I have purchased some new floor and table lamps into which I would like to install RGB light bulbs. There is a small selection of these bulbs that say they directly support Apple Home.
Is Apple Home something I can install on my iPhone and control the bulbs or do I need an Apple TV or HomePod with HomeKit to do this?
FWIW: I do not need to control the light bulbs remotely (i.e. outside the home). Inside the home on my local wi-fi is fine.
Ditto. I love the idea of home automation, but I refuse to buy any product that uses an Internet connection to operate because I don’t trust the security of any of these products.
If people know of products that are compatible with HomeKit and don’t use any Internet connectivity (just local Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections to my phone or Apple TV or Mac), I’d love to know about them.
I know that the Matter protocol is designed to support this kind of behavior, and I know Apple is a founding member of the CSA (which manages Matter), but I don’t know if Apple’s HomeKit software actually supports Matter, nor do I know how many Matter products actually will work without Internet connectivity, even though the protocol allows such products to exist.
I use numerous LIFX light globes and control them with the Home.app (Homekit). They connect to your home wifi during set up.
To get full functionality it is best to set up an Apple TV or Homepod as a home hub, which gives a complete home automation solution, including remote access.
But lights can certainly be controlled directly by an iPhone that is on the same wifi network and running the Home app or the LIFX app.
Thanks for the suggestion of LIFX; I will look into those tomorrow.
Allow me to expand my question. I am looking for RGB bulbs whereby I can adjust the color or temperature output by any means (app on my iPhone, separate remote, etc.) AND have programming survive being turned off/on via traditional timer.
It wouldn’t hurt if the dang things lasted for quite a while and didn’t have to be reconnected/re-paired constantly. Lots of Amazon one-star reviews for many RGB bulbs out there …
Hue bulbs are the only ones I know of that will retain their color settings after power is disrupted.
Half of our LIFX lights are turned on and off via a conventional light switch and they retain their settings (color & brightness). They retain settings for weeks (e.g. away on vacation).
This does mean that you need to make sure they are not set to zero brightness (i.e. “off”) via the app when they are turned off at the switch as they won’t come back on until you use the app again.
OP here. I purchased two 60W equivalent (8.8W actual) Philips Smart LED “Connected by Wiz” Full Color (RGB) bulbs from Big Box Orange to test them out. $12.97 each with discounts of 5,10,15% for the purchase of 2,4,6 bulbs.
They were the same price on Amazon individually; I don’t recall if discounts were available for purchase of multiple bulbs.
With two days of testing I am quite satisfied with their operation and have ordered two four-packs of the 100W equivalent bulbs.
The Wiz app is free for download on iOS or Android. I have an iPhone, so any comments from me should reflect that.
You can pair the app (and phone) to each bulb individually via wi-fi. No hub or third-party needed. Bulbs can be grouped, arranged by room, scenes set up for quick access to either their default programs or your set ups. You can set Time-On and Time-Off individually or by group.
In addition to full-on white, many colors can be set. I have settled on one of the default selections (true color) which is white with a yellow cast. There is a color wheel from which you can set your own color, but I have not tried that yet.
The “Integrations” feature allows you to connect to Matter, Alexa, Google, SmartThings, IFTTT and at least eight other controllers that I have never heard of.
You can allow multiple people to have some, mid or all control over the bulbs operation. No need to create and account with Wiz or Philips.
Most importantly, as all the brains of the operation exist on your phone, if the house power goes out, bulb programming is NOT affected. I pulled the plug from the wall for an hour and two hours after replacing the plug, the time came for the lights to come on and they did.
At this point I have not tested what would happen if my phone was not in the house at the time an ON or OFF was supposed to happen. There are several mentions of remote operation so I supposed everything might work, but don’t know if I need a Wiz account or what. But again, I’ve only had the bulbs for two days and it was a learning curve to get to this point.
So far, I’m quite satisfied with their operation. More opinions to come in the days ahead.
Thanks for the update. Do you know if they use Internet/cloud services or if everything can be configured for local-only operation?
The color settings are important, because I (and many others) like it when bulbs shift to warmer colors when they dim like how incandescent bulbs do. Dimming a 5000K daylight bulb so that you’ve got the same white color, only dimmer, just looks weird to me.
At one point, you could get ordinary dimmable LED bulbs that would automatically perform this color shifting via a perfectly normal dimmer switch. But I don’t think those are being made anymore - manufacturers are instead telling you to get full RGB bulbs and use their app to dim them. Which isn’t what I want, but looks like it’s what we’re all stuck with.
You probably want to look at the Home Assistant project. Open source, local only. It’s been a more techy/diy project, but a year or so ago they started offering a more “packaged” product, the green and yellow.
I havne’t dived into it personally yet, but there’s a few things I haven’t found HomeKit compatible solutions for, and like the idea of local control. Currently use mostly HomeKit compatible products, but do also have HomeBridge running on a NAS for a few other products.
In the short time I’ve been using the two bulbs and the Wiz app, I have been able to do essentially everything locally. I haven’t left the house to see if commands on my phone will make it back to my house or if I need to create a Wiz account to accomplish this.
You can also create Shortcuts for controlling Homekit accessories without needing the internet or using the Home app. For example you can dim a light and change it to a warmer colour at sunset. This can be done with the Home app of course (Automations) but at least there is an alternative.
I use iPhone Shortcuts to automatically turn a kitchen fan off a set time after it is manually turned on (e.g. with the Home app). Surprisingly the Home app does not support this (it is only possible where an Automation turns the accessory on). When the fan comes on the first shortcut triggers an automation that causes another device (an unused power outlet) to turn on for a set time. Then a second Shortcut turns the fan off when the second accessory turns off.
Be aware that the Shortcuts UI is, IMO, dreadful and it is not always clear that an intended task is possible until you start creating the shortcut.
To answer your question regarding local vs Internet controlling. The answer is “yes”.
From the Wiz App FAQ:
User roles and access rights
WiZ offers three different user roles, each coming with different access rights.
Owner
The owner role is the highest level in WiZ, and the role you will get by default in any home that you create. In a nutshell, owners can do everything:
add and remove devices, accessories, rooms and groups
control lights from the local network, and from anywhere
in the world via the Cloud
create scenes, schedules, rhythms...
add, edit or delete other users
create your own custom colors and whites
create your own quick actions
set up integrations
You can have as many owners in a home as you want, and all will share those access rights
User
The user role shares most of its limited permissions with the Guest role, with one important exception: Users are allowed to control the lights from anywhere in the world, through the Cloud.
This role is essentially limited to controlling the devices, without the ability to edit settings.
control lights from the local network, and from anywhere
in the world via the Cloud
create your own custom colors and whites
create your own quick actions
use existing scenes
Guest
The Guest role is the most restrictive of the three. Guests can only control the lights when connected to the home Wi-Fi (local network). They cannot interact with the lights if their phone is not connected to the network. This can be the best choice for a kid, for example, or for a temporary guest.
control lights from the local network only
create your own custom colors and whites
create your own quick actions
use existing scenes
Note: both User and Guest roles can be configured to offer access for a limited time only (for example only a month). This can be configured either by editing the invitation after it is created, or by editing the details of the home member after the invitation has been accepted. By default, invitations do not enforce any time limit after they have been accepted