I’ve looked at lots of different type of color changing bulbs, but I haven’t found ones that go up to 5000K (cool white) and will either turn on at that color or retain that color after turning off. Philips Hue white ambiance bulbs would be my pick, but they turn on at a more orange color (warm white) and have to be changed to the cool white color.
I’m looking for something that’ll fit what my family prefers (cool white at 5000K), but will also be controllable (color temp, dimness). The closest I’ve gotten so far are the Ikea Tafridi bulbs since they retain the white color after turning off, but they don’t go up to 5000K so they’re not as pure of a white as I need.
I think LifX may do what I need, but the pricing on those is steep and I’m hoping there are better options I haven’t found yet.
I’ve had similar challenges with the Hue bulbs and the color-reset after switching really annoyed me. What I did to solve the issue was to change my switches to smart switches but bypass them for the bulb.
So - I changed the switch for a smart switch using the hot, neutral and ground wires to drive power to the switch but instead of putting the load on the load terminal, I put it on the hot terminal with the feed in essence permanently powering it the light.
So with the light permanently powered and the switch working but dumb, I then set up automations to turn the bulb off or on when the switch was turned off or on - this way the switch still controlled the bulb but the bulb always remained powered and thus alive so it never lost its color except in a power failure.
Its not ideal but it did work for me. I’m currently in the progress of customizing a device handler for a smart switch which will retain the latest color in state memory and then apply that last color on an “On” event - hopefully this will replace my need to bypass the switch.
It makes so sense not to retain the latest color setting in the bulb but for some unknown reason Philips don’t and chalk it down to “safety” reasons which is all kinds of wrong in my opinion.
I realize this isn’t exactly what you asked for, but I did want to mention the Cree connected “daylight” bulb. The color temperature is always 5000 K, that part is not adjustable, but it is a dimmable smartbulb that works well with SmartThings. The Cree design is also nice because light shines down from the Bulb as well as up. It typically costs right around $15 at Home Depot and a dollar or so more at Amazon.
The cree come in two different models, one which is soft white and one which is daylight, so make sure you get the right one.
I understand that’s not exactly what you described, but it is a nice 5000 K bulb if that’s of any help.
@sticks18 might know of another brand that’s a better match to what you’re asking for, he’s worked with a lot of different bulbs. As he points out below, there is now some custom code for the Osram/Sylvania bulbs that might give you what you want.
Actually @ranga dug in and found the way to set the default color/level via a custom device handler, so we can now do it in ST. It does mean using custom, so you would lose local processing, bu its an option.
