Does obsession with CRI, tint and CCT also apply to home smart light bulbs?

If getting a home smart light bulb such as Philips Hue system, do you just assume that, because the light can display a variety of different tints and degrees of warmth, that things like CCT and tint do not matter - because the smart bulb is capable of being any tint and any CCT depending on the setting?

Do any of you guys purposely choose Nichia 219b emitters for your home lighting set up to get a nice magenta shade for your living room? And, if you had a smart light system - would that negate the need to find that specific emitter, or would the smart bulb be able to replicate it? There’s something that tells me that there’s some sort of catch like no matter what colour the smart bulb replicates, it is all above the black body locus and all colours therefore appear greenish or something like that…

I have two bulbs using two LEDs each. All mixing CCTs are below BBL by the nature of color metrics. I have another bulb raising R9 with a cheap trick: there’s an additional LED at the R9 wavelength (or close to it).

But then I’m not even the biggest fan of BBL tints. They are spectacular for sure, but I like it sun-like. It will take some time to have really good LEDs usable in flashlights without the cyan dip (i.e. UV excited). But they will probably look boring :smiley: .

Fussing about home lighting must be more important than anything in a flashlight, just based on time spent using each.

I don't have any smart light bulbs, but I do use high-CRI bulbs in my home.

Here at the Mighty BLF we obsess about everything, $5 USB chargers, $10 “Tactical” flashlights, Salsa, Driving habits, Vitamins, Movies, Star Trek anything,
Ya know, Tha’ important Sheet :slight_smile:

Yes, but not smart light bulbs.

Smart light bulbs can die.

High quality high CRI light bulbs that are dumb are the way :slight_smile:

Is that the main downside of colour smart bulbs? That they can die?

I am fairly nutty about 219b 4500K’s rosy tint :slight_smile: , but that is NOT necessarily what I would like for house lights. That rosy tint has beautiful and accurate color rendition but note that it’s really more magenta IMHO than rosy, well to my eyes anyway. It’s not for everyone, for example it would be stressful for me with continuous long exposure (as expected of house lights). Personally a warmer more golden color is what I prefer. All the light bulbs for my home are “soft white” class, nothing fancy. The closer to the old incandescent bulb’s color, the better for me.

If you don’t have any Nichia light yet, I would recommend you get a couple lights first, for example Convoy Nichia 219b 4500K (rosy magenta) and Nichia 519a 4500K (golden yellow), and see the difference for yourself. Those are two great starter lights for this hobby. IMHO and hope this helps.

Been running my smart bulbs for 2+ years. It’s around 2800k in my house. No issues yet and I can turn them green to remind me what I’m missing lol.

Do Nichia make any home lights? Like a E21a you can put in a ceiling light?

What even are the options for high CRI home lights?

One thing I don’t understand is why the Philips Hue colour light bulbs come with a CRI rating? Most of them seem to be rated CRI of 85. Surely the CRI is dependent on the colour of the light being emitted, so if the light colour is variable, the CRI should be variable?

Humans have always had 100 CRI light. Before and after electricity. It’s only in the last few decades that some people have been dealing with fluorescent and LEDs with lower CRI. For anybody buying bulbs that understands the issue I don’t understand why they would go with other than a high CRI bulb.

I used to use a LIFX smart bulb in my room, but the CRI left a lot to be desired. I now have 2 Waveform Lighting bulbs (one 3000K, one 4000K) and a Yuji bulb (5000K).

They aren’t cheap, especially the Yuji, but then again, I’ve spent more on flashlights. They’re worth it to me.