LIFX - Iphone Light Bulb - I woke into a parrallel universe


Absolutely mad. You really just can't foresee what people will love sometimes.


What I don't understand is kickstarter rules don't allow 'bulk packs' of a product, but almost everyone has them anyway.


Maybe I just didn't understand the rules there.
 
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When I watched the KS video , I couldn't help but think it was an Apple spoof, surely its a spoof. But no, it's real.
 
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I was a bit surprised by that project too. The same thing already exist with a infrared remote.


Reading about it it seems to be doing a quite clever Wifi Mesh...


Using a smartphone when you want to turn the light on or off sound just stupid to me though. Yes you can still use your normal lightswitches, but if you turn the bulb off this way you can't control it anymore, which is the whole point of the system.


That being said you don't absolutely need to use an smartphone. They say they will release an SDK. I can see some value for home automatization if done well.


Concerning the price, well good LED bulb are actually quite expensive. The cheap one you find are usually ony the quivallent of a 20-30 watt conventional bulb. The good 50-60w equivalent with a good color temperature (warm white) do cost more. I saw some Philips one for arround 40$. There is no garanty how well the final LIFX bulb will be though.


This is a product that could be usefull for domotics if the bulb are actually good. I can't help to feel that for most people backing it up it will just be used a party trick for their iPhone.
 
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vcoleiro said:
When I watched the KS video , I couldn't help but think it was an Apple spoof, surely its a spoof. But no, it's real.
Click to expand...

Didn't actually watch the video, only read the description. I see your point... "reinventing the lightbulb". It sounds like they are the only one using RGB leds.
 
I might wait until some of these are out in the wild to work out how good they are.


The wifi is a cool little feature but what is really attracting me to it is the energy usage. I might replace my entire homes bulbs if that's the case however if they use shitty bulbs I wouldn't want it. Giving what Australia's energy prices are they would pay for themselves after one or two years.
 
kasp said:
I might wait until some of these are out in the wild to work out how good they are.


The wifi is a cool little feature but what is really attracting me to it is the energy usage. I might replace my entire homes bulbs if that's the case however if they use shitty bulbs I wouldn't want it. Giving what Australia's energy prices are they would pay for themselves after one or two years.
Click to expand...

Yes the power price increases we have had in Melbourne over the years has now made Solar look more welcoming. I may have to look into getting a Solar power system
 
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vcoleiro said:
kasp said:
I might wait until some of these are out in the wild to work out how good they are.


The wifi is a cool little feature but what is really attracting me to it is the energy usage. I might replace my entire homes bulbs if that's the case however if they use shitty bulbs I wouldn't want it. Giving what Australia's energy prices are they would pay for themselves after one or two years.
Click to expand...

Yes the power price increases we have had in Melbourne over the years has now made Solar look more welcoming. I may have to look into getting a Solar power system
Click to expand...

We are looking for a house to buy right now and we have put money aside for a solar install.
 
Solar systems seem to get good feedback from people that have them. A lot of people tell me they get money back from the ones they have. I just need to look into how long they last.
 
It's well worth doing now, I think here it pretty much pays for itself after a little while as you can put energy back into the grid.


I was looking through a PDF of smart home tech and automated homes and I was wishing I were rich enough to get half the good stuff in it... Couple of sweet game rooms too in there
 
Given that LED bulbs ARE around $40, $100 for two colour changing smart bulbs isn't actually that bad. My first thought was that I could accomplish the same thing with a home built x10 network, but then you need to get the infrastructure, more configuration, etc... This is basically just plug and go. 40'000 hours is a long time, about 50 times the expected life of a standard incandescent, so the aggregate cost is actually pretty negligible. This kickstarter is not as unreasonable as first glance might suggest, it requires deeper inspection.
 
The thing is , most people in Australia for example, now have the low power CFL lights which cost $3 each. So really you need to compare LED bulbs to CFL bulbs. The comparison is not compelling enough to switch over to LED's - it's just not cost effective. Perhaps when the price comes down a bit they will take off. Im sure that will happen eventually - Frankly I cannot believe they currently cost so much.
 
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vcoleiro said:
Solar systems seem to get good feedback from people that have them. A lot of people tell me they get money back from the ones they have. I just need to look into how long they last.
Click to expand...

I looked into it and it is really confusing. From what I understand its worth while getting a system only to offset your usage because now they pretty much don't pay you for feeding into the grid anymore and if they do it's next to nothing. Which means you need to use to bulk of your power during solar peak times for it to be effective and well usually people are at work and school.


I initially though that say if you generated 1000 kilowatts and lets just say you used 1200 kilowatts that you would only have to pay for 200. However I don't think that is the case at all. Whenever I have talked to solar people they always seem to like working in that grey area of understanding and don't really clear anything up.


Electricity is bloody complicated is all I am certain of so far.
 
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Give it another five years and none of us will be able to afford lighting or heating anyway.


I think we'll all be forced into feed-in schemes unless you mega rich.


My bills are already a joke, and not a very funny one.


As for this bulb, I already have one of the multicolour effects LED from ebay, works with one of those small remote controls.


To have the same thing working from my Android though is appealing, I like the other features this one offers too like the timed dimmer and audio sensing.
 
Just about to read that.. But let me first appreciate that coin-op belt. Sweet
 
... Is that the correct link, just a short article on that belt...?
 
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