We are improving our lighting in the bedroom by adding a fan - and Philips Hue because I couldn't resist!
@rosemaryorchard nice! My wife and I got some new Hue lights recently (and are almost fully hue’d up). A homekit equipped ceiling fan would be pretty cool too 🤔
@ChrisJWilson We won't be able to HomeKit the fan probably - unless we get a harmony hub for just that. But this is our answer to air conditioning for now and actually having overhead lights in the bedroom will be an upgrade over the current "oh yeah, the bulbs are all dead and a nightmare to locate and replace" issue 😋
@rosemaryorchard Does anywhere in europe really do air conditioning? (excluding in offices and shopping centers, I mean homes). Seems like a great solution to me.
@ChrisJWilson My office most definitely does not do air conditioning! But yes, more and more homes are getting it. Unfortunately our apartment isn't really suited to getting it installed.
@rosemaryorchard the one thing I did right in this house was putting ceiling fans everywhere. They let me use less air conditioning in the summer.
@rosemaryorchard I’ve avoided that style fan, with the spotlight-like lights, as any wobble of the fan makes the lights visibly move around too, which I found disconcerting (I had them in my first house). Hopefully yours will be better. Hue with the bridge to HomeKit is certainly nice; it’s convenient to say “hey Siri, I’m awake” and have the bedroom lights go off and kitchen lights go on.
@rosemaryorchard Re air conditioning, have you looked into mini-split heat pump systems? They don’t require extensive ducting etc, just a small outside unit and wall-mounted inside unit. And can handle both heating and cooling. My house has one in the bedroom, and a fully ducted system in the rest of the house. The mini-split was much cheaper than the full system.
@dejus The building really isn't designed for any air conditioning. The apartments all share an air circulation system (which you can't disable), so we'd literally be paying to cool the whole building 😒
@rosemaryorchard Beware of having those Hue lights in the bedroom. If there is a power failure the lights automatically turn on when power is restored, which can make for a rude awakening in the middle of the night.
@rosemaryorchard Do you have a link to information stating Philips is addressing the issue of the lights coming back on after power restore? This has been the one biggest issue I've had with Hue that I've tried to work around to no luck. Even switches have this same default behavior. I don't know if these devices are not smart enough to remember previous state or the developers are opting to make them not remember.
@rosemaryorchard Sweet! Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. We've been woken too many times by the light in our bedroom turning on after a power failure, and Hue's excuse for why that has been the case has been ridiculous. I will buy a new hub if I have to, I have the original.
@frankm If I remember correctly it will be a firmware upgrade for my bulbs/bridge at least - helpfully for yours too!
@rosemaryorchard And if you get really into the Hue system, you can make your bedroom look like this!*
- Massive piles of shredded paper available for an extra fee. 😁