I am in the UK. I have purchased a new echo its turning up soon. I also managed to get a smartthings hub plug motion sensor and fob for a good price. Forgive me for being ignorant here. I would like to make lighting my first project and I want to control it from the echo. What is the cheapest or best option. There will be about 4 zones with 1 to 4 lights in each zone. Can I buy light bulbs witch will connect directly to the smartthings hub or will I need to buy the box/hub/link thing which comes with most brands. Or would it be better to buy replacement smart wall switches and keep the old bulbs…?
Some bulbs will connect straight to ST without an additional hub. I have Osram Lightify and Lifx. I’m not sure about Hue as i don’t have any.
I also have some smart switches in certain situations where a smart bulb can’t be used. ie Our living room lights are 10xG4 leds, so a smart switch is the only option.
We also have some floor lights that just go into smart plug outlets.
It’s going to be whatever works best for your own situation.
Hope this helps you.
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If I use those bulbs can I then controll from echo…thanks
Yes you can. The advantage of some bulbs is that you can also control brightness and hue.
ie - Alexa set light to 20%
This will set the bulb on 20% brightness.
Any lights that you can control from SmartThings can therefore be controlled by Echo because there is echo/smartthings integration.
There are very few switches available in the UK that work with SmartThings unless you have a three wire set up (including neutral). See the UK lighting FAQ for various options. But again, once you can control it from SmartThings you can control it from Echo for on/off/dim. Depending on the exact device you might not get the ability to change Colors through echo unless you set up some more complicated code.
The easiest option would be to get the Hue bridge and its bulbs as there is a direct Hue/echo integration as well which gives you a backup option in case SmartThings is not working. The Hue white only bulbs work well and are considerably less expensive than the RGBW models. But there are other brand options which are in the same range as the Hue Whites, although they may require a more complex set up.
Thankyou I will look into hue ones.
OSRAM Lightify bulbs also work with Hue, I have two Osram Lightify RGBW bulbs that I got from Tesco’s dirt cheap (£6 each), and they work perfectly fine.
That’s an amazing price, they are typically £24. Were they marked on sale?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/OSRAM-Lightify-Smart-Connected-Light/dp/B00JDJC2LO
Yep. Tesco has been clearing them out. Check your local extra store. I found my two on the clearance shelf they have.
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I have been using Hue since January and i have not had any issues with the system but these do not connect directly to SmartThings. They are a little more expensive than other smart bulbs however, if you buy them in bulk you can save a lot of money. For instance Very usually have the Hue starter kit on sale so i normally wait and buy a starter kit each time i need extra bulbs then sell the Hue Bridge 2.0 on eBay for about ÂŁ30-40. Its easy enough to add the starter kit bulbs to your existing system too.