Lighting Things Up
Essential: Philips Hue Smart Light Bulbs
These are not just light bulbs; they're a gateway to creating ambiance and enhancing your home's functionality. Initially appearing like just a novelty to me, they've become an essential part of my daily routines and experiences within our home.
For the Uninitiated:
Philips Hue is a leader in smart lighting solutions, and their smart light bulbs are among the most popular on the market. These bulbs offer a range of colors and settings, all adjustable from your smartphone or through voice commands, giving you control over the atmosphere of your home at any time.
What started off as just bulbs has now expanded into an entire ecosystem of smart lighting applications that fit virtually every possible use case you’re looking for.
So, why is it the best?
1. Making Millions
Philips Hue bulbs can emit a crazy wide range of colors - 16 million - from vibrant hues to subtle tones, allowing you to infinitely customize the mood of any room. It's hard to convey just how much of a different "feel" you can give a room just by subtly (or wildly) adjusting the colors.
And, you don't have to adjust them all manually - you can setup "scenes" that allow you to quickly setup a color scheme for a room (or even your whole home). I've setup some that have colors for my favorite sports teams, some for holidays (the neighborhood kids think the 'full orange house' is really cool on Halloween), and for relaxing evenings/nights.
My toddler also loves to play with the lights - the app is even easy enough for a 2 year old to use to make adjustments.
2. Secondary Health & Wellness Benefits
While the colors are fun and help set a tone, there are also functional benefits to them - particularly to help with the way your brain reacts to different wave lengths.
For instance, there is a setting to allow for the light to have a brighter blue hue in the morning, which helps your mind and body start to wake up (through a scene called "Energize"). There is another setting for mid-day concentration, and a couple other warmer ones to use when the sun goes down to allow your brain to start to wind down, in line with natural circadian rhythms. You can either turn the scenes on manually, or use a new function that allows the lights to gradually and automatically shift throughout the day.
3. Full Home & System Integration
I have to warn you: the Philips Hue lights are a slippery slope, as there are many different light formats and accessories. While I initially started out with one for a single reading lamp, over the years I've added bulbs throughout the home and our front yard, ranging from bulbs to a Philips Hue lamp to fun light strips. Having the whole home sync up is really nice, allowing you to change the settings and mood everyone at once. You can also setup specific sections of your home, for instance all of the lights in your bedroom or living room, or even by floor if you have multiple floors.
Of course, the Philips Hue light bulbs also connect with digital home assistants like Alexa, Apple HomePod, and Google nest, allowing you to guide the lights with just your voice. One thing to note: it does require one "Hue Hub" per home to help drive the different light settings.
4. Energy Efficient
Similar to the Big Ass Fans Haiku L fan, a big benefit of the Philips Hue light bulbs is how efficient they are. They are LED bulbs, which help reduce the amount of energy required to power them.
The lights are relatively expensive as well, so any cost savings from less energy consumption is, of course, welcome.
5. Experimental Section
Beyond the standard functions, there is also a cool area of the app called Hue Labs, that have some even more fun applications that can be set for a single light or a set of lights.
Two of our favorites are the "fireplace" setting, that mimics the slow warm flickering of warm orange, yellow, and red hues, and the "aurora" setting, that mimics the beaty of shape shifting Northern Lights across a mix of blue, green, and purple colors. The other cool dynamic setting is one that is more "random" pattern that you can set when you're traveling, making it look like someone is still in the home even when you are away to keep potential intruders away.
Image via reddit user u/artyrocktheparty
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So, there you have it: The Philips Hue Lights in all their glory. Highly, highly, highly recommend.
It's an upfront investment, but the effectiveness, efficiency, integrations, and style pay off in the long-run. Clearly, I'm a fan.
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The Philips Hue lights offer a variety of colors, light styles, and accessories. If you do decide to use the links I share, you'll still get the lowest prices that I'm aware of, but I will get a small bonus for helping with the sale! Thank you!
