Philips - Hue A19 LED Starter Kit - White and Color Ambiance

Q: Do I need to use all 4 bulbs or can I use just one? My daughter's room only has 1 socket but she really wants this item. Thanks

A: yes you can . If you want a bulb only then you can buy a separate and you must need a hue bridge to use that bulb. Starter kit is the best package to get 4 bulb with hue bridge at cheaper price .

Q: Can I still use a light switch to turn these lights on/off or do I have to use the voice control or app to turn them on/off?

A: Technically yes, however very time you use the switch to turn them off they lose connection to the bridge and reset. Think of it like an alarm clock, you can turn off the alarm with the designated button or by unplugging the whole clock - you would never unplug the whole clock though because then you would have to reset the time each time.

Q: Are these bulbs safe to use as lightbulbs that are currently on a dimmer switch? As in, my living room lights are dimmable can I use these bulbs?

A: Hi Starlight. Per the manual, it's not suggested to use the dimmer switch with these bulbs. We have ours on a dimmer switch, but we keep the dimmer on high. The woman once lowered the brightness with the switch and lights began to flicker.

Q: Should multiple bridges be used since each 4-pack comes with one, or are you better to use just 1 bridge, even if you are connecting multiple rooms and for arguments sake, hooking up 20+ bulbs in the house?

A: you just need one hue bridge per house since you connect it to your router. I bought two kits since it was cheaper and gave one bridge and bulb as a gift and kept the rest.

Q: I got the Echo Plus because it has a Hue-compatible hub built-in. Amaz. said it works ALL Philips Hue bulbs. However the colored bulbs in this kit with hub WON'T work with JUST the Echo Plus. Why?! I don't want to use the bridge nor should have to. :(

A: You might try installing with the hue bridge, let the bulbs download the lastest software/firmware updates, then try installing with the built-in Echo plus bridge.

Q: Are the light bulbs included in this kit full color spectrum?

A: Yes. They also support apps with animation and strobe.

Q: Do these A19 lights look okay in a recessed BR30 fixture? Or is it better to get the BR30 flood lights instead?

A: A BR30 is much more efficient than an A19 lamp in a recessed fixture. An A19 lamp will fit and make light, but not efficiently. Between 4/5ths and 9/10ths of the light from an A19 lamp doesn’t shine toward the fixture’s open aperture ring and flow out of the fixture. A BR30 lamp emits all of its light in a narrow-ish cone away from its base. An A19 lamp emits light in a uniform sphere except for a narrow-ish dark cone toward its base. An A19 lamp is also an inch shorter than a BR30 lamp so the increased distance allows a narrower cone of light. An A19 is 2 inches shorter than a BR40 and correspondingly less effective. Using something like a 2 prong receptacle adapter can move the lamp toward the aperture, but if its moved out far enough to emit even 1/3 of the light from the lamp it will be a wide cone of light that gets into peoples eyes as glare, like a bare light bulb hanging down. The recessed fixtures made before reflector lamps became available had a metal reflector and a concentric ring anti-glare baffle. The baffle has to be removed to change the lamp and the reflector always needs to be cleaned. On a high ceiling it requires a ladder and 5 or 10 minutes each. Without the glare baffle the reflector lamps could be changed with a suction cup on a pole in a minute or so each. I don’t think the LED’s longevity changes the economics of lamp changing, LEDs last indefinitely, but the phosphors still wear out and they reach 1/2 brightness at 12,000 hours like the long-life fluorescent lamps made for use where they’re expensive to change. [The LED panel and trim ring conversion is both the most expensive to buy and the most labor intensive to change, so it’s never the economical choice.] The LEDs useful lifespan is less than 6x the life of the 2,000 hour long-life incandescant lamp, and the BR30 LED lamps are priced at a premium relative to the A19 lamps in the same ratio as the incandescant lamps were. Given either the huge increase in the relative cost of using a ladder in a commercial setting, or the huge increase in the value of consumer convenience now vs 1970 when the R lamps overtook reflector fixtures, the reduced maintenance cost justifies the higher price of the BR30 LED reflector lamp even more than it did 50 years ago for the incandescant R30 lamp, It does puzzle me that the BR30 is priced higher than the A19 because an LED emits light in a cone so the BR30 a simpler design with fewer parts and less assembly labor, just one flat disc of LEDs instead of at least 6 small paddles each facing a different direction. The pricing is still taking advantage of the expectation established by the more difficult to make glass envelope used by the older technology - which means even 10 years into the LED lamp era subsidies and changing mandates are still delaying a transition to competitive commodity pricing,

Q: Are all these four bulbs multicolor or just one or two since it states both White and Color Ambience?

A: They are all multicolor and they all can be white as well. You can change the colors to what you want.