zlacker

I'm gonna be honest, I've never understood the appeal of a smart bulb. I installed dimmer switches in each room of my house and bought LED bulbs that get redder when dimmed (like incandescent bulbs naturally do). I turn on the lights when I walk into a room, turn them down when it gets dark outside, and turn them off when I leave or go to sleep.

To those who do find value in WiFi-connected bulbs: what makes them worth it to you? I'm genuinely curious, because if Home Depot's lightbulb aisle is any indication I'm the odd one.

>>lolind+(OP)
I use zigbee devices, not WiFi, but the principle is the same.

Some of my smart bulbs support multiple colors. I can use the Daylight setting during the day, Sunset setting in the evening (for a warmer light) and Red for late night so I don't kill my night vision.

Also it's just fun to play with the colors.

As for the rest of my lights it's nice to be able to turn everything off and on all at once. Sometimes my kids leave lights on when they go to bed, I don't have to wander around turning them off (no, I'm not going to wake them up to do it). I can turn on my outside lights and scare off any skunks really quickly when one of my dogs needs to go out at night.

So on and so forth.

>>lolind+(OP)
So you don't need to walk up from your bed to turn it off, as a starter.

Is it essential? Absolutely not. But it's definitely more convenient and it's hard to go back once you get used to it.

My go-to example to explain the convenience aspect is dishwasher. I'm from a country where dishwasher isn't common. And I personally never find the appeal of it especially when I live alone (i.e. very few dishes). I wash my pot/skillet immediately after cooking, and wash my dishes in less than 1 minute immediately after eating. It never occurred to me that how you need a machine to do such simple task, nor that it's easier to load up the dishes in it than just wash it. And when I say it, most of my (Western) friends look me as an alien. So I understand this (IMO very small increase of convenience) is important to people. Same principle applies to the smart bulbs.

>>thrdbn+k1
> So you don't need to walk up from your bed to turn it off, as a starter.

I use a lamp by my bed for this, though I can see how that'd be harder in some layouts.

>>lolind+(OP)
Couple it with things like Google Home or Alexa, it gets very convenient (as long as you can live with the privacy concerns).

I have a bunch of smart bulbs and switches. When I watch a movie, I want complete darkness. My TV is located in a place where light from 7 different rooms/areas can interfere. I would have to make sure I manually turn all of them off. Now I simply tell Google Home to turn them off. This is an almost daily use case.

An even simpler one: Having certain lights come on at sunset and turn off around midnight (assuming I don't manually turn them off). When you live in the north, the sun sets early, and it sucks to come home to complete darkness. Ensuring a few key lights are on when you come home makes a significant difference.

Oh, and I like 2700K, and my wife likes 5000K. We can both have what we want. Marriage saved.

>>lolind+(OP)
The lightbulb aisle isn't a great indicator. More expensive things tend to be over emphasized in stores due to having better margins.

I don't have any bulbs, I have been replacing light switches instead since that seemed easier to me.

I like being able to remotely turn them off. Yes I turn off lights as I go but there are others in the household and they don't necessarily listen to my preferences on that lol.

>>redund+71
Thanks for sharing! Zigbee is way more interesting to me than WiFi-based. I can see the appeal of being able to turn all the lights off at once—do you use an app for that, or is it a physical device somewhere?

>>lolind+(OP)
Live in an apartment and don't have dimmer switches. I like the cool colors that they make. I hate the phone app aspect.

>>lolind+(OP)
I had one included in a home security package, and the one useful thing I found to do with it is automate it to turn on and increase brightness slowly in my bedside lamp before my alarm would ring. That was a gentle way to wake up each morning, and much cheaper than doing the same with automated blinds.

The second best use I could think of was automatically controlling outdoor lights in the evening, given that my front lights are on a different floor than my main living area. But I never really bothered with that.

>>lolind+b2
Can do it with a physical switch, an automation or voice. I have all 3 enabled.

>>thrdbn+k1
Dishwashers are not essential, but for a family it does make a difference. When you have guests, even more so.

>>lolind+b2
At the moment, using an Amazon Echo that has a zigbee controller in it. It directly controls all devices.

"Alexa turn off all lights"