Good deal. I also never use the z wave outlet to cut the power to my Lamps that have the Hue lights in them. So it is nice to know that when the power is cut in a storm that the default of the zwave devices is off so that we won’t get blinded in the middle of the night by a bunch of Hue lights.
Depends on the brand and model of the outlets. As I mentioned above, some brands have a default of “off” after a power outage and some have a default of “last state.”
Note that the ones that do have the default of off mean they will be off after the power outage so you won’t be able to turn the hue bulbs on until you first turn the outlets back on. So that’s just something you have to remember to do each time there’s a power outage.
True, I will have to test my system out when I get back home. I kind of hope they default to off but I know there are pros/ cons to each.
I have inovelli zwave outlets and 14292 ge zwave on/off wall switches.
Do you happen to know the default on those? I will probably start flipping breakers tomorrow when I get home to see.
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Sorry, I don’t know. I think the GEs default to off just because that’s what other GE devices do, but I’m not sure.
@Jimxenus @Barkis - What you are doing is exactly the opposite of what @JDRoberts is advocating. You are cutting power to electronic devices rather that soft powering them off (they are still powered and ‘running’ but seem off). Since you are powering those devices off to save energy, you might want to do the same with smart bulbs as they too are still operational to some degree even if not emitting any light. I do not believe the energy savings of doing so would be appreciable but it all adds up so if that is your main focus why not?
When it comes to electronics’ longevity, a number of things including heat, on/off cycles, power spikes, etc can cause premature failures so both leaving a device powered on, or disconnecting it from the mains can somewhat affect the life of the device. For example, leaving it powered exposes the device to any spikes in the mains (some close to me lost thousands of dollars in broken equipment due to close by lightning strikes) and turning it on/off might add to the stress due to things such as the in rush current @JDRoberts mentioned.
Either way, even if it did affect MTBF as much @JDRoberts states, we are talking about years of service when considering the actual number of hours the lights are being used per day. By the time the life expectancy has been reached we likely moved on to something better anyway - I know I would. The way I see it, the smart bulbs should be used as it is most convenient to people and spreading fear on breaking them just by using a wall switch seems excessive.
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When it comes to smart lights, I actually agree with @JDRoberts but you’re right about potential problems with on/off cycles for electronics. As you mentioned, it’s a tradeoff and as long as you know that, to each his own.
I’ve had my TV for nine years now and if it dies a little prematurely because I keep powering it off every day, then so be it…I need an excuse for my SO to get a new 70 inch, 4K HDR TV, haha 
On the flip side, I still have a problem replacing my 9 or so GE Link bulbs which are known to have problems because I spent $15 on a bulb that’s supposed to last 20 years. It’s hard for me to justify turning “smart” bulbs into dumb LED bulbs after I spent so much on them even though I know I will do that eventually. 
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Hey Weston–
Inovelli will default to the last state it was in 
Hope this helps!
-Eric
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Can you use WebCoRE to capture and then restore the previously captured settings in the event of a power outage? I’m not sure where WebCoRE stores local and global variables but it seems like a possible approach that would negate the need to buy new lights.
or you can use just smart lighting -
that runs local so should work even without internet if your lightbulbs handler is local too.
I contacted LIFX to ask about their thoughts on what is being discussed here and they confirmed what I was saying. An excerpt summarizing it:
LIFX: “Keeping them powered on is just necessary to keep the connection up and keep them fully functional. It is designed to function like a regular light bulb if you never set it up via a device.”
They also confirmed it has nothing to do with longevity. We can go ask all other vendors but I don’t see why the answer would be different. Use the bulbs as best suits your needs.
Just joined. Wow that robot can talk. Ok I’ve been using Insteon and Z-wave for some time now and this past Xmas my son dove us full into HUE.
I’m finally at the point we’re im trying to deal with its various challenges. The first one I noticed might help us here. When I try to use the app that changes the colors of all the lamps in the living room while watching TV it left all the lights at the last settings. That’s when I was finished turn all the lights off and then back on they were all the last color and intensity that they were at when the app finished playing with them.
I was thinking, maybe that challenge could help us here. If there’s a way to write a script that when we say turn a light off it first set set to an intensity of say 1% then turns the light off if it ever comes back on it will be at 1%. Then of course there would have to be a script that when we turn a light on it will turn it on to 100%.
Using my home automation. I’m already working on a virtual device called reset living room that will reset all the lights to white at 100%. If I turn on reset living room my lights all reset.
Well it’s just food for thought and I have to do way more thinking…
Forgot to mention. Also trying to use Echo/Alexa as well as Google Home. Primary control through Homeseer as well and avoiding the HUE app as much as possible. Have Universal Devices ISY-994i with Z-wave that acts as my hub for Insteon and Z-wave. It runs a few programs/scripts but most will be moving to Homeseer. Homeseer sees the HUE hub and all attached via a plugin. Also investigation OpenHAB on Raspberry Pi 3 as OpenHAB is a free multi platform app vs Homeseer. However you have to figure much more out and touch many a config files with OpenHAB but I’m still at the very very beginning. Been using Homeseer for years. Great platform.
So long story short, my idea above I believe will not work depending only on HUE apps amen HUB.
Hello all I’m brand new to the SmartThings world, have the hub and hue lights for a few months. I’m also struggling with this issue of lights turning on full blast after a power outage.
I was wondering about using a plug in dimmer that defaults to “off” after a power outage. So lamps with hue bulbs are plugged into a plug in dimmer that’s in the “on” position so allows hue bulb 100% light, and I dim the bulb normally whenever I want. When there is a power outage, after power is restored the plug in dimmer defaults to “off”, dimming the hue bulb to 0. So bulb is receiving current and available via radio, but doesnt turn on due to plug in dimmer dimming it to 0. Then I guess something could be set up in ST to do 2 actions after power is restored, turn off the hue bulb and set plug in dimmer to “on”. So after power outage the hue bulbs never actually turn on.
Is this a workable idea?
Maybe I don’t fully understand what you are saying but do not plug a Hue bulb into a dimmer switch or it will get damage.
A better way to control this is get a plug with energy reading to monitor for power outage and use Webcore to control your Hue bulbs. This is only for full power outage and not surge which also caused smart bulb to turn on full bright.
Yes I understand a hue bulb shouldn’t be used with a dimmer. However the suggestion is to use the dimmer where it is either allowing full power to the bulb, or dimming the bulb 100% when the bulb is at full power. No in between. Would either of these scenarios still damage the bulb?
First of all, i wouldn’t use a dimmer, I’d use a straight on-off switch. And if you never, EVER switch that switch on it’s own and left it on 100% of the time…then no, it would not damage the hue bulbs. In this case, the power is being cut by the power outage. Only problem is, most smart switches come back on to the same state they were in before the outage…so BANG…power goes back to the hue bulbs and they come back on 100%. So, doing this, would only help if you got a smartswitch that defaulted to off when power was applied.
The biggest 2 problems I see.
- The on/off ramp rate of the switch. This is extremely hard on your smart bulb.
- The way the dimming work. Unlike a dumb dimmer where voltage is varied. Smart Dimmer changes/chops frequency. Also bad for smart bulb.
No for several reasons. Dimmers are rated for lighting loads only. Smart bulbs are essentially electronic loads. There’s no way to restrict the function of a dimmer to only switch. Probably the best (but slightly difficult) way to solve this issue is to put your bedroom lighting circuit on a ups. The much easier way is replace the bulbs and use a smart switch/dimmer instead, or bulbs that do not light up on power restore.
Edit: ok, the bulbs are supposed to light up on power restore. That’s their “function like a bulb” default action. It’s the equivalent of turning a switch off and on again. You can set a automation to turn them off again, but the only way to guarantee they won’t turn on is to cut power to them while you’re sleeping.
Thanks for the responses everyone. Considering that smart dimmers don’t work the same as a dumb dimmer (didn’t know this before) I can see that this solution indeed isn’t workable.
To solve the “leave dumb switches on” problem, I got switch covers. They have one side open so I can use them, but thumping my hand against them when muscle memory tries to turn switch off prevents accidental offs.
I like the default to on when power restored function of Hue bulbs. There are times when I just “want the light on dammit”. Flip the switch (thru the opening in the cover) and I don’t need to stand there for too many seconds trying to remember the name of the bulb to tell Alexa. By the time I’ve grabbed what I needed and headed back out, I’ve remembered the name to turn it off. I was concerned about power-off-and-on damaging the bulbs, and this thread’s info helped. By the time I break one, technology will have moved on and I’ll want the new stuff anyway…
Turning on Hue lights defaults to last setting was a pain in the morning. I don’t brain well before noon. Then I set up a Stringify bedtime flow that turns a set of lights in each area of the house to a setting I want when next I ask Alexa to turn them on. Then runs a timer that turns off everything but the bedroom lights. When I stagger out in the morning and mumble at Alexa to turn lights on, I don’t need to remember the name of the scene. Mumbling “Alexa, turn on shandy” is much more likely to be understood than “Alexa, turn on Morning Chandelier in Living Room.” (“I’m sorry. I don’t know money changklur in librum.”)
I just got a SmartThings hub, and I’m learning all the fun things it will do.
Otter be fun!