You'd be surprised.. there are some in this community that have done that.
In my case it's Spouse Approval Factor - she likes to use real switches to turn things on and off. So I added a smart switch with "smart bulb" mode on which decouples the switch from the power. We also like the ability to change color etc so thats where the smart bulb bit comes in. Switch can also control scenes.
I have 8 Sengled color+ recessed bulbs in our den - and 2 in our den table lamps. They have been running for 2 years or so. I have had to replace 2 faulty ones over that time but the rest are fine. In terms of repeating - I'm not sure having all 10 bulbs repeating in the den would actually do all that much good..
No, not repeaters. Most smart bulbs arent. Your Cree aren't either.
Do you by chance live alone? Hahah. I've had to go through the house and remove the knobs from the lamps and put covers on the light switches to keep my wife from turning them off manually.
Even when they are "Powered" they make bad repeaters. when they turn "off" (go into a low power mode) ZLL based bulbs turn off their repeaters so anything routing through them can drop off the mesh and potentially effect everything. Sengled does not use repeaters and this is a good thing. The downside is that you do want zigbee repeaters for them to talk to if you have a big area. Zigbee 3.0 bulbs don't suffer from this.
I'd also point out most know to use a switch that has the smart bulb feature in it (maintaining power to the bulb but acting more as a scene controller instead of actually cutting power like a traditional switch) This allows you to use it as an off/on button without worry
No, 5 person family. Most of my switches throughout the house are inovelli switches with the relay disabled. They work just like any switch except the on/off goes through hubitat instead of the relay turning off/on. So no one has to "know" how they work when they come over, just use them like a normal switch. On the few lamps we use, I have a zigbee or zwave remote switch for those.
Anyway, apparently people are still using smart bulbs like old fashioned bulbs, which is fine, but does not apply to my situation. So I'm interested in bulbs that repeat if there are any. Not a deal-breaker in the slightest however. It would just be helpful.
If you were comparing the first- or second-generation Hue bulbs, then yes--the third gen and newer (and anything with "richer colors" written on the box, though they may have stopped doing that some time after it wasn't new anymore) addressed the most notable weaknesses those bulbs had, particularly in the green and blue areas But really, I spend most of my time in CT mode and not color mode, and I find all generations of Hue to do particularly well with shades of white (some other bulbs can't get below 2700K much or at all; one of my favorite dimmed scenes uses 2250K--though this is far warmer than most would use for day-to-day lighting).
My pick is Hue (with a Hue Bridge, which there are various options for integrating into Hubitat). If I had to pick something else, I think LIFX would be a close second now that Hubitat has native support, but I'm not about to swap out all my bulbs just for that. (And they aren't that different in price, as much as people like to make fun of how much Philips Hue costs...) I've tried some bulbs directly paired, notably Sengled and a couple Z-Wave devices, but was never quite as happy. I also much prefer "real" Hue bulbs on the Hue Bridge, even though a variety of third-party bulbs are also compatible, because they support all Hue features (default power-on state, HomeKit support, etc.).
I know adding more hubs/bridges/gateways isn't fun, but I wouldn't discount Hue entirely just for that if it's otherwise appealing. (But...maybe LIFX if you don't?) Just my take!
I've never heard of ZLL bulbs "turning off" their repeaters--how would they repeat for other ZLL devices if they did? Can you link to a source for this? The consensus seems to be simply that some ZLL bulbs have "bad" firmware that causes them to eat messages instead of repeating like they should and that this seems to be a problem only when mixed with non-ZLL devices, despite the fact that per spec it shouldn't matter. Additionally, Zigbee 3.0 doesn't do anything in particular to solve this, and it is likely just coincidence that those bulbs (apparently?) have better-written firmware and repeat properly. (Behavior is likely to vary by brand/model regardless of Zigbee profile.) See this thread for more discussion:
I like the look of the lifx products but I think Buddy Technologies, the parent company, is in receivership. Doesn't mean you should stay away from them and hopefully someone buys them, but it is something to keep an eye on.
Actually, just the opposite is what I have found. All Zigbee smart bulbs ARE Zigbee repeaters, with the exception of Sengled Zigbee bulbs. Sengled intentionally designed their Zigbee bulbs as End Devices (i.e. non-repeaters), so that powering them off would not impact any other devices in the Zigbee mesh network.
That's why I only have Hue and Sengled bulbs...Hue are on a Hue hub so they play nicely via the Hue integration and don't interact with my HE Zigbee mesh, and Sengled don't try to repeat so they never cause any problems if they come or go. I use some Zigbee plugs sprinkled around to help w/my Zigbee mesh, much simpler and doesn't rely on my keeping any particular combination of bulbs in use/on.
I've had Sengled bulbs for about 2 years now - hopefully I won't hit a four-year wall. If I do, I'll likely replace them w/Hue bulbs.
I strongly disagree with this. I think a lot of the people who say that statement were likely burned by the bad osram and ikea bulbs that would drop half the messages they should have repeated due to faulty firmware or not enough memory. I would like all my permanently powered devices to repeat so it helps the mesh as much as possible. Would be a plus if that option was configurable for bulbs to make everyone happy but I don't think that is a thing.
The thing is bulbs in lamps (which I think is the use-case that causes the most issues) are not permanently powered (like a switch), they are dependent on the lamp being turned on. So they can't be guaranteed to always have power. For those of us w/family members who don't play nicely w/home automation (forget and manually turn off a lamp) this causes problems.
It may work perfectly for you, that's your situation, but all of us don't have the same use-case/family members.
So, it seems most are a fan of LIFX and HUE for longevity. I already have a few LIFX so I might as well look into replacing with more of them. Thanks for all the feedback. It seems the choice of bulb and how you use them is still a hot topic
I get that... Your "...strongly disagree" statement made it seem like you didn't see that others might have a different use-case/experience than you do. Just trying to explain why all of us don't have to agree about what works best, all the time.
Oh man I should totally do that. Funny thing, I only have 4 can lights in my house. All 4 are still those Lightify lights (connected to old smartthings hub using hubconnect to HE, don't ask..). For whatever reason these 4 Lightify BR30 style lights haven't bit the dust yet.
It's my experience, having contributed to many a conversation here, that this topic will popup in someone's search results next year. Having more info seems to help more people over the long term. You today, yes. All the rest, tomorrow too.
That was actually a joke. My wife manually turning things off wasn't shes gotten better (shock collar worked wonders). Seriously, i do have a bunch of zooz and inovelli switches to install, but with the way this house is set up thats beyond me, so i need to get the money together to hire an electrician to come out an just do them all at once.
Unless you go zwave (Inovelli) you are going to have a hard time finding that. Inovelli aren't bad bulbs, they are just higher maintenance than i would have expected. For examole every fee months they randomly change colors to a color I would never use and it is almost impossible to get the bulb to forget that color. But they are solid, and they do act as zwave repeaters.
(And they aren't that different in price, as much as people like to make fun of how much Philips Hue costs...) I've tried some bulbs directly paired, notably Sengled and a couple Z-Wave devices, but was never quite as happy. I also much prefer "real" Hue bulbs on the Hue Bridge, even though a variety of third-party bulbs are also compatible, because they support all Hue features (default power-on state, HomeKit support, etc.).
