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I am a dabbler in home automation and thinking about starting to get into lighting. I have heard mostly good things about the Philip Hue line and wanted to see what peoples thoughts are about it.

Our main current automation are a large number of Google Smart Speaker and Arlo video doorbells. Everything is working now on the Google ecosystem which I think Philip Hue will connect with. Our house is 100 years old which means that our possibilities to automate are lower than a new home since we have very few overhead lights, power outlets are at a premium (we have lots of power strips running through the house).

We are thinking about doing smart bulbs in some lamps which we can leave on and a chandalier. I think the biggest issue will leaving things always powered on.

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[-] MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

All good reasons to stay away from the Hue/Wyse branded WiFi bulbs(nvm that their colors suck). Also why those are less than half the price of the ones that require a hub. When the internet goes out, I can still control my hub-connected Hue bulbs, and some(but not all) of the various Bluetooth bulbs I own.

Original Hue bulbs are good shit, the best softwhite, yellows, and/or orange color-tones you can get on the market, but everything else is hit-and-miss IME.

If you like to read/study, its original Hue or Dumb bulbs. The rest is usually party/mood lighting at best, and the best deals for that are on the standalone stuff that comes with crappy remotes.

[-] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Just fyi the Philips security thing does apply to the hub as well. If you care about local only access ensure your hub is on a vlan now with no internet access so it cannot capture the eventual update that will push a forced cloud connection. Philips has explicitly stated this is coming to all hue devices and that you must sign in with a “hue account”.

If you must buy them ideally buy them used so you do not directly financially support a company that is hostile to its customers

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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