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I was skeptical of this, but voice control of my lights has turned out to be incredibly useful. I can turn on the main lights while I'm taking my shoes off, bef
by mjg59 11y ago
I was skeptical of this, but voice control of my lights has turned out to be incredibly useful. I can turn on the main lights while I'm taking my shoes off, before I'm in reach of the switches. I can dim lights from the sofa while watching TV. I can turn off individual lights. It's nothing earth-shattering in terms of importance, but it's something that does make my life better.
- mikeash 11y agoI can see the use, but what confuses me is why there's so much emphasis on putting the smarts in the bulbs. It would make a lot more sense to me to use normal bulbs and put the smarts in the switches. I'm sure there are switches out there like that, it's just not what people talk about.
- bluedino 11y agoIt's a heck of a lot easier to swap out a bulb than a switch.
- mikeash 11y agoEh, it's a little easier. With the switch, when the lighting bits die (less common with LEDs now, but it still happens) you don't have to toss all the expensive switch electronics.
- fps 11y agoThere are modules like this: http://aeotec.com/z-wave-in-wall-switches/170-micro-smart-appliance-switch.html http://aeotec.com/z-wave-in-wall-switches/170-micro-smart-ap... that work with hubs like wink or smarthings, but home electrical wiring isn't consistent, so the installation isn't like the 1-2-3 easy setup you get from something like Hue.
- cweiss 11y agoOthers have chimed in on the ease of bulb installation VS ease of switch installation. One other point is that the most you can get from a remote switch-only installation is variance in brightness, no RGB control.