Smart lights and switches

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I cant reach my lamp switch from bed and I read til I drop. Plus if i have an armful of laundry I let alexa get the lights for me. Spoiled DH by getting his light on an alexa plug also. Lucky boy. I have one on the tvvroom lamp also so if I want a little light i don't have to get up. Rest of tge house ii old school timers or nothing. But a few spots are really nice to be hands free.

My ecobee serves as an amazon echo also. Helpful BC it will tell me the time and weather if I ask and remind me to get the cat in 30 mins before sunset everynight. Also I have to take medicine at 2 set times and its helpful for a voice reminder to tell me wherever i am in the house. Also easy to do wholehouse music during Christmas or deep cleaning session. Sometimes its nice to have the news read while I wash dishes. I think technology has its uses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardsFan Am I the only one that actually turns on a light switch anymore? Is it really that hard? (Well DW says I don't turn them off enough, but that would be another thread) In fairness, we have a few motion sensor lights outside, and a WiFi thermostat (primarily to monitor when away). The condo is 1500sf. I am never more than 50 ft from any switch in the house. Just don't see the value, at any price.

[Hermit]

I just bought 50 Insteon smart switches. At $50 each this probably should go into the Blow That Dough thread. I will add an Insteon Hub which can work with Google or Amazon if I want voice control. It also can control the lights and other available gadgets from the Internet. The main goal is just to be able to push a button and turn off all the lights when I go to bed. The only lights not planned to be on the system are the attic lights. I would rather have those lights stay on than there be a possibility that they accidently get turned off while I am up there.

[Ready]

It’s nice to have some lights on timers to automatically turn on at dusk and off at dawn. It works great when you are away from home and want it to appear like the house is not empty. The old fashioned mechanical timers could certainly handle this. But with internet connected devices they know exactly when sunrise and sunset is every day, so you never have to manually adjust them based on the time of year.

[Retired Expat]

We have HUE lamps, Phillips and others. All work with Alexa so while they have their own apps I either use voice control or the Alexa app. Really no big deal. Have an Eero Mesh router system which is helpful to have great coverage and if I can avoid separate hubs I prefer it. Although the Keyless entry lock required one. Nice that the LED lamps work in both 110 and 220 volt situations for me. Had a house that didn't have a 3 way switch for the stairs, voice controlled light save a lot of wall chopping and mess to add a switch. And I love not having to climb that stairs to turn off my desk lamp or others when I have gone down to bed. if I forgot..

All this home tech is great. the Ecobee thermostat and the internet controlled hot water save me a lot on our rental property Utilities, Contactless check in, remote alarm monitoring and exterior cameras to make sure the drive got plowed. Makes my life much easier!!

[YB88]

I standardized on z-wave in my house, and in general on Amazon products. If I were starting from scratch, I might standardize on zigbee, as the limited built-in hub that Amazon offers in a couple of products supports zigbee and not z-wave. I get around this by using the base station to my Ring security system as a limited sort of 'dumb' z-wave hub. Occasionally I have issues with whether some new desired device will connect and function via the Ring z-wave 'hub'.

It is nevertheless kind of nice in a way --- I like having a 'dumb' hub, because otherwise it gets sometimes tricky to figure out where a problem is in automation if both Alexa and another hub each think of themselves as the center of my (not so very) intelligent home.

The catch there is that Alexa's capabilities are low. Something like Smarthings is certainly more flexible and powerful (and potentially complicated). But since I ripped out my gen. 1 smarthings hub, I've had few confusing and annoying "what's the problem NOW ?" moments.

I'm hoping that Echo/Alexa will add more functionality to their limited 'routines', but am not holding my breath.


One thing that I am disappointed with is the haphazard "throw it all loosely together" approach that Amazon seems to have taken. I was naively hoping that as they built and bought various pieces, they would work to integrate them, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I might be willing to toss it all and go with Google if I thought they were doing significantly better, but I doubt it.

Some of the integrations that they do have are just unimpressive. For example, if I get an alert that someone is moving around in front of my house, I turn to my Echo Show and say something like "Alexa, show the driveway camera". By the time the image comes up, the triggering person/object/animal is typically gone. And Ring then makes me wait a bit before the recorded video is available for viewing. A "real-time" system it is not.


I guess it's all about expectations. I get a lot of value out of the system I have, and appreciate it, so I just need to pay a little less attention to marketing content and more to an empirical appreciation for what this stuff does allow me to do well.


The latest thing I've added were a set of Flic buttons. I'd been looking for something like this for a while and resisted because you have to have their own little 'hub' if you want them to work when your phone isn't present. My wife and I enjoy having a few places where we have the option of using a button rather than voice to turn on/off or otherwise trigger certain actions.

[jazz4cash]

Last spring, I bought Kasa smart plugs to control some patio lights and they have worked very well all summer. I would've been more confident buying these if I had known Kasa is a TP-Link brand.
Now as the days grow shorter I need smart bulbs for the front door and driveway that will run automatically from sunset to sunrise. I was considering Kasa Smart Bulbs ($9/ ea x 4) but our utility company has deals* on gadgets from time to time so I bought some "Earth Bulbs" from them. They run on the Tuya app. These seem to be obscure brands. The app recognizes the bulbs and the network but won't connect them together. I tried the Smart Life app which is identical to Tuya (won't connect). I am going to experiment with placement of the devices but I'm pretty sure I'll be trying the the Kasa bulbs.

I have assumed that the bulbs will work normally if they lose WiFi connection....it that correct?

*10 dimmable LEDs, 2 Smart Bulbs, 1 LED desklamp for $10.

[Ready]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash I have assumed that the bulbs will work normally if they lose WiFi connection....it that correct? *10 dimmable LEDs, 2 Smart Bulbs, 1 LED desklamp for $10.

Yes, they will turn on and off normally using your existing light switch.

The Kasa brand smart bulbs work well. You can buy the color bulbs on Amazon for under $10 each in a four pack. I have a bunch of these and the colors are fun to play with.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ6PLJG...lig_dp_it&th=1

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready Yes, they will turn on and off normally using your existing light switch. The Kasa brand smart bulbs work well. You can buy the color bulbs on Amazon for under $10 each in a four pack. I have a bunch of these and the colors are fun to play with. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ6PLJG...lig_dp_it&th=1

Damn, I was thinking about getting them, but they're only 800-850 lumens. The geeni bulbs I have now are 1050 lumens, and I have two of them per lamp. If anything, I'd like a higher range, especially on a dimmable bulb!

But I agree, Kasa is great; as I said earlier in this thread the Kasa app is leagues better than the geeni app.

[Ready]

Yes, the Kasa bulbs could be a bit brighter. I have stayed with them because I don’t want to introduce another brand running a separate app.

But if you haven’t bought any yet, you might want to look at the new Wyze bulbs. They are 1100 lumens. A four pack is $39.99 plus shipping.

https://wyze.com/wyze-bulb-color.html

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready Yes, the Kasa bulbs could be a bit brighter. I have stayed with them because I don’t want to introduce another brand running a separate app. But if you haven’t bought any yet, you might want to look at the new Wyze bulbs. They are 1100 lumens. A four pack is $39.99 plus shipping. https://wyze.com/wyze-bulb-color.html

It looks like these are the same, and I can't calculate shipping on the Wyze site, but it probably works out to around the same cost: https://smile.amazon.com/Wyze-Labs-W...dp/B097C3VLLL/

[Ready]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Cosmic Avenger It looks like these are the same, and I can't calculate shipping on the Wyze site, but it probably works out to around the same cost: https://smile.amazon.com/Wyze-Labs-W...dp/B097C3VLLL/

Yes, those are the same. Amazon just adds the shipping into their cost. So much for “free Prime shipping”.

[jazz4cash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready Yes, they will turn on and off normally using your existing light switch. The Kasa brand smart bulbs work well. You can buy the color bulbs on Amazon for under $10 each in a four pack. I have a bunch of these and the colors are fun to play with. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ6PLJG...lig_dp_it&th=1

They are $1 cheaper per bulb if I don't use your link!

[calmloki]

Costco sale tomorrow: Feit color changing smart bulbs - 4 pack $40 normal, $10 off on sale, so $7.50/bulb.
Costco is offering Feit smart products $10 each, limit 5 in their sale book.

[Aerides]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calmloki Costco sale tomorrow: Feit color changing smart bulbs - 4 pack $40 normal, $10 off on sale, so $7.50/bulb. Costco is offering Feit smart products $10 each, limit 5 in their sale book.

We put those Feit smart color change bulbs outside on our back patio. It solved a problem for me, because one switch in in the living room, the other in my bathroom as it also exits onto the patio. So if I want both lights on, it's annoying to go back and forth every night. Or get them rewired somehow.

By putting in the smart bulbs, we put them on our google home thingy, and I can turn them on and off via my phone or other devices. Together, one flip. And they are programmed to go off at the same time without me having to remember. Nice!

However... yeah they aren't as bright as my old LEDs. Not quite...like 80% maybe. And I cannot tell you how many times I want to quickly flip the lights on to go outside and I'm all....where is my damn phone!

Yes, you can disable the wifi if you get tired of it, or if the wifi is down you just flip the manual switches and they will take over eventually. But not sure I'm as thrilled with the actual usage as I was with the idea.

[Luvtoride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready Yes, they will turn on and off normally using your existing light switch. The Kasa brand smart bulbs work well. You can buy the color bulbs on Amazon for under $10 each in a four pack. I have a bunch of these and the colors are fun to play with. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ6PLJG...lig_dp_it&th=1

I have these Tp-Link Kasa bulbs and my 2 1/2 year old grandson loves telling Alexa to turn the lights on and off and telling her to change colors. Its not only fun but educational as well. These work great!

[Sunset]

For my outside lights, I got some LED bulbs that are "dusk to dawn".

They work extremely reliably, better than my old screw-in sunlight sensor adapters.

The bulbs do cost $5 on sale or $9 regular, but they last a few years.

No fussing with internet wifi connection.

[jazz4cash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset For my outside lights, I got some LED bulbs that are "dusk to dawn". They work extremely reliably, better than my old screw-in sunlight sensor adapters. The bulbs do cost $5 on sale or $9 regular, but they last a few years. No fussing with internet wifi connection.

I didn't know about these...thanks. I replaced the Brand X bulbs I bought from our utility company with TP-Link bulbs. I was able to initialize the bulbs by placing them close to the router but our wifi is too weak to reach the outdoor light fixtures.