I’m starting a renovation on a gaming/theater room soon, and I designed a sort of drop-ceiling indirect lighting thing. It will have 6 bulbs and I originally was going to run dimmable LED bulbs with a wall-mounted dimmer switch.
I then got curious about adding some RGB to the room, and found that RGB+W LED bulbs were a thing. Sweet. Problem is, none of them are compatible with standard dimmer switches.
So it looks like most of them are controlled by a phone app. Which would be okay I guess, so long as I can still turn them on and off normally at a standard light switch. However, are any of you familiar with these apps? Do you have to control each bulb individually? That would be way too much effort.
Turns out there are a of couple smart-bulb wall switches out there. Problem with those are, they all seem to only work on the Philips Hue bulbs, are those bulbs are way too darn expensive.
So, have any of you used multiple RGB bulbs are how was your experience with the apps? Or, are you aware of any smart-bulb switches that work with more budget-priced bulbs? I’m starting to lean towards regular dimmable LED bulbs. This is way too much effort. Thanks!
Can you control them all at once or does it have to be individually? Also, is there an app you can use or does it have to be over voice? I’m not very familiar with Google Home.
If you have an older wall mounted dimmer switch it will not work with LED bulbs, even those which are labeled “dimmable” because the way it works is not compatible with the electronics in the LED bulb. I have one LED compatible dimmer that I picked up at my local Goodwill outlet store. It is made by Lutron. It is a Lutron Grafik T 150W dimmer. Pretty costly though as they sell new for around $50 online. Instead you might consider the RGBW bulbs that come with a remote. Lots of them out there like the pair of 10W bulbs for $15 with this description on Amazon _“LED RGB Color Changing Light Bulbs with Remote, 6000K Dimmable E26 Screw Base, 85 Watt Equivalent Soft Warm White for Home Decoration, Bedroom, Stage and Party (2 Pack)_”. The remote is included.
You could still use the same switch but only on full power, using the remote to do the dimming, or better yet replace the dimmer switch with a standard switch so it doesn’t get used as a dimmer with the new bulbs. I have some under-counter lights that are controlled by small remotes and I just stuck them to the wall so I can easily reach them to turn on the lights.
I considered that, however that would be inconvenient both because 1. This is going to be indirect light (the bulbs will not be visible) so that will probably mess with the cheap remotes, and 2. There will be 6 bulbs, and it would be a lot of effort individually turning on and off each bulb. I’m going to go with standard dimmable bulbs, until the tech gets a bit more convenient. Thanks for the reply though!