"budget-friendly light bulbs"
what the fuck man
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Yay Matter support!
No CRI information, which means it’s probably garbage. Nanoleaf is still better and cheaper, plus you can choose between Matter/WIFI or Matter/Thread versions.
I have both nanoleaf and hue. I can confidently say the hue bulbs are superior in every way except their usurious price.
Better how? I define good light by its CRI. The expensive Hue (which isn’t even the topic of this thread) lists >80, the essentials version doesn’t even list it. Nanoleaf lists >90. Also, Hue lights don’t offer a Matter over WIFI version, only Thread.
For me it’s the performance of the bulbs, nuance of the different colors, sync abilities, and the massive Hue library of lighting scenes, which no one else comes close to.
I found a nanoleaf string lights and wanted to set it up. I stumbled upon some negative reviews, tho… how well does nanoleaf work offline with e.g. home assistant?
Never tried the string lights, just the bulbs over WIFI.
I buy Ikea bulbs, the 1850lm ones and then taking adjustable pliers and move the plastic bulb part off. I then drill a couple of holes on the sides for additional ventilation and cooling.
I haven't had one die yet and it's been a few years where as previously then bulbs would die in about a year.
These bulbs are used indoors and inside recess lighting.
For the bulbs that are used in lamps, I just drill the holes and leave the bulb part for the refraction. I only started doing this 2 years ago so I can't tell you if it's effective.
Those are still ridiculously expensive. The Home Depot lights I have all cost like $5-7 a piece. Unfortunately the Hubspace app SUCKS and hasn't been updated in the two years since I installed it. I'd toyed with the idea of upgrading to Hue, but it's just not worth the investment.
A while ago, I accidentally bought a set of - IIRC - WiZ bulbs. To control them required both an app and an account. I think they had to be on WiFi, too, but I might be misremembering.
Anyway, that setup was awful. Eventually I setup a HomeAssistant server and, as soon as it booted it up for the first time, it detected and connected to the lights with no account, app or even manual configuration required (except I had to confirm, once per bulb, that I did want to connect to them). It was lovely.
You got me wondering and apparently Home Assistant could work with the home depot bulbs. I'll have to do a deep dive but honestly the Hue integrations with games and monitors is really what I was most interested in. That said anything that can do a bit more than individually changing the color of a bulb manually would be nice.
I didn't know that was a thing with consumer grade bulbs; it sounds pretty cool.
HASS does support creating groups, so while I can't say whether it would support the integration you mentioned, but you at least wouldn't have to address individual bulbs.
Good luck!
There are matter lightbulbs on Amazon for $5.
The neat thing about matter is the manufacturers app can be ignored. Customers can finally focus on product specific features and longevity.
Are we still rating bulbs in watts?
We've been doing that the whole time. CFL's were rated in equivalent Watts as well, because that's what people know. To this day I couldn't tell you what the lumen rating of a 100w incandescent bulb put out, but I know the relative brightness from experience. Considering there are people who may have never actually owned an incandescent bulb it may be time to focus on that? Who knows. Also there's still the selling point of "Our bulb uses 10% of what a "real" light bulb uses!"
We've been doing that the whole time
Yeah that's the problem haha
Also there's still the selling point of "Our bulb uses 10% of what a "real" light bulb uses!"
More like "oh man, only 60 watts, that's not very bright".
Sorry...but watts the problem?
It's a metric that isn't really current.
The inaccuracy really gets me amped.
Careful not to get to charged up about it, joule lose your mind!
And I just bought 8 for my all my apartment ceiling lights two months ago lol. Still great to hear!
The only LED bulbs I had break on me so far were Philips.. :/
Some of my Hue bulbs I’ve had for over 10 years now.
Yeah I’ve never had one fail and they last forever. Hours a day for years.
To be completely fair, I’ve had two fail on me over the years. They tend to get flickery on warm colors or sometimes have a color fail entirely. One was a Gen 1 bulb and the other was the Bloom (or Iris? Can’t remember which). The bulk was in a small enclosed fixture and the Bloom was on a windowsill that got a lot of sun; so probably heat issues for both.
But I have 23 total and many of those are 8+ years old at this point, one of which was exclusively used outdoors in temps ranging from -10F to 100F
I had probably half of my Hue bulbs die within a couple of years of purchase. It was a specific model that died. The 1600lm white Hue A21 bulb. Philips replaced all the dead ones but from the replacement, about half died too. They ran very hot and I've had a few develop a rattling sound when shaken, as if an SMD had fallen off the PCB. I haven't had problems with any other Hue or non-Hue Philips bulbs. I really like their high-CRI Ultra Definition dumb bulbs. I use them with Zigbee/Z-wave dimmers.