More than 50 Bulbs

[DaveMunn]

Hi All,

I am about to move into a new house where there is potentially about 80 spot lights that I want to be controlled using my Homeseer system and JowiHue plug in.

I have read that it is basically 50 bulbs per bridge. Philips have not yet managed to get the bridges to talk to each other which in itself isn't so much of a problem as I am assuming that the Jowihue plug-in will just send the command to turn on whichever lights I want to the relevant bridge??

Will my set up work if I purchase 80 bulbs, along with 2 bridges, or is there something else I am going to require to achieve what I want??

Many thanks

[logman]

You are correct, and there is nothing more you need other than the 2 bridges and bulbs. JowiHue will take care of everything and send the commands to the correct bridge holding the particular light. There is really no limit to the number of bridges you can have under JowiHue management.

Often you can find 4 bulbs and a bridge for about the same price as 4 individual bulbs, so there is really no extra cost in running multiple bridges.

--Barry

[RoChess]

logman since you seem to be running Hue's, if you could get Z-Wave RGB bulbs for $25, would you still go the Hue route?

Bulb specs are: E26 regular shape, 600 lumens, 7 Watt, Z-Wave Plus

[logman]

logman since you seem to be running Hue's, if you could get Z-Wave RGB bulbs for $25, would you still go the Hue route?

Bulb specs are: E26 regular shape, 600 lumens, 7 Watt, Z-Wave Plus

Absolutely, in a heartbeat I'd still go with Hue... Even if the Z-Wave's were $10 each (and WiFi's can already be found for that). I tested some Z-Wave bulbs and ended up giving them away. Problem is they do not communicate and coordinate with each other. If you have a light fixture with 5 bulbs, or a hallway with several bulbs, you want them to act in unison when on/off or color commands are sent to them. With Z-Wave (or Wifi) each bulb has to be addressed individually. So you'll never have a "smooth" dim or on/off sequence. Each will have a mind of it's own, and you also have the issue of flooding the Z-Wave network with simultaneous commands, which can result in some commands being dropped or delayed.

Meanwhile, the ZigBee Light Link protocol allows individual bulbs to "speak" to one another and can be assigned to groups. A single command to the group results in all the bulbs assigned to the group reacting in sync, fading off or brightening up in perfect harmony. Individual bulbs can be assigned to multiple groups, and each bulb acts as a repeater for the ZigBee network. It all just works, and it works flawlessly.

Having ZigBee bulbs around the house also builds depth to the ZigBee network controller they are joined to. Which in turn allows sensors to be added further about the network. ZigBee sensors are far more reliable and stable than Z-Wave sensors. Plus they have double the battery life and are usually at least half the cost of their Z-Wave counterparts.

It's sort of a head-scratcher to me why Z-Wave is still the defacto standard around home automation when ZigBee is actually a far superior protocol in most situations.

--Barry

[RoChess]

The 700-series of Z-Wave proclaims 10-year battery life for sensors though, and some devices are starting to surface using them. You are right on cost though, but there is a flip side to that with retaining value on resale as I've scored some good deals on some Z-Wave devices that I could sell for more now 5-years later.

https://www.silabs.com/products/wire...e/700-platform

[logman]

The 700-series of Z-Wave proclaims 10-year battery life for sensors though, and some devices are starting to surface using them. You are right on cost though, but there is a flip side to that with retaining value on resale as I've scored some good deals on some Z-Wave devices that I could sell for more now 5-years later.

https://www.silabs.com/products/wire...e/700-platform

Zigbee 3.0 claims 7 year battery life for sensors, and most battery powered Zigbee products on the market now are 3.0 compliant. From what I'm seeing I believe 7 years is certainly doable. I have several sensors going on 3 years old that are still showing 100% battery.

What's better than 7-10 year battery life? No batteries at all! Zigbee Green Power uses no batteries or external power source, yet can send commands wirelessly to a hub. Devices that are Green Power certified harness energy from your interactions with the device, such as pushing a button to set a scene or to turn off a light. The Hue Tap remote is an example of Zigbee Green Power. It still cracks me up when I use one and think about how it functions.

It's pretty amazing what both Z-Wave and Zigbee can do, considering what was available just 5 years ago.

--Barry

[RoChess]

Zigbee Green Power uses no batteries or external power source, yet can send commands wirelessly to a hub.

Limiting myself to just Z-Wave would exclude me from stuff like this if it is not brought over. My initial thought was to stick with one system to avoid issues, but cramming a ton of devices on a single Z-Wave network can also be problematic when dozens of devices are constantly pushing data across. Of course it is possible to split Z-Wave networks, add another controller, but then it would be more then one system as well so might as well use Z-Wave and Zigbee together. At that moment you can rely on the benefits that each network provides and batteryless buttons or much cheaper devices would be part of that