New Lighting For Your Home...

[LordOfChaos]

I found this in the Shout box... thanks BUDMAN for posting it... i think this deserves its own thread pal!

 

 

That has got to be the coolest thing!

 

I want 10... lol do they come with an android app?

[little_old_man]

$300.00 Phillips Hue Starter Kit

$350.00 Cost of new Iphone

 

$650 Total cost to light a room for Apple obsessed people

 

$1.50 Cost of one 100 watt light bulb

$4.50 Cost of dimmer switch at local hardware store

 

$6.50 Total cost to light a room for people who don't feel the need to buy every new product Apple comes out with

 

[Astronomer]

It's an interesting piece of architectural lighting technology. Many home architects nowadays are painting rooms a light colour and using lights like this for colour, atmosphere and flexibility. Being a gadget guy (and I'm not a Mac fanboi. Disclaimer: There is Apple product in my house), I am curious about this piece of kit. My starter pack should be in my hands today or tomorrow. I'm putting one in my home office/man-cave and the others in the home entertainment room in the basement. I like the idea of being able to change from a reading light to say, a dim red or blue for gaming, or from reading to something unobtrusive for movie watching. If we go away for a time, I don't have to dig the light timers out of the basement storage room. Right now, they are expensive, but as more competing product hits the market, they will come down.

 

Current cost of the starter kit (controller and 3 bulbs) is $199, and $50 for additional bulbs. These are also standards based and will integrate into other home automation systems.

[Bullet]

Old Man,

 

You forgot the scotch tape and colored crate paper! Add a couple more dollars to your total.

[PingLo]

$300.00 Phillips Hue Starter Kit

$350.00 Cost of new Iphone

 

$650 Total cost to light a room for Apple obsessed people

 

$1.50 Cost of one 100 watt light bulb

$4.50 Cost of dimmer switch at local hardware store

 

$6.50 Total cost to light a room for people who don't feel the need to buy every new product Apple comes out with

 

 

So bitter....

[hxtr]

$300.00 Phillips Hue Starter Kit

$350.00 Cost of new Iphone

 

$650 Total cost to light a room for Apple obsessed people

 

$1.50 Cost of one 100 watt light bulb

$4.50 Cost of dimmer switch at local hardware store

 

$6.50 Total cost to light a room for people who don't feel the need to buy every new product Apple comes out with

 

anything that is new is more expensive.... i am looking at the bigger picture. you will be able to control every device in your house some day with a phone/other.

 

reminds me of x10 technology. I always wanted to setup a house with X10 and remote cameras as wifi was not out at the time and switches controlled by a PC or remote. The technology was flaky, expensive and never really caught on as most people would not want to learn how to set it up.

 

this proves to me it is just around the corner. nice find... pretty cool. I have no need for it but I see the possibly.

 

as for he led part power he spoke of. i am running 3 strands of 180 Christmas lights to light my out my side carport all night long on a timer. It is like running a 45w bulb. You just cant beat that.

Edited January 2, 2013 by hxtr

[Astronomer]

Agreed Hxtr. I can control the lights from my Andoid and Apple devices, and the home theater receiver/amp that I bought in the Boxing Day sales can also be controlled via our "i" devices, as can our hacked Apple TV set-top box. The iPad/iPhone has become our universal remote.

 

We had a bunch of x10 devices years ago, and we eventually dropped it for the reasons that you mentioned.

[little_old_man]

$300.00 Phillips Hue Starter Kit

$350.00 Cost of new Iphone

 

$650 Total cost to light a room for Apple obsessed people

 

$1.50 Cost of one 100 watt light bulb

$4.50 Cost of dimmer switch at local hardware store

 

$6.50 Total cost to light a room for people who don't feel the need to buy every new product Apple comes out with

 

 

So bitter....

 

So Gullible.

 

[Astronomer]

Just received my starter kit today. I have to say that I'm impressed.

 

I put one bulb in the desk lamp in my office, one in the upstairs family room (open-concept kitchen/dining/living room), and one in the basement entertainment room. The ability to switch from bright reading light for small print to unobtrusive low-light for movie watching is impressive. In my office, I can see many opportunities for different lighting for differing situations: low red to preserve my dark-adapted vision for astronomy nights when I come in to check my charts or reference texts, low blue or red for gaming, brighter yellowish tone for reading, whiter for reviewing printouts of technical diagrams. For the multi-purpose upstairs room, I can see the value of an infinitely flexible series of bulbs.The range of colours it can display is amazing, particularly when you select a bulb and run your finger over a colour-selector chart on your i-device or Android phone or tablet. On the downside, greens and browns are difficult for it to reproduce (green being decidedly yellowish and sickly looking), but shades in the red/blue/purple/yellow/orange/white shades are stunning. Colour reproduction of many sunset and blue shades with subtle hues was excellent. Just the ability to turn any light fixture into a dimmer makes these worthwhile. They are equivalent to a 50w bulb, so if you need something brighter than that, these may not be for you. I will be adding more of these bulbs into several rooms in my home over the next 12 months as I really like the flexibility. These are not inexpensive right now, but as competition enters the market and production costs drop, the price will go down. They have an estimated 15-year life (taken with a grain of salt), but if the controller dies, there is no easy way to transfer control of the bulbs to another controller, so early adopters beware (but it can be done). Philips has promised to release the SDK for this product soon, so expect more 3rd party software options when they do. How these work has already been decoded by the modding community and the first third-party software and HTML and other coding tutorials are available. 8.9/10

 

Edit: One writer for Forbes Magazine calls it the best product of 2012: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2012/12/28/the-best-product-of-2012-the-philips-hue-led-lighting-system/

Edited January 8, 2013 by Astronomer