When we bought our house it was a bit of a fixer upper and 12 years on we have replaced everything that needed to be done.
Hubby and the teens love their gadgets and have always been fascinated by technology for the home, but if I am honest I always assumed it would mean fitting dozens of cables and various gadgets around the home.
We were sent Philips Hue to set up and try in our house.
Philips Hue is a leading personal wireless lighting system, combining brilliant and energy-efficient LED light with intuitive technology.
To start, you need the starter kit which contains a Philips Hue bridge, 3 x Hue bulbs, a Philips Hue Dimmer Switch, a Power adapter and an Ethernet cable. You can then add further bulbs available separately and link them up to the same system. Make sure you order the right size bulbs for your light fittings (rookie error on my part).
To set up the system, connect the ethernet cable to the bridge, install the lightbulbs in your existing fittings and download the app, available on android and iTunes, to your tablet or smartphone.
All I can say is “WOW”!!
Philips Hue will forever change the way you control and experience light forever.
Follow the instructions on the app to set the brightness, change colours, set a timer, sync with your TV, email, social channels….. etc.
You can still switch your lights on and off using your normal light switches and adjust the dimmer using the dimmer switch which is included in the starter pack, but to adjust the colours of the bulbs you need to use the app.
There are lots of features that we started using straight away. I have wanted a lumie alarm clock for some time, but you can set Philips Hue to wake you with a gentle, increasing light in your bedroom which works really well.
We have it set in our room and the teens room to wake us up gently every morning. It works really well for us although the teen still needs his other alarm to work alongside it as will sleep through anything!
I also love the different light settings, which include concentrate which is nice and bright for when I am working, or the kids are doing homework and dimmed is perfect for watching TV in the evening.
You can switch lights on and off from wherever you may be, providing you have phone signal. This means that the house can be lit if you arrive home in the dark, or you can make it look like someone is home if you are away.
You can also choose which room(s) you want the lights on/off too.
Coming home to a warmly lit house after a day out makes such a difference. The kids are not afraid to walk into a dark house anymore. It also makes it look as though someone is home, so is perfect for additional security, especially if you are away from home for a significant amount of time.
We can even operate it through our Amazon Alexa using our voices! Philips Hue also works with Apple HomeKit and Google Home to allow you to control your lights with your voice.
We have been trying some more of the features, which include extending our Christmas lights and had some fine brightly coloured candy-cane coloured lights which gently changed every few seconds in a Christmas Living Scene.
Our TV viewing experience has now extended to the whole room and it is great fun syncing the lights to our favourite music and see how light reacts to the rhythm. Y
To do this, you need to download a third-party app to do this and to discover even more of the amazing things you can do with Philips Hue.
Disclaimer: I received the Philips Hue system for the purpose of a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own
Oh wow would love these in our house. I tried buying some of those colour changing light bulbs for the kids rooms (the ones that come with a remote control) but they only lasted a few weeks. These look amazing x
Great post this. Home automation is something I’m really want to get into in 2018 and lights like these would be a good way of doing that!
Love this idea. Perfect for movie nights, and bedroom moods.
I keep searching for the best off for these as I want to fit the house out to pair with our Alexa and Echo.
Oh wow these look beautiful and so convenient. Loving the different colours you can have
These look really cool. I’d love something like this in our house. I’ve not seen them before
Oo wow! I love the idea of being able to control the lights yourself – my daughter loved changing light as a baby too 🙂
Love these – I’d love some in my bedroom. Perfect mood lighting for life!
Oh this looks fab, I had never seen these before but after reading this I want some for my home x
Great idea!! I’ve just purchased a heating system one that you can control…they do lighting too so very tempted to get that too!
What a great idea. I would love something like this in my home 🙂
I’ve not seen these bulbs before, they seem great! I think I’ll look into them for my son’s room. Thanks for sharing.
Oh I’ve seen these advertised and really fancy getting them myself! I love the colour changing bulbs!
I love how you can even operate it through voice control using Amzon Alexa. How amazing is the pink light feature though?
These look great, my husband would love this!
Oh wow these lights look very cool and so interesting they can change colour and can be controlled form for phone – very space age
Laura x
Brilliant – I haven’t seen these before and I already want a Tropical Twilight! I also love the fact that you can operate them when you’re not at home. I’m going to find out more about these, thanks.
I have never heard of these bulbs before. They look so cool with the app.
Wow, we’ve just moved house so something to consider. So streamlined.
Oh my actual goodness. THIS LOOKS AMAZING. I can’t believe how futuristic it is. It sounds really impressive – and the colour options are perfect for this time of year!
You need to get some light strips! Also iConnectHue is a good app with a lot more function than the Hue app.