Let me start by saying, I'm loving my HE hub. Its been nearly a year since initial setup and it's been rock solid and EZ to manage. My ZWave network and devices work flawlessly! Now I'm ready to begin my voyage into smart lighting. Here's what I'd like to accomplish...
-RGBW strip lighting for my handrail and steps on my deck
-RGBW Upward lighting for landscape
-Soft White or RGBW lighting for non switched lamps
-RGBW BR30 bulbs for out door soffits on standard switches
I would have preferred to stick to ZWave, unfortunately, it seems most lighting is Zigbee. I've read many posts and my head is spinning
-Do I go with hue hub and a mix of hue compatible bulbs?
-Do I go all Sengled and connect directly to HE?
Alexa is my preferred voice control via HE. I know I'm looking for a lot of answers. TIA
You might be interested in @adamkempenich 's lightify app. It's being actively built and changes often, but I've been involved with his testing and as just an ordinary girl, I can say it works pretty well. It's very exciting as it will give you the ability to use cree and lightify strips on his app without interfering with your mesh. I am using both and am very pleased and impressed with the integration at such an early stage. I absolutely love the lightify strips because there's not a diy aspect to them. Don't get me wrong, I like to tinker, but why reinvent the wheel. Lightify is known to not be very reliable and terrible repeaters in the mix, but with this app, it's enabled a way to use these lights and keep them separate. The wonderful news is that the gateway is less than 20$!
I use a lightify strip on my steps. Two motion sensors trip at the top and the bottom
I have the steps on the new app, but am waiting to add the others to the lightify integration since its changing so often yet. It's definitely something that is economical. I just bought 2 sets of lightify strips starters for $17 each.
I'm happy to share my rules as well if you need. All of my smart bulbs are sengled becuase they don't repeat. I have a few crees now for testing with the lightify app. They're working very well, but I dont' recommend adding them directly to HE. Crees are known to toss up a mesh pretty badly.
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My husband and I are considering some outside lighting. Right now, our front lights are on a zwave ge switch. Nothing special. We are considering putting cans in the soffits. If we do that, we'll probably go with something Sengled. Just because they're economical and I've learned that bulbs are terrible repeaters. It's not my desire to invest in hue. Price wise, I can't justify it.
I have a lightify hub connected through Adam's up and coming lightify app, but my cabinet and bedroom lightify strips are connected straight to HE. They run well in my environment, but some say that having them directly connected will cause mesh issues. My directly connected lights are snappy and always work, but the communication reports terrible with them. Repeating isn't their forte. I have 4 sets connected directly and one set through the lightify gateway with Adam's lightify alpha application.
There are Z-Wave RGBW controllers such as the Fibaro, but all mine are ZigBee if I remember correctly. I also have quite a number of Lightify (OSRAM/SYLVANIA) lights, strips, and Gardenspots. I have not had the issues others have had with them overall. I have also had luck cutting into RGB outdoor lights and controlling them with a ZigBee RGBW controller.
If you need something like a floodlight, the GLEDOPTO one I have has performed well.
I have the GLEDOPTO Floodlight and one of their RGBW Controllers. Both paired readily and work great with just the generic ZigBee RGBW. No complaints with either.
I do wish the floodlight came with a proper plug but I understand that it can be used for hardwiring this way and for other scenarios people need it for, so I just added my own plug on without any difficulty. It has held up just fine for two months outside (Halloween and Christmas lighting).
The RGBW controller was handling "walkway" lighting in our bedroom until just the other day when I replaced it (I got an LED strip that already had ZigBee). Definitely going to find another use for it somewhere because it never had a problem.
I just wish we had open space above our cabinets for this exact type of thing! Totally agree with jrego7, that looks good. Is there any diffuser for the top lights? The light reflecting off the ceiling looks more even then the ones reflecting off the floor.
The ones above are set 20% higher than the others.
I have motion sensors that turn everything on EXCEPT the ones above the cupboards.
This makes things good for making coffee etc, but when I need more light to cook, I turn on the others above the cabinets
I have a few Gledopto outdoor floods. They are way higher quality than I expected and are some of my favorite outdoor lights.
As mentioned above, the sentiment of the forum is to keep Zigbee on a separate network. However I have a mix of Hue, Sengled, Gledopto and RGBgenie products on my Hubitat and have zero issues. In fact, they all respond faster than my Z-wave devices do.
Have a look at this vid before choosing LED strips.
Also, the GLEDOPTO LED strips with the Zigbee MINI LED controller also does a good job, and works flawlessly with the built in Generic RGBW LED driver.
