Are you fasting on Smart Home? Here's how to take the first steps towards the future
Just a few years ago the concept of home automation was more like a science fiction vision than something to deal with in everyday life. Voice activated lights? But when ever. Environments that recognize your passage and activate appliances or services? Impossible. Instead, slowly, but not too much, companies have worked hard to bring into our homes a concept of home automation that is not only efficient, but also at more than affordable prices. Do you want to start your journey into the Smart Home world? Try with the Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter kit we talk about today.
Do you want to surf without limits at 1 Gigabit with optical fiber? Check here if your area is covered and discover the incredible rate of InformaticsKings UltraInternet Fibra!
The one proposed by Philips is a solution able to meet the needs of home automation newbies, but leaving the door open also to those who want to deepen the discourse of customization and interfacing with other devices and software currently on the market.
Inside the package we find everything you need to bring intelligent lighting inside our home in a matter of minutes. In addition to the two bulbs from 9,5 watts with E27 socket, we find a Wi-Fi bridge, to be connected to our router and a switch (a cool way to say "button"), also Wi-Fi, which we can choose to apply to the wall next to the traditional one, or leave it " free ”, to turn the lights on or off from any point in the home. The installation is very simple and, thanks to the application to download from Play Store / Itunes, it will take you only a few minutes. Basically, once you have downloaded the application and connected the bridge to the router, all you have to do is install the bulbs on the chandeliers or ceiling lights and “pair” them to the bridge and the Wi-Fi switch.
Done.
At this point you can not only control the switching on or off of your lights, for example, in the comfort of your sofa, but you can create real "environments" by playing with the "dimmability" of the bulbs. An ugly term, behind which simply hides the possibility of being able to vary not only the intensity, but also the color of the lights, thus passing from colder tones to warm ones. You can then set a reading environment with white lights at maximum brightness (keep in mind that the luminous flux is 806 lumens), or create a moment of relaxation with warm and soft lights. Thanks to the application downloadable on your smartphone you can choose to take advantage of some ready-made setups, or create some completely new ones. Once created, they can also be called up directly from the Wi-Fi switch, so you don't have to go to the phone every time
Within an environment of about 30 square meters, the two bulbs contained in the kit proved to be more than sufficient to illuminate the room adequately, always guaranteeing an excellent amount of light for any type of situation. The duration declared by Philips is approximately 25000 hours, therefore a quantity more than enough to be able to amortize the cost of the bulb itself. In fact, if the cost of the kit is around € 100, each additional or replacement bulb has a cost of almost € 20, so much higher than the cost of normal bulbs. The hope is to see the price of the bulbs drop during the life cycle of those included in the kit, so as not to have to weigh too much on the wallet in case of replacement.
The Kit is fully compatible with Google Home and with Apple HomeKit, which means that we will be able to interface it with smartphones and accessories such as the Google Home mini. Thanks to this compatibility we will be able to set in a very simple way some voice commands thanks to which we can turn the lights on or off, lower or increase the brightness or set the most suitable environments at the moment. By downloading and setting apps such as IFTTT (If This Then That) we will also have the possibility to create from scratch the triggers that will activate our light bulbs, also obtaining in response a phrase of our liking.
We can ensure that, for example, by saying the phrase "Let there be light!", Obviously after the activation message "Hey Google", the lights turn on and receive phrases such as "Yes, my master" in response.
This is just an example, of course, because the IFTTT standard really allows you to indulge yourself at will, because you can also correlate other devices close to you. For example, you can have your smart lights turn on once your mobile phone is in the home Wifi range. Or again, thanks to the excellent Philips App, you can also turn on the lights remotely, to give the outside the impression that there is always someone at home.
In short, the Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter kit we tested really convinced us. Surely it is the type of gadget that cannot be considered "fundamental", but it is certainly a great way to become familiar with the concept of home automation, especially by virtue of its simplicity of installation and the ability to be associated with devices such as Google Home or Home Kit. A “More” that leaves you the freedom (and the imagination) to find the right place within your domestic habits. The selling price is not the most accessible (although right now you can take advantage of the next one Black Friday to access excellent discounts), but certainly over time the production processes will certainly be cheaper and more accessible. For the moment, thumbs up for Philips!
The Kit is fully compatible with Google Home and with Apple HomeKit, which means that we will be able to interface it with smartphones and accessories such as the Google Home mini. Thanks to this compatibility we will be able to set in a very simple way some voice commands thanks to which we can turn the lights on or off, lower or increase the brightness or set the most suitable environments at the moment. By downloading and setting apps such as IFTTT (If This Then That) we will also have the possibility to create from scratch the triggers that will activate our light bulbs, also obtaining in response a phrase of our liking.
We can ensure that, for example, by saying the phrase "Let there be light!", Obviously after the activation message "Hey Google", the lights turn on and receive phrases such as "Yes, my master" in response.
This is just an example, of course, because the IFTTT standard really allows you to indulge yourself at will, because you can also correlate other devices close to you. For example, you can have your smart lights turn on once your mobile phone is in the home Wifi range. Or again, thanks to the excellent Philips App, you can also turn on the lights remotely, to give the outside the impression that there is always someone at home.
In short, the Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter kit we tested really convinced us. Surely it is the type of gadget that cannot be considered "fundamental", but it is certainly a great way to become familiar with the concept of home automation, especially by virtue of its simplicity of installation and the ability to be associated with devices such as Google Home or Home Kit. A “More” that leaves you the freedom (and the imagination) to find the right place within your domestic habits. The selling price is not the most accessible (although right now you can take advantage of the next one Black Friday to access excellent discounts), but certainly over time the production processes will certainly be cheaper and more accessible. For the moment, thumbs up for Philips!
