Regarding Philips Hue

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
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Hi,
I have a couple of questions regarding philips hue lights if someone wouldn’t mind answering…

  1. Can openhab act as a hue bridge eliminating the need to buy a hue bridge for hue lights?
  2. If a hue light is removed does the entire set up need to be reconfigured? I read this online which seems a bit of a show stopper but the info was old and so may be out of date…
  3. Are there other limitations to philips hue that I may not be aware of?

I’m looking at Philips Hue as it seems the UK is not well served with options for controlling colour temperature…

Regards,
David

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  1. Not yet, there needs to be a hue compatible hub and openHAB uses this to control the lights. A zigbee binding may resolve this in the future but this looks a while off.

  2. No, I have one hue bulb in the bathroom which is mainly unpowered. This does not disrupt any other bulbs. This sometimes happens within the hue app because of how groups are defined. But with openHAB each bulb is its own thing.

  3. Hard to tell, what are you expecting to do with them? I am in the UK also if that helps, I’d be able to explain what you can do.

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Am interested in tuning colour temperature in kitchen/diner and living room and mood in master bedroom. Am also looking to install light strip behind TV and under kitchen worktop as an added coolness factor. Kitchen has downlighters and a pendant while other rooms have one or two pendants.

So, if I go with this I’ll need a mix of white and coloured bulbs and the ability to control either part of a room or all of it.

I’m also wondering whether these lights draw power when turned off? Lifx do that and it’s not good. I was looking at lifx prior to Hue, because it’s hubless. But there are too many unknowns with them along with, apparently, an incredible scarcity of bayonet fittings.

4

This should be fairly simple to do in openHAB, the colour temperature and brightness of a bulb can be separate items. You can also set these bulbs to a group within openHAB. And control the whole group, I’d recommend setting it up and playing with the demo features to get yourself used to it. Also read the documentation about hue bulbs for openHAB.

Each bulb should (but not have to) remain powered so that they can communicate with hue just like Lifx. This is about 0.4W (less than LIFX) so makes very little difference to your bill.

You can get converters for bulb sockets. I got a set of large screw types but plug these into a bayonet fitting through a converter.

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Ok, thanks for the feedback. How bright are Hue bulbs? From what I’ve read I’ve got the impression they’re not suitable to use as the main light in a room (normal sized)? You see, while I’m interested in controlling colour temperature I’m unsure about the real effectiveness of smart bulbs simply as lights.
I must say I’ve been disappointed by the lack of depth, detail and rigour I’ve seen in reviews of smart bulbs, et al, in the general marketplace…

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I currently have no non-smart bulbs in the house. And most rooms are lit with one hue bulb. I will try to send you images tonight when it gets dark.

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I’m using Hue to set colortemperature depending on current time, sunrise and sunset, as described here:
https://community.openhab.org/t/automatically-set-colortemperature-on-tuneable-white-bulbs/4695?u=kyb

It’s working well and I’m planning to extend the use of hue controlled lights.

Have fun.

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This is a dark hallway lit with just one of the dimmable white HUE bulbs, displaying quite a warm colour. (That device on the window seal is my zwave motion sensor, it turns on the light whenever motion is detected and the room is dark enough)