Philips - hue BR-30 Starter Kit - Multi

these are the best bulbs out. made Christmas so special. Thanks Phillips ..

We absolutely love our hue lights. We are having great fun setting moods for different times of day. I was worried that the regular white light load would not be bright enough for every day use, but they are just fine. The price of the lights at Best Buy was less than Home Depot in other places I have seen them

Looks very easy to setup app easy to use lights are bright and sturdy. Easy to connect without soldering. Looking forward to seeing it in use

...to start you down an expensive journey of filling your home with ultra pricey lights! they are addictive...be warned. You think you will just do the living room, then the bedroom, then the front porch, then the downstairs, then.... you get the picture! General review: OK, yes they are expensive...But, they are awesome. If you buy only a couple at a time and wait for sales at Best buy (they DO have them from time to time) You can eventually have the whole house set up. Speaking of set-up, it is relatively easy for even a novice. I do have suspicions however, that they take up a bit of the bandwidth if that is an issue for you. They work best if your home is primarily light colored walls, as you can completely have a new look whenever you want to by uploading any picture or color scheme that suits your mood and...Bam, new paint!

So this device is great for what it does - the colors are fantastic - and you can set them to be customized to anything you like -- using IFTT it can easily be connected to other home automation devices - or can be directly integrated to things like NEST - for features like turning lights on or off when you are away. I also own 2 of the Philips HUE Lamps and can control all of the lights together or individually or as a whole. The APP leaves a big to be desired -- Plan to get the Iconnecthue app as it does a better job than the one provided by Philips - so much so they actually recommend it on there website.. go figure. Also you might want to consider the switch wall unit that allows you to preset up to 4 different light scenarios - this way you can control your lighting without your phone as well. We liked the phone app and all, but sometimes a nice little switch is just to convenient. Also this hub does work with other zigbee lights -- Philips does make some A19 bulbs that are only 20 bucks ( white only for dimming and on off, not LED with colors ) for rooms you do not want to spend 60 bucks a bulb in == but my basement uses recessed BR30 lights - Philips only makes those today in led color. I had no desire to put 8 Philips BR30 LED bulbs in at 60 bucks a piece- so I was able to purchase GE Link White zigbee BR30 lights for 17 dollars each - the Philips bridge saw them, and I can control them via the app for brightness and on off.

This system is great to change or add mood lighting to your home or apartment. It costs a bit more than I think it should even for the starter kit but once you get started with a set you want to keep adding more. I really like the timers I can add to turn specific bulbs on or off. Being able to remotely control the system from my phone outside of my home network is great as well. I have not tried out the perimeter settings out yet but like any fence option is seems like it would be a great feature for many people.

I initially purchased the starter kit for my home office. The fun / geek factor was amazing for a while, but I drove my family crazy with all the brightness and color changing I was doing. The real practical use came when I put them in our kitchen. We turn the lights to a bright white to work / cook by, then dim to a nice soft yellow/white for dinning. At $60 per bulb, I don't think I'll put them anywhere else in the house, but if they price came down I'd consider it. The online community at philips hue is very nice and helpful.

We currently have three Hue bulbs in various recessed lighting spots upstairs. We also have a ton of windows without window treatments on our second story so every night it's a light show for the neighbors. It's something that just adds that extra cool factor to our home. I rolled my eyes when my husband bought them but now I love them and have fun changing all the bulbs to different colors every night. It's nice to be able to control the whole system from our smart phones.