and even that depends on the LED bulbs. The one I currently have in the wall has that “feature” and one set of LEDs just glowed all night long. I got a different set of bulbs and they have been pretty good about being completely off when the switch says “off”. However, it seems to burn out the LEDs, Out of the 5 I installed about 8 months ago, 3 of them have died.
OK, so looking into the Lowes Iris Smart system, the reviews on that system are HORRIBLE. Ever since they “Updated” last June/July, people lost their ability to set things up via the computer (which was a large advantage since not too many others offer that), as well as the connection between devices and the hub has gotten really spotty. In all the Iris system had a large Red Flag.
After further investigation, it looks like I’m going with Lutron.
Works with LED, dimmable, remote controlled, Smart Phone capable, no monthly subscription, no Neutral Wire required. It also is very highly recommended in the reviews.
A Phillips Hue at Home Depot in our area has a simple 2 white light bulbs and hub for about $50.
White light bulbs are about $15 each.
You can add bulbs that change color. Color bulbs for about $50 bucks.
I’ve added the Samsung Smart things hub and it opened up a wider range of options.
I have a couple of window sensors that when opened it turns on a light or sends me a text saying a window is open. Turns on our front porch at Sunset and off at Sunrise, during the holidays I have it change colors.
I must be the curmudgeon here, but lighting automation seems like a bit of overengineering in most cases? I just put dimmers in my wall switches on literally everything, and I’m really happy with the result. Controlling it via bluetooth or something just seems like pretty major overkill, and only as durable as the communication standard in question.
Am I missing something? I mean if you like it as a hobby, sure, but as a practical thing, I just couldn’t convince myself to go for it.
My dimmers – I like them because they look exactly like traditional switches, there is no slider or anything – thus no new wall plates or wiring needed. You just angle the switch up to some level that you like:
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I find lighting automation very handy though I Bluetooth isn’t part of it.
- Outdoor light turns on automatically when I take the dog out, via motion sensor
- Timer keypad for lights which I typically only ever want on for a few minutes at a time–no need to backtrack to turn them off
- Light in the garage turns off at midnight in case I forgot to turn it off
- Outdoor security lights run dusk to dawn
- Turn off room lights via remote without getting out of bed
- Program any light to do any old thing as needed, for example vacation schedules
- Related: operate garage door from afar
Maybe you don’t have any use cases that benefit from automation, but I sure do!
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I love it cause it’s one less thing to worry about. They turn on when you need it too and turn off when not in use. Especially handy when you go out of town and you play back the lighting patterns so would be thieves would think you are home.
Hell, I can ask Alexa what PSI my compressor is set too. Or say ‘Alexa let’s make some chips’ and it turns on the mill, the back shop light. Set the compress to run vs. Mute (My compressor like to run when I make videos, so now I can say ‘Alexa tell compressor to mute’ and it does not fire up even when the pressure drops below 80PSI. If it gets to about 45 PSI, a neopixel starts to flash orange then to red to let me know that it’s about to get hella loud.)
The other advantage is the remote aspect of it. i.e. I am not home and a buddy wants to use my engine hoist. No worries. They can get to the house and I can see they are standing there and open and close it remotely.
The other use case its safety. During our trip to San Mateo (Makerfaire) my mother-in-law left the stove on. Both my wife and I were getting warning about high power usage @ 2 am EST. We looked at the cameras and it was able to see the IR coming off the stove. We called a close family friend. They got there. I opened the door for them. They turned it off. Then left. I locked the door.
At any rate. You either love it or hate it. But if you have the patience to setup it can do amazing things.
i.e. doing whole house lighting effects /w sound for Halloween. And have them trigger when some come up to the door. Or doing a full RGB candy cane effect across the whole house. Or warning you that there is CO build up and it fired up the exhaust in the attic and the HAV fan. Or turning off unnecessary lights if it notices your month to date power usage was higher then normal.
Anyway, If you hate the idea of it. Just don’t do it. If you are thinking about it. You can do some cool bad word with it.
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Yup. No neutral means it stays on the shelf. I accidentally tried a few different ones. They all found their way back to the store.
I did prefer the former Lowes Iris architecture. They switched to a new platform source seemingly to add support for more systems. I can’t say that I have stability issues worse than with the prior. There was a period jus after the new platforming that I had issues. During that period, I would have written a seriously negative review. Otherwise, I’ve been quite happy with it.
My outside lights come on by remote motion sensors or by time of day. My main living space lights come on synced with sunset and off at a typical bedtime. I have a single button that I can push to turn off those three lamps. I had to do this because my electrician who worked with my builder failed to wire the sockets to a switch, as he had been asked to do.
Good luck with your search. There are a lot of options now. I’m still a bit wary of any dumb device that needs to know my wifi password. There are several articles about these having weak security and becoming the weak link in your network. I used to run 3COM’s home networking device product management team, so I am a bit obsessed with network security. I’m assuming that the Glowforge team took security seriously and are not a weak link.
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