Hue Lights

This is for “Thea” and anyone else who is interested in programmable lights in any color you want!

Okay– so I’ve always been taken with colored lights. Plus, I have sensitive eyes, and really bright lights at night don’t agree with me, and I prefer dimmer options, except when I’m looking for something. Since I was a teen, I’ve loved string lights, and sometimes bought colored light bulbs, especially when I discovered that outdoor lights in red, blue, and purple don’t attract bugs.

Then I discovered Philips Hue bulbs. You have to buy a “starter bulb” that gets you into a system, and have an app you can access, then after that it’s easy. The bulbs are about $50 a pop right now, but they last at least as long as LEDs and use about the same amount of energy.

But what you can do with these puppies!

The following is an unpaid ad for this– I’ll add pics of my own place with Hue lights later, but for now…

You can program (or spontaneously change) any hue light bulb to any color you want. From bright white to dim warm to any color on the rainbow. You can also have every room it’s own zone and create a portrait with colors. You can even program them to come on or off at certain times of the day or night. My own room is programmed to slowly fade in with green and purple lights as the sun sets. You can go conventional, ease eye strain, give energy early in the morning- anything you like!

There are literally THOUSANDS of possibilities.

Hue also has strip lights which can be programmed the same way. They are only a few feet long, but you can string them together for safety or mood lighting. Again, you can program them to go on and off and change at certain times, or do it youself. I have yet to get these, but I’m looking forward to when I do!

One of the more exciting aspects of the apps that go with Hue lights are things like “dance party” where you can have them change with the music, or this:

You can program the lights to mimic the colors in movies you watch to either go off in strips behind the TV or in all the lights (or just one or two) lights in the room, turning the mood of the movie into a palatte of color for the room, changing as the movie changes. There are more apps coming out all the time as people find more ways to use these things.

Okay, ad over! We’re changing bulbs one at a time, when we have it in our budget but have zero regrets. The more we have, the more fun we have with them. I love ‘em!