Compared to many on here my infrastructure is probably pretty small. But I have about 45 devices in my Hubitat system and lots of automations. I've had to get a little creative because I have older wiring in the house and changing out switches is an issue. S I have about 12 smart bulbs within my system that are controlled. Most are Cree Connected bulbs, but I also have a handful of Zwave bulbs.
As I was moving from an older C-5 to C-7 hardware base I considered changing out one or two of the Cree bulbs to Zwave. To my surprise you can't hardly find any of these. And even Cree seems to be going the way of WiFi connected bulbs instead of Zigbee. So that leads to my concern about the future of Smart Bulbs.
I really like my Hubitat and never want to go back to a reliance on the Internet. The response time on a trigger and response is near perfect. So how is this shift in Smart Bulb technology going to give me what I want? Or is this the beginning of the end for my setup? Do we think we'll ever talk directly to these WiFi bulbs or will we always have to go through a special API that uses the Internet?
Lots of smart people on here, so tell me why my concern isn't warranted. Or better yet give your opinion of what I should be thinking about with regards to changing my system.
I think you're fine for quite some time. I have not had good luck with cree bulbs, though I do still have some of them in place. But only connected to my Hue hub.
My personal opinion...
I'm a big fan of limiting the number of smart bulbs to a bare minimum and keeping them on a separate hub. Most of them make lousy repeaters and will do a number on your zigbee mesh. (Sengled bulbs are an exception and generally work well.) I really like Hue bulbs, and I keep them on a Hue hub. Even then smart bulbs are easily defeated by a human and a dumb switch. Better to use smart switches wherever possible.
Don't know if you've looked at Lutron Caseta switches. They are rock solid, even in an older home. They have many models that do not require a neutral. Some people don't like the design of the switch itself but they work great.
The Cree bulbs have been good for me except in one application. The human factor was an issue at first, but installing simple switch guards solved that fairly quick and now muscle memory has taken over and hands don't even reach for them anymore.
I'm going to have to look at the Lutron Caseta switches again. If it keeps it all in house that would be nice. Since you're mentioning them I'm assuming it plays nice and is responsive with Hubitat.
Thank you for the input. Gives me some other things to think about.
Plays very nicely. A lot of folks here swear by them. I have probably 30 of them and most use no neutral. Their Pico button controllers are also very popular. They do require a hub, and not just the regular Lutron hub but their Pro series. However, the integration with HE is all telnet - 100% local. And very responsive.
Lifx bulbs are WiFi but are local. There's a builtin Hubitat app and set of drivers for them. They don't solve the human factor, but you've conquered that already
You use a Lifx App to INITIALLY get an IP Address on the bulb, and that app probably uses the internet somewhere in the process. After that, the bulb is detectable by the Hubitat Lifx App and you never need to worry about the bulb needing the internet.
Question:
I have a couple of older Cree bulbs - Zigbee. They are now part of my test bed. They never seem to completely turn off -- even when HE indicates they are off.
Do you have any experience with this?
No, mine have all worked fine, except one. That one is the farthest away and actually outside on my lamp post. The other 9 or so always turn all the way off. The Lamp Post reply that it turned off never makes it back to the hub, so the accuracy of the state is not always great. But that's automated on/off and intensity change so I never really notice. Even that one worked for two years (except for the wrong status) until the bulb went out a week or so ago. I haven't found a replacement that worked as good as the last one.
I just put yet another Cree bulb in during my lunch break and it seems to be working (I can control it). So it must have a little better reception even if the reply signal is not getting back. I can live with that for what it does.
Try the Sylvania smart+ ZigBee bulbs. They have been solid for me on HE and ST.
There is a newer version of the bulbs that work fine as repeaters. You probably can't even buy the older versions that were bad as repeaters.
Well the issue is ZLL vs ZHA zigbee. Zigbee 3.0 essentially unites both so it's not an issue with those, but a lot of ZLL stuff is still sold... (I'm looking at you Cree and Hue...)
Until my smart bulb is defeated by an unknowing person flipping a dumb light switch. Then not only does my automation fail but so too does my repeater.
+1 on being super nervious about good smart lightbulbs (non Wifi) being discontinued.
I personally have had a FANTASTIC experience with the Sengled bulbs.
the humor went over my head. I wrote about Lifx in response to this question:
As in... we already have WiFi bulbs that don't need Internet and are controlled 100% locally. So, Yes, we talk directly to specific WiFi bulbs. The knee jerk reaction to "WiFi" is of course due to the preponderance of overlap between WiFi devices requiring Cloud... it's the cloud portion we react negatively to, not the WiFi element specifically, There's little doubt that someone could reverse engineer the WiFi communications on any of these devices, but the juice isn't worth the squeeze. 60 hours of research to create a driver that works for 11 people with 101hrs of follow on: "just one more thing, please."
Bottom line then is.. if a device has a local API, and uses cloud as a convenience for sales, then yea, a driver will be created by someone with the need/interest.
I've had lan based(no cloud involved) devices slow my hub, so I'm concerned about having 10 of these bulbs cause issues. @csteele what's been your exerience?
And i suspect that one of the HE staff love these bulbs and that's why we have the integration
