Looking for affordable & dimmable LED bulbs with OpenHAB support (Philips Hue LUX alternative)

[Sascha Sambale]

Hey guys,

I don't know if this group is the right place for this topic, but since I'm using OpenHAB and this is OpenHAB-related I thought I'd give it a go. :)

I'm currently looking for a cheaper Philips Hue alternative that I can use with OpenHAB (so a binding for that system must exist already). The Philips Hue environment looks great, but if you really want to "pimp" your house with an intelligent lighting system, this can get veeeeery pricey! :)

I have basically four minimal requirements:

• Must be dimmable
• Must either be compatible with the Philips Hue bridge or bring their own bridge
• Must be silent (even more important when switched off -> I've read about some users that complain that the philips hue lights have a disturbing sound when switched off)
• Must be available in Germany (or at least it should be possible to send them to Germany without any additional fees (customs,...))

I've already read about the "GE Link Connected LED", which is compatible with the Philips Hue bridge, but it looks like they're not available in Germany.

Do you guys have any idea what bulbs I could use? Are there any cheaper alternatives?

Thank you very much in advance,

Regards,

Sascha

[Rainer Ostendorf]

Sascha,

i currently use 4 of the the MiLight LED bulbs. They are really cheap but have some limitations:

- as far as i know, you can only use up to 4 RGBW bulbs on one wifi bridge

- there seem to be some incompatibilities between different versions of them: i added one bulb later to my system and it always switches itself off after ~1 minute. I don't know why this is happening, but its pretty annoying.

- you cannot poll their current state

- depending on your environment, they are unreliable. Often commands just get lost, as there is no acknowledge. This gets really annyoning when you want to activate a light scene, and some of the bulbs just don't react. In some cases it can be worked around by periodically resending a command from by rule, but not always.

These limitations frustated me more and more, this is why i am now moving to the hue systems, despite their heavy pricetag. I hope thoses work better.

MiLight bulbs are nonetheless great toys for playing around and trying out things or for illuminating your party or your garden.

Rainer

[Sascha Sambale]

Hi Rainer,

thank you very much for these important facts. I've also checked the MiLights before and now I'm happy to see that there's no need to buy them.

I will keep looking around and whenever I see a good alternative, I'll update this thread.

Regards,

Sascha

[Kai Kreuzer]

The cheapest option is probably the GE Wink LED bulb, which works nicely with the Hue bridge (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb3FYB37l0I).

They are less than $15, but unfortunately, they are not sold in Europe :-(

Best regards,

Kai

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[Sebastian Janzen]

Have you tried it with 110V or 230V? I head that an E26 screw will catch the edges of a E27 thread.

[Kai Kreuzer]

I used it with 120V in an E27 socket - physically, it is all fine, I just did not dare to put 230V to it as I am not sure, if it works with it…

Am 10 Jan 2015 um 17:39 schrieb Sebastian Janzen <seba...@janzen.it>:

Have you tried it with 110V or 230V? I head that an E26 screw will catch the edges of a E27 thread.

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