Lifx ones.

The 1600 white bulbs are real slappers. If you can snag a costco deal or something.. do it.

The 1600 color bulbs are just the old color bulbs with an upgraded white LED, which is still really nice but not like... a huge upgrade if you're trying to blast really huge color. They are overpriced as heck right now. Really a bummer move.

... my money says they are coming out with a new color bulb in the next year

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#94

Post by sampo »

bubblethink wrote: post #25
lawkwok wrote: post #7

Phillips Hue lights are something you think is a luxury until you get them. The ability to have light change colour temperature or dim depending on the time is so calming. Whenever I revert back to the non—colour-temperature-adjusted light, I feel like I’m in an operating room. The only thing I would note is that they are dimmer than regular lights. Having dim lights in the middle of the day really makes me sleepy.

Is there any friendly alternative to these home automation things ? I would like to try some stuff but I don't want to spend a weekend creating vlans or fighting google play services, alexa etc.

Philips Hue: You can use the phone app to control individual bulbs directly with bluetooth, but for more control you need also the Hue brigde, which talks to the bulbs over Zigbee (a wireless protocol), and to your phone app over your wifi. For initial setup, the bridge needs an internet connection, but otherwise it will work as long as your home wifi is up, even if there is no connection to outside internet. The features (timed schedules, scenes) live in the Hue brigde, so everything works also without outside internet.

LIFX: No Zigbee, no bridge. These bulbs connect to your 2.4GHz home wifi. More advanced features (schedules, scenes) live in the LIFX company server, so won't work without internet connection. But without outside internet connection, you can still use the phone app via your wifi router to control the color and brightness of individual bulbs. If you're a home automation hobbyist, you can give color and brightness commands to LIFX bulbs over your 2.4Ghz wifi, so you can program your own timed schedules that would work without outside internet connection.

Other smart bulbs: Cheaper. Philips Hue and LIFX are the two most expensive.

I understand LIFX is best for bright colors. But Philips Hue bulbs don't contain just RGB leds, but also leds for white and warn white, so the bulb may have 5 different types of leds. So Philips might produce better near-white "natural" light than same colors produced by combining only red,green,blue leds. Not sure if this matters to everyone or only to some lighting connoisseurs.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#95

Post by pineconewarrior »

philliphaydon wrote: post #80
sumedh wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what horror stories you have heard but supply is not too bad in Australia, I see them in stock in retail stores, I have had Lifx for a long time, still going strong.

I kick started lifx. Received 4 but had so many problems. They were crazy slow and didn’t change colour properly. I’m sure they have improved since then tho but I don’t have any use since I’m not in my own home.

This is the kind of thing I was talking about, exactly. I am not saying it's everyone's experience, but when you pay big coins for a fancy tech product these days like... support... please...

And at this very moment the dang color bulb is sold out on their website.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#96

Post by Auracle »

smcleod wrote: post #14
lawkwok wrote: post #7

Phillips Hue lights are something you think is a luxury until you get them. The ability to have light change colour temperature or dim depending on the time is so calming. Whenever I revert back to the non—colour-temperature-adjusted light, I feel like I’m in an operating room. The only thing I would note is that they are dimmer than regular lights. Having dim lights in the middle of the day really makes me sleepy.

Completely agree, fantastic lights and worth every penny, their CRI is high enough to fill out the visible light spectrum nicely - you don't get any "indoor greys" and they seem to last forever, several of my bulbs are over 10 years old and still working perfectly.

I put one up in my photo studio because I wanted some 6500k lights, and there’s no way it was actually white at 6500k. I forget what color it was tinged with but it was super obvious.

I suspect they’re only high CRI at certain color temperatures?

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#97

Post by yx827ha »

lawkwok wrote: post #7

Phillips Hue lights are something you think is a luxury until you get them. The ability to have light change colour temperature or dim depending on the time is so calming. Whenever I revert back to the non—colour-temperature-adjusted light, I feel like I’m in an operating room. The only thing I would note is that they are dimmer than regular lights. Having dim lights in the middle of the day really makes me sleepy.

You should check out https://sowilodesign.com/blogs/blog/how-to-use-bifrost-with-...

They offer a high current adapter for the Phillips Hue Light Strip so you can have large and bright light strip installations. Their LEDs are also top notch. I installed some as my pandemic lighting and it's been great.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#98

Post by haneul »

smcleod wrote: post #86
haneul wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a contrary response to the Hue. The color rendition felt dead compared to my typical lighting from Waveform.

Did you have the >90 or >80 CRI bulbs?

The white and color ambience bulbs, whatever CRI those are (2019).

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#99

Post by droopyEyelids »

bubblethink wrote: post #25
lawkwok wrote: post #7

Phillips Hue lights are something you think is a luxury until you get them. The ability to have light change colour temperature or dim depending on the time is so calming. Whenever I revert back to the non—colour-temperature-adjusted light, I feel like I’m in an operating room. The only thing I would note is that they are dimmer than regular lights. Having dim lights in the middle of the day really makes me sleepy.

Is there any friendly alternative to these home automation things ? I would like to try some stuff but I don't want to spend a weekend creating vlans or fighting google play services, alexa etc.

Yes, just buy the led strips & diffusers & other hardware, plus a power supply, and wire them to light switches.

Re: Investing in lighting did great things for my mental and physical health

#100

Post by oxplot »

haneul wrote: post #76
smcleod wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree, fantastic lights and worth every penny, their CRI is high enough to fill out the visible light spectrum nicely - you don't get any "indoor greys" and they seem to last forever, several of my bulbs are over 10 years old and still working perfectly.

I had a contrary response to the Hue. The color rendition felt dead compared to my typical lighting from Waveform.

Absolutely. I have a bunch of waveform light strips (the highest CRI) which I use for specific lighting conditions (e.g. taking photos) and it's the difference between literally night and day. I'm also using them for plants and they love it!

The only downside is their rather expensive cost so I'm yet to replace all my lighting with it, but it's a great investment given that it'll probably outlast me and so won't need to change them.

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