When I moved to my new home, there was a lot of buzz about smart lighting solutions helping house owners save money on utility bills. So, I decided to give it a try.
A quick market research revealed Philips Hue was one of the most popular smart lighting solutions. But, the question was – Does Philips Hue save money on electricity?
Yes, it does. Period.
I bought the starter kit for the Philips Hue on Amazon.com and it included three smart light bulbs and a bridge. An 8.5W Philips Hue bulb gives a light equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb. It can last for 15,000 hours as compared to an incandescent bulb that can last only a little above 1,500 hours.
If you do the math, Hue bulbs use about 85% less power than incandescent bulbs and they last 10 times more. In its lifetime of 15,000 hours, one Hue bulb can save you approximately $80, which is almost twice its retail price.
That’s just energy savings. Let’s not forget that Hue bulbs last 10 times more than conventional ones. So, if you consider the cost of not having to replace incandescent bulbs worth $3 each, you save another $30. Together, you save about $110 in energy and replacement bulbs.
Additional Features That Help In Cutting Down Electricity Bills
It all boils down to making the right choices when you install lighting fixtures at home. You can choose to spend thousands of dollars over a course of time installing dimmers and new fixtures, or you can install the smart lighting technology in minutes and not have to worry about it for a long time.
Smart light bulbs such as Philips Hue come with a plethora of features other than just toggling the switch on and off. They can be used in the existing fixtures, lamps, and also used as outdoor lighting. They can communicate with your smart home hub and other smart devices via IFFT Applets.
Here are some of the additional features that result in more savings:
• Dimmers: Smart lights come with sensors that can go dim when there is no one in the room to cut down on energy use. With this feature, the smart bulbs use 25% less energy.
• App Control: You can use your smartphone app to turn off the lights in the other rooms, or make sure all house lightings are off when you are away.
• Outdoor lighting: Smart lights in the yard gives you the convenience to turn them on or off remotely when needed and save the cost of installing a complicated security system.
• Setting schedules: You can set schedules for the smart light bulbs to switch off or reduce the brightness at specific times of the day to further save on electricity bills.
• White Philips Hue lights: If you are on a tight budget, get the white light bulbs that are inexpensive compared to others smart lights yet offer similar money-saving benefits.
Top 5 Benefits Of Installing Philips Hue
I believe that by you now have a fair idea on how Philips Hue smart bulbs can help you save money in utility bills and cover their own cost in their lifetime. However, the benefits of installing smart lights do not end there.
Savings in energy bills is just the beginning and perhaps the most significant of all. There are several other benefits of installing Philips Hue smart bulbs and I have listed the top five below:
1. Smart lights by Philips Hue look incredibly cool and you can creatively use them in your interior design to enhance the décor of your living area, bedroom, and guestroom. The dimming features and shades add more fun to it. I will discuss the shades later.
2. The installation part is a breeze as the smart bulbs easily fit into the conventional bulb sockets. Installing the bridge and connecting it to your router may require some technical knowledge and professional help. Download the app on your smartphone and you are done.
3. Philips Hue supports a host of IFTTT integrations to communicate with other smart devices. So, if it’s 7 pm, the lights turn on. Or, if the Ring senses an intruder in the property, the Hue lights turn on even if there’s no one at home to scare the unwanted guests away.
4. Philips Hue is compatible with Amazon Echo/ Apple HomeKit so you can give commands to your voice assistant Alexa or Siri. You just need to say, Alexa, dim the lights by 20%’ or Siri, turn off the bedroom lights’ to control your lighting needs without raising a finger.
5. Use third-party apps that work with Hue to wow your guests. This can turn your Hue bulb into decorative lighting like the disco light, lava lamp, or fireworks. Throw a party at your home and I bet your friends will go crazy about your smart lighting.
How Can You Change Shades Using Philips Hue?
Philips Hue gives you access to over 16 million colors, so why stick to the dull yellow and white shades. Fill some color in your life by creating beautiful scenes or simply create an ambient light to help you relax after a tiring day at work.
While other smart bulbs also come with color changing options, they do not have as many features and color options as Philips Hue. Follow these steps to create or modify a scene:
• Open the Philips Hue app on your smartphone
• Tap on the name of the room you wish to edit a scene for
• Tap on ‘Color palette’ option and select a scene
• Use ‘pencil’ to modify a scene
• Set brightness and color for each room
• Save the scenes when you are done
11 Interesting Things You Can Do With Philips Hue Smart Light Bulbs
1. Schedule a wake-up alarm to make it create a sunrise effect at a specific time
2. Set a timer so that all lights turn on or change color to remind you to check the oven or make a call
3. Get alarms/ notifications such as light turns red if it senses smoke or blue if a family member calls
4. Schedule lights to change color to match your daily routine, pink for yoga, orange for work out, etc
5. Set different colors to match various moods such as happy, sad, flirty, romantic, etc
6. Match lights with the weather such as purple when it rains, green when it’s sunny and so on
7. Sync lights with music so that they change color and flicker with every beat to create a disco effect
8. Create thematic lighting for movie times, games, tv shows and so on
9. Motion sensors can turn on bathroom lights in the middle of the night if they sense your footsteps
10. Turn on smart lights remote to create an illusion of occupancy while you are away
11. Set your Hue lights to trace your mobile location and turn on when you reach home
The Final Words
After installing the Philips Hue smart light bulbs, I have never had to think again about lighting needs. They work great with my Amazon Echo Dot and never fail to make me proud when there are guests at home.
They also give me the perfect vibes for every occasion. Whether it’s time to catch some zzz, cheer for my favorite team, watch a spooky movie, or create the mood for Christmas, Philips Hue does its job perfectly.
Once you get used to this, you will never again want to go back to standard lighting again.
When building a smart home lighting system, just remember the golden rule – buy smart light bulbs of the same brand for every room to keep things simple. If you have chosen Philips Hue, stick to it and don’t try to mix things up!
Trust me, when I was in your shoes I had the same feelings but today I am proud of my choice. And, it’s not just for the savings on electricity bills but the convenience and fun it adds to my life.
