6 ms·

Don't use smart bulbs. Bulbs burn out. Use smart sockets and "dumb" bulbs. Don't put disposable things on your network.

sleepybrett 8y ago
Most, if not all, smart bulbs are LED bulbs LED bulbs have very long lives. If you want to use an RGB bulb or one of those bulbs that has adjustable white temperature, a smart socket isn't going to support that.
- EpicEng 8y ago
  >LED bulbs have very long lives. Then why am I constantly replacing them? Wait, I know why; because I buy the cheaper ones, which have inadequate thermal solutions and God knows what quality of LED. You may say "well don't buy the cheap ones", but people will, and they'll always be available. Even more affluent people who hook their lights up to their network will still often chose the cheaper version. Even the high end versions will fail, and you end up with the same problem.
  - jfk13 8y ago
    Yeah - my experience with LED bulbs has been quite variable. Some "name-brand" ones from a European manufacturer seem to be lasting well so far, but I've also had a batch of lower-cost ones (with, supposedly, a 5-year guarantee) where the failure rate within 6 months was something like 50%. "LED bulbs have very long lives" is an overly optimistic generalisation, in my experience.
    - Ptlnd 8y ago
      "LED bulbs with very long lives" would be pretty useless. What they don't tell you about LEDs is that their efficiency goes down the drain over time, they become so dark as to become unusable. I have a few 3 to 5 years old bulbs, which I still haven't discarded but kept in the closest as a "emergency bulb if one of the bulbs I use break", I replaced them despite them being still fully operational because they became too dark. Way too dark. This is an issue with LCD TV and monitors too. After a while their LED backlights become really dark. Push your new monitor at max brightness and compare the old with its max brightness and even if they were rated at equal nits the newer one is much brighter. All those bulbs I have are the namebrand that do reliably work for years, but I would not want to use them for years. I feel like I might just buy the cheapest bulbs the next time, and not care if they die after 6 months. 6 months might be the maximum amount of time they can give you their brightest.
      - jfk13 8y ago
        But if they -- at least "quality" brand LEDs -- don't have really long (useful) lives, the cost premium over other types of light bulbs looks much less justifiable. (For reference, according to http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/life-and-light-output/why-is-the-life-of-leds-measured-as-lumen-depreciation http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/li..., "The normal convention is to measure the life from when the output has reduced by 30%, i.e. when there is 70% light output remaining.")
  - bryanlarsen 8y ago
    It's usually not the LED that fails, it's usually either the control circuitry or drivers that fail. But even if you follow parent comment's suggestion of putting the smarts in the switch rather than the bulb you'll still have failure prone control circuitry and drivers in the bulbs. Switching to 12V might help.
    - EpicEng 8y ago
      Agreed. I'd just as soon not use either and gasp turn the lights on and off manually.
      - bryanlarsen 8y ago
        The driver (aka power supply) and control circuitry are needed whether the light is smart or dumb.
        EpicEng 8y ago
        I think you misunderstand me. I just don't want light bulbs on my network.
  - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
    Even the brands don't do that much better. Brightness or colour temperature has degraded markedly by 3 or 4 years of most I've bought. Colour drift has been particularly bad with any daylight or cold white bulbs. We've gone through fewer of those so may have just been unlucky brand choices.
    - dylan604 8y ago
      3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. The can lights used throughout my house use recommend a particular type of bulb to be used, and these seem to burnout in less than 6 months. This is a remodeled/flipped house, so maybe there's something wonky with the wiring or some such, but the Phillips LEDs I've since replaced them with have been yet to burn out after 18 months. Can't vouch for if they are no longer the same brightness at 100% now, as I rarely turn them up higher than 80% in normal use.
      - dragonwriter 8y ago
        > 3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. Regular incandescents have negative lifespans?
        LyndsySimon 8y ago
        ... that seems right to me. I will have a bulb burn out yesterday that I bought a few years from now.
        dylan604 8y ago
        sarcasm buzzes your head when you have no light bulbs to illuminate
- Negitivefrags 8y ago
  There are RGB lights that don’t require smart bulbs. I have several in my house. It’s a bit more complicated though. You need an RGB driver. In my house it connects to a KNX network, but’s quick google tells me there are wifi ones as well.
  - heywire 8y ago
    Target in the US has Bluetooth RGB bulbs for $5 or $10 -- my kids have them in their bedrooms :)
kalleboo 8y ago
We have IR-remote controlled ceiling lamps, and a smart IR blaster. The IR blaster can be put to all kinds of purposes, controlling A/C, floor-standing fans, TV, etc, without replacing every piece of tech in the home.
- fredley 8y ago
  I have similar but it's 433MHz (I think). Advantage is it doesn't need line of sight, disadvantage is it's harder (but not impossible) to get working with a raspberry pi or similar.
humantiy 8y ago
That seems like just as bad of an idea. In theory the bulbs (LED) are supposed to last at least 10 years. If you use a smart socket it will stick around a lot longer. Sounds better, but look at how things have changed in the past 10-20 years in wireless tech and security alone. Personally I see the "dumb" bulbs and sockets as the smart choice.
ungzd 8y ago
LED bulbs probably have longer lifetime than cheap computing electronics, in both power supply is the weakest part.
BeetleB 8y ago
>Don't use smart bulbs. Bulbs burn out. Use smart sockets and "dumb" bulbs. Except smart sockets can't do most of the stuff people buy smart bulbs for.
- brodsky 8y ago
  could you please elaborate? the only missing feature I can think of when using a socket, is the color change. I would think that is not the primary reason to purchase smart light bulbs, besides maybe one or two for the novelty? the key benefits of smart lighting is in the timing controls, dimming, and occupancy sensing, all of which can be accommodated by the socket, provided it can talk to a gateway that offers those features.
  - trothamel 8y ago
    Being able to change the color temperature of the bulb (bluish-white during the day, warm white at night) is a real benefit - and not something a socket can do.
  - JoshTriplett 8y ago
    In addition to the mentions of color temperature, dimming works far better in something directly controlling LEDs, not by something controlling AC current to a socket. Ideally, there'd be a standard for DC bulbs plugged into sockets, which included brightness and color. But right now, everyone wants to sell their own bulb system.
  - BeetleB 8y ago
    Color change - including different shades of white. With multiple people in the house who have different preferences on what white means, this avoids a lot of battles :-) But agree - if you are mostly going to use it to turn it on/off, a smart socket/switch is likely the way to go. But keep in mind that if you ignore Hue and Lifx, there are decent smart bulbs out there that are fairly cheap - likely cheaper than a smart socket. Add to that the simplicity for the end user. I've installed smart switches, and depending on how your house is built, it can be quite a pain. Not all lighting in the house is via a socket.
egypturnash 8y ago
I've been using the same LIFX smart bulbs for like six or seven years. They are not without their problems, but burning out has not been one of them.

Most, if not all, smart bulbs are LED bulbs LED bulbs have very long lives. If you want to use an RGB bulb or one of those bulbs that has adjustable white temperature, a smart socket isn't going to support that.

EpicEng 8y ago
>LED bulbs have very long lives. Then why am I constantly replacing them? Wait, I know why; because I buy the cheaper ones, which have inadequate thermal solutions and God knows what quality of LED. You may say "well don't buy the cheap ones", but people will, and they'll always be available. Even more affluent people who hook their lights up to their network will still often chose the cheaper version. Even the high end versions will fail, and you end up with the same problem.
- jfk13 8y ago
  Yeah - my experience with LED bulbs has been quite variable. Some "name-brand" ones from a European manufacturer seem to be lasting well so far, but I've also had a batch of lower-cost ones (with, supposedly, a 5-year guarantee) where the failure rate within 6 months was something like 50%. "LED bulbs have very long lives" is an overly optimistic generalisation, in my experience.
  - Ptlnd 8y ago
    "LED bulbs with very long lives" would be pretty useless. What they don't tell you about LEDs is that their efficiency goes down the drain over time, they become so dark as to become unusable. I have a few 3 to 5 years old bulbs, which I still haven't discarded but kept in the closest as a "emergency bulb if one of the bulbs I use break", I replaced them despite them being still fully operational because they became too dark. Way too dark. This is an issue with LCD TV and monitors too. After a while their LED backlights become really dark. Push your new monitor at max brightness and compare the old with its max brightness and even if they were rated at equal nits the newer one is much brighter. All those bulbs I have are the namebrand that do reliably work for years, but I would not want to use them for years. I feel like I might just buy the cheapest bulbs the next time, and not care if they die after 6 months. 6 months might be the maximum amount of time they can give you their brightest.
    - jfk13 8y ago
      But if they -- at least "quality" brand LEDs -- don't have really long (useful) lives, the cost premium over other types of light bulbs looks much less justifiable. (For reference, according to http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/life-and-light-output/why-is-the-life-of-leds-measured-as-lumen-depreciation http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/li..., "The normal convention is to measure the life from when the output has reduced by 30%, i.e. when there is 70% light output remaining.")
- bryanlarsen 8y ago
  It's usually not the LED that fails, it's usually either the control circuitry or drivers that fail. But even if you follow parent comment's suggestion of putting the smarts in the switch rather than the bulb you'll still have failure prone control circuitry and drivers in the bulbs. Switching to 12V might help.
  - EpicEng 8y ago
    Agreed. I'd just as soon not use either and gasp turn the lights on and off manually.
    - bryanlarsen 8y ago
      The driver (aka power supply) and control circuitry are needed whether the light is smart or dumb.
      - EpicEng 8y ago
        I think you misunderstand me. I just don't want light bulbs on my network.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  Even the brands don't do that much better. Brightness or colour temperature has degraded markedly by 3 or 4 years of most I've bought. Colour drift has been particularly bad with any daylight or cold white bulbs. We've gone through fewer of those so may have just been unlucky brand choices.
  - dylan604 8y ago
    3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. The can lights used throughout my house use recommend a particular type of bulb to be used, and these seem to burnout in less than 6 months. This is a remodeled/flipped house, so maybe there's something wonky with the wiring or some such, but the Phillips LEDs I've since replaced them with have been yet to burn out after 18 months. Can't vouch for if they are no longer the same brightness at 100% now, as I rarely turn them up higher than 80% in normal use.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > 3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. Regular incandescents have negative lifespans?
      - LyndsySimon 8y ago
        ... that seems right to me. I will have a bulb burn out yesterday that I bought a few years from now.
      - dylan604 8y ago
        sarcasm buzzes your head when you have no light bulbs to illuminate
Negitivefrags 8y ago
There are RGB lights that don’t require smart bulbs. I have several in my house. It’s a bit more complicated though. You need an RGB driver. In my house it connects to a KNX network, but’s quick google tells me there are wifi ones as well.
- heywire 8y ago
  Target in the US has Bluetooth RGB bulbs for $5 or $10 -- my kids have them in their bedrooms :)

kalleboo 8y ago

We have IR-remote controlled ceiling lamps, and a smart IR blaster. The IR blaster can be put to all kinds of purposes, controlling A/C, floor-standing fans, TV, etc, without replacing every piece of tech in the home.

fredley 8y ago
I have similar but it's 433MHz (I think). Advantage is it doesn't need line of sight, disadvantage is it's harder (but not impossible) to get working with a raspberry pi or similar.

humantiy 8y ago

That seems like just as bad of an idea. In theory the bulbs (LED) are supposed to last at least 10 years. If you use a smart socket it will stick around a lot longer. Sounds better, but look at how things have changed in the past 10-20 years in wireless tech and security alone. Personally I see the "dumb" bulbs and sockets as the smart choice.

ungzd 8y ago

LED bulbs probably have longer lifetime than cheap computing electronics, in both power supply is the weakest part.

BeetleB 8y ago

>Don't use smart bulbs. Bulbs burn out. Use smart sockets and "dumb" bulbs. Except smart sockets can't do most of the stuff people buy smart bulbs for.

brodsky 8y ago
could you please elaborate? the only missing feature I can think of when using a socket, is the color change. I would think that is not the primary reason to purchase smart light bulbs, besides maybe one or two for the novelty? the key benefits of smart lighting is in the timing controls, dimming, and occupancy sensing, all of which can be accommodated by the socket, provided it can talk to a gateway that offers those features.
- trothamel 8y ago
  Being able to change the color temperature of the bulb (bluish-white during the day, warm white at night) is a real benefit - and not something a socket can do.
- JoshTriplett 8y ago
  In addition to the mentions of color temperature, dimming works far better in something directly controlling LEDs, not by something controlling AC current to a socket. Ideally, there'd be a standard for DC bulbs plugged into sockets, which included brightness and color. But right now, everyone wants to sell their own bulb system.
- BeetleB 8y ago
  Color change - including different shades of white. With multiple people in the house who have different preferences on what white means, this avoids a lot of battles :-) But agree - if you are mostly going to use it to turn it on/off, a smart socket/switch is likely the way to go. But keep in mind that if you ignore Hue and Lifx, there are decent smart bulbs out there that are fairly cheap - likely cheaper than a smart socket. Add to that the simplicity for the end user. I've installed smart switches, and depending on how your house is built, it can be quite a pain. Not all lighting in the house is via a socket.

egypturnash 8y ago

I've been using the same LIFX smart bulbs for like six or seven years. They are not without their problems, but burning out has not been one of them.