ilumi Home Automation – Review
The ilumi bulbs are very intelligent indeed. As I mentioned on the first page, they do have a lot of built in features to enable this. At this time, they do not support any other protocols or devices. This is a great product for the users looking to automate just a couple lights. This is the solution for you. Hands down. You don’t need a bridge, you don’t need to purchase a 3rd part hub. Just install the bulb and you are ready to go. You can have all the features and performance with just one bulb.
Those of us that are looking to add products like the ilumi bulbs to our home automation systems are left with only a few choices. I hope the team at ilumi is paying attention. Smart hubs are on the market that already support Bluetooth, like the Wink smart hub. I would love to be able to integrate these lights into my overall system. Why not have the porch light blink red when someone enters their door code wrong. Have the lights turn on when the cameras detect motion. Change the room scene when I turn the Christmas lights on. Integrate Alexa into the mix, so I can change the color with a simple voice command. I don’t even have to pull my phone out of my pocket.
While the ilumi bulbs do not have the product support for true home automation integration at this time. ( I do hope to see this in the future) I was able to add them as a part of the system using a couple of Zwave switches from Aeotec. This worked out OK. I was able to turn the lights off and on as part of my overall system. Using the Amazon Echo and the Wink hub. As the ilumi bulbs have all of their intelligence built in, as I turned them off and on, the settings would stay.
I do look forward to ilumi adding more support for system integration. As an LED bulb they perform extremely well. Adding the ability to make them a seamless part of my home automation scheme would allow me to put them all over.
Ilumi Summary – Review
The ilumi bulb is the smartest bulb on the market. I have been impressed with its performance as I have noted in this review. Doing my use and testing here is a concise list of pro’s and cons to the bulbs.
Pros-
- The Smartest LED bulb – Each bulb is Smart with everything built in. You can buy just one to experience the features, nothing additional needed.
- Color Performance – The color performance of the ilumi bulbs is brilliant. Easy to configure, schedule and appreciate.
- Advanced features – Features like Rise and Shine and Circadian schedule set the bulb apart. Again, its all in the bulb, no other hardware or products needed. 1 bulb and you can experience all the features.
Cons-
- Antenna interference – In rooms where an over the air HD antenna was used, the ilumi bulbs caused the signal to be unusable causing to much interference. Once the bulb was shut off with a switch the signal was fine again. For cable users, this won’t be a problem at all.
- 3rd party support – I am sure this will be a non issue as ilumi grows its support. I do want to note it for now, that there is no support for other products or hubs.
Over all the Ilumi bulbs are a good product. They really are providing the smartest LED light bulb on the market. With the feature set they provide it is an appealing product for so many more people than just those of us looking to automate the lights in our house.
Taking the performance of the ilumi bulbs and their over all feature set into account. I am please to give it the the SHA Too Cool Tech award. Equipped with stunning color performance and built in smarts unmatched in the market place the team at ilumi are offering a truly smart LED bulb.
Make sure to check in from time to time. As the team at ilumi take strides to release new products and features we will definitely be updating the review.
