hi alison,
unfortunately probably not.
the problem is that these smart devices need a hub to talk to and then the echo
talks to that hub to control things.
so for example the philips hue smart light bulbs cost around £20 per bulb and
then you need the philips hue hub costing £50 to work with the bulbs.
i did see a starter kit on amazon that includes the hub and i think 3 bulbs but
the problem with that is that the bulbs are the type e27 which are screw in
bulbs rather than the more commanly used e22 bayonet type which is mainly used
in the UK.
there are lots of different protocols being used by different makes of smart
home devices that can't talk to each other directly.
so for example i have quite a few smart devices including, lights, plug
sockets, heating, air conditioning, smart meters, burglar alarm, security
cameras and a few more.
and between them i have about 6 or 7 hubs all of which can not talk to each
other directly.
the best way around this is to get smart devices from the same manufacturer and
then they will share the same hub.
so for example if you wanted to have the british gas smart Hive central heating
controller they also sell light bulbs, plug socket adapters, and alarm sensors
for the windows and doors all of which will use the same hub.
their bulbs cost forty odd pounds for a pack of three.
plus they have an 0800 help line.
unfortunately as i built my system they didn't have all these things available
so although i have the british Hive heating control, burglar alarm, and smart
meterers they all need their own individual hub.
the only other way is to get what is known as a smart hub and there are quite a
few of these around now.
the leading ones seem to be wink, smartthings, and ncube.
so for example the newly to be released wink v2 smart hub which is ment to come
out later this month can talk to hundreds of smart devices from lots of
different manufacturers which are spread among around 6 different protocols.
so in theory you can have one of these smart hubs and buy all different makes
of smart devices and get them all to work on the one hub.
this is exactly what i am checking into at the minute to see if i can get one
smart hub that will work with all the devices i have to enable me to disconnect
lots of hubs.
pete.
--
pete gurney <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Sun, 2 Oct 2016 15:12:46 +0100
"CJ &AA MAY" <chrisalismay@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So would smart light bulbs be the cheaper option for switching on/off lights?
Alison
