zlacker

>>linker+(OP)
The older I get the more I de-value "smart" things. I love dumb things. Lightbulb must be dumb. Incandescent lightbulbs were a direct evolution of candles and gas lamps leveraging on simple physical laws and principles. They were not very effective turning most of the energy into heat and LED light bulbs must have been great. But they bring electronics and multiply complexity. I already cannot just simply get a lightbulb. Because I need to take into account several different variables and characteristics of it (temperature, luminous flux, dimmability, trust into lamp lifetime claims and absence of flicker, etc.) And then some clowns bring even more electronics with all this wireless remote-controllable color changing lights. It is like wtf? Give me a simple lamp that will be dirt cheap to replace or will serve me a lifetime without me thinking about its guts.

Vote with your wallet. Don't support over-engineering.

P.S. Some of the best LED lightbulbs I have were installed in 2012 and they are still working with very small degradation of brightness. Nowadays whenever I need to buy a LED bulb it is like a lottery. Smart IoT light bulbs? Just plain no. As with the rest of the gimmicks.

>>nrvn+fq2
I tend to agree but there are use cases where the smart bulbs have been great for us.

1. Next to our bed we have reading lamp sconces. The sconces we picked out do not have light switches (oops). It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as now the reading lamps automatically switch on in the evening before we come upstairs to bed, then turn off as part of the “good night” scene (which also alarms the security system, etc). If the alarm goes off, the lights automatically switch on to max.

2. Our front porch and rear lights automatically turn on and off with the sunset/sunrise. They also turn onto a flashing red/blue if the alarm is triggered (kind of corny but hey anything to scare off would be intruders)

3. Our kids have smart bulbs in their room lamps. We are able to switch them to a low red colored light as a night light automatically when it’s their bedtime.

Most of my lights are “dumb”. The few use cases for smart bulbs are nice though. I use the Nanoleaf essentials through Apple HomeKit so I don’t feel like I’m exposing my personal details to some third party.

>>ipytho+Ws2
Yea, that's mostly where I am on this too.

Primary lighting is dumb and controlled by switches.

Secondary lighting/mood lighting is smart and has the ability to be color changed and timing controlled.

That said, 'smart' systems love to lose connection or their settings and do the wrong thing too frequently.

>>pixl97+BS2
My primary lighting in the main areas of the house is zwave. The switches work like regular switches and require local access only. It's smart if I want it to be.