I’m just getting started with Openhab, and my initial use case is setting up lights with Color Temperature control. If anybody has used f-lux or its many equivalents on their PC, this is what I’m after. (If you haven’t used it, the concept is that your melatonin levels are influenced by the color temperature of the light in your environment, so tungsten lighting tends to help prepare your brain for sleep, and daylight lighting tends to wake you up.)
Right now I have a few MiLight bulbs and am getting the hang of OH. I plan to set a house-wide group for color temp and use that to control the temp on all my bulbs, and use astro to auto-set the temp (or maybe I’ll use absolute time).
However, I’m not 100% certain I want to stick with MiLight. One thing that is really annoying is that their bridges can only support 4 white bulbs at a time (and 4 RGB bulbs, but disco lighting doesn’t interest me). I don’t really want a stack of bridges, though I guess I could do that at $20 each (basically a $5 premium on the bulbs, which are $20).
Philps Hue can also do it with a MUCH higher limit on connected devices, but:
-
Anything Hue is pricier. Their “ambient white” bulbs are $30 each. The $15 ones don’t control color temp I think. I’m not sure if their $60 RGB bulbs do either, actually (Milight RGBW bulbs don’t control color temp, just the white ones.)
-
The cheaper starter kit has bulbs without color temp control. The expensive kit might control temp (not quite sure), but it is REALLY pricey. I think this leaves me with buying everything separate, which is $60 plus $30 per bulb.
I’ve seen a few mega reviews out there (including some linked here), but I don’t really see any mention of color temp on them. So, it is hard to tell what other options exist.
Is anybody else concerned with color temp, and if so what are you using? Or does anybody happen to know which bulbs support color temp control? I don’t mind gathering the data, but I’m not sure what my universe of options includes yet.