LIFEX or HUE best for my Living Room?

[upstatemike]

So I set up my Hue lights and so far am happy with the way they work. The response with Alexa is instantaneous which is nice. I do feel the Gen3 bulbs are a bit weak when it comes to green, blue and purple. I was hoping to get a nice deep indigo color but that is clearly not possible with these.
 
I also need to get a better understanding of groupings. I see how to control a single bulb or command the entire room but how do I group 2 bulbs in the same fixture so they operate together?
 
I also think a switch may be required with these bulbs since they come on to full white when power is first restored. This is perfect for use with a switch but un-switched bulbs are going to turn themselves on in the middle of the night whenever there is a short power interruption (at lest 3 or 4 times a week where I live).
 
I was going to grab 1 Lifx bulb while the price was down to $33 just to compare but I missed the sale so I'll have to wait for another opportunity to play with one of those.

 

[ano]

Also, you can put Hue on a standard wall toggle switch for local control. If you switch it off it will go off, but drop off the network without power. Switch it on and it goes to a natural white (always, no way so far to control color in this case.)

The down side is if someone turns them off from the switch frequently, you'll be running to turn them back on to get them networked again. Bonus is that you can just turn off the hub and they will behave like 65W-ish standard incandescent bulbs. (Rough default color comparison)

While you can do this, its probably not the best idea.  When you switch off a bulb which was part of a mesh network, other bulbs may have relied on it so they will now need to find a new path. The network will attempt to repair itself, but this can take time, and obviously any bulb not powered can't be part of a mesh network. If you have a large Zigbee network, this process can take literally hours to accomplish.  I would highly recommend that you leave as many bulbs as possible powered as much as possible, and try to turn them off with commands instead. 

 

[upstatemike]

I'm worried if I leave them powered they will turn themselves on whenever there is a momentary power glitch. I guess I can leave them powered for now but if I start waking up to a bunch of lights that have turned themselves on during the night then I will have to resort back to a switch.

 

[cobra]

Yeah, if you lose power a lot, I might stay away from Hue.

 

[upstatemike]

Except I want color bulbs. Maybe I should have gone with Lifx bulbs and Logitech Pop switches? Kind of stuck now that the sales are over.

 

[cobra]

Yeah, I have a couple Hue, but mostly keep them out of the bedrooms. Nice for living room end table lights, and can have a couple lamps that will go any color with Siri voice commands.

 

[upstatemike]

My test case ended up being my Office/AV room. I have 10 bulbs that I can adjust to my current activity plus it is a good location for testing because I am in there a lot. After I get more familiar I want to do 9 bulbs in the dining room and 12 in the living room. I don't see ever putting these in a bedroom. I also don't see ever paying $50-$60 per bulb now that I know they can be had for $33 each on sale. Even if I have to wait another year for the next sale I won't ever be willing to pay much over $35 per bulb for either Hue or Lifx bulbs.

 

[LarrylLix]

Now you need a decent HA system just to run the Hue lights off  blinding you in the middle of the night.
 
There are many cheaper methods with beautiful colours using other bulbs brands and especially LED strips.
 
Next you will find out that Philips bulbs all produce different colours / hues. When you turn on red you will get orange on some, and purple on others and red on some. Now you need memory based look up variable tables to match the colours. Hues also require a hub hanging around and the bulbs are garbage. Now you can read. They do replace them under warranty though. I have done that already.

 

[upstatemike]

Another interesting question about smart bulbs and HUE Zigbee vs Lifx IP  is address space. I currently reserve the first 200 addresses on my LAN for fixed IPs and they are pretty much all used between Sonos, Amazon devices, PCs, TVs and AV gear, Nest thermostats, and a handful of automation controllers. Every time there is a power glitch most of those devices reboot and even though the addresses are reserved they still hit the DHCP server all at once to get their address. If I started using Lifx or some other IP based bulbs that could add a ton more addresses and further tax the DHCP server or even force me to change my subnet mask to something larger than 254. I wonder if it would even be practical to scale out a wireless network to the point where everything had an IP address? What if all my Insteon devices were replaced with IP based technology? That's another 100+ right there!
 
Scalability is my second greatest concern (after speed/latency) and I am having doubts that current Wi-Fi is going to scale enough to support the growth of IoT devices like smart bulbs now that they are becoming more mainstream.

 

[mtgoat]

There are many cheaper methods with beautiful colours using other bulbs brands and especially LED strips.
 

Any brands/sources that youve had good luck with, either bulbs or strips?

 

[ano]

I'm not sure why, but I just got the urge to find and play some of my Donna Summer albums....
 

Another interesting question about smart bulbs and HUE Zigbee vs Lifx IP  is address space.

Any number of LIFX bulbs only consume 1 IP address. Zigbee doesn't use up any but I imagine the Hue bridge uses one.

 

[upstatemike]

Thanks, I guess it didn't sink in to me that Lifx was Zigbee since there is no hub. I just assumed each bulb was Wi-Fi even though I think somebody here did actually say otherwise. I didn't have much time for research due to the limited Black Friday sales window. I had never considered playing with color bulbs at all before I saw the cost drop below $35 per bulb at which point I had only a short time to make a decision and commit.
 
Are TPLink and all the other big color bulb brands Zigbee as well?

 

[ano]

Thanks, I guess it didn't sink in to me that Lifx was Zigbee since there is no hub. I just assumed each bulb was Wi-Fi even though I think somebody here did actually say otherwise. I didn't have much time for research due to the limited Black Friday sales window. I had never considered playing with color bulbs at all before I saw the cost drop below $35 per bulb at which point I had only a short time to make a decision and commit.
 
Are TPLink and all the other big color bulb brands Zigbee as well?

Every LIFX bulb does contain Wi-Fi, but only the one nearest the router activates.

 

[upstatemike]

And if that one goes offline is another one automatically promoted to be the Wi-Fi bridge?

 

[ano]

And if that one goes offline is another one automatically promoted to be the Wi-Fi bridge?

I'm sure that happens automatically, but it likely doesn't happen instantly.  Its best to always leave the bulbs powered.