How to set up and use the Philips Ringtone Starter Kit

First introduced in 2012, Philips Hue was one of the first smart home products to hit the market.

If you're new to smart lighting or smart home life in general, you've come to the right place. In this article, you will learn more about the Philips Hue lighting system and the products currently available from the company. From there, you'll get a better idea of ​​how to set up a Philips Hue starter kit.

Finally, you will learn more about what you can do with the Philips Hue lighting system and the problems that can arise when using it. Here's what you'll learn in this guide:

• Shop Philips Hue Bulbs
• Installing your Philips Hue Starter Kit
• Automating Your Philips Hue Lights
• Using the Philips Hue Starter Kit with third-party devices
• Troubleshooting your Philips Hue Starter Kit

Buy Philips Hue Bulbs

As of early 2018, Philips Hue offers three different product lines based on the number of colors the bulbs emit. The line includes white and colored ambiance, white ambiance and white bulbs in various sizes.

White and colored lights are the most feature-rich products currently offered by the company. With these types of bulbs, you can choose from 16 million colors to instantly change the look and atmosphere of any room in your home. But, having so many color options comes at a price. White and colored lights are the most expensive type of lights from Philips Hue.

Mid-priced ambient white bulbs, by contrast, are limited to different shades of white. These bulbs are ideal for those who want to adjust the brightness of a room based on the time of day.

Finally, Philips Hue white lights are the company's cheapest product and are similar to the single-color incandescent bulbs of yesteryear. With these lights, you get a color that you can dim in various brightness levels.

Things to consider before buying a Philips Hue Starter Kit

To bring Philips Hue lighting into your home, you'll need to purchase a starter kit. These packs come with four starter bulbs and a bridge that you'll need to connect to your home Wi-Fi connection. Once you connect this jumper, you can add up to 50 bulbs to your overall setup.

Over the bridge

The Philips Hue bridge is considered the heart of the system. Connected to Wi-Fi through your router, it connects your system to the outside world via the Internet for out-of-home control and other smart features.

In 2015, Philips Hue started to introduce smart lighting products compatible with Apple HomeKit. Philips Hue works with HomeKit:How to get the most out of it Philips Hue works with HomeKit:How to get the most out of it Philips has finally managed to integrate HomeKit into its Hue lighting platform, and it's amazing. This is what you need to know. Read more . In doing so, the company released a second-generation square bridge. This device replaced the first generation circular bridge that came with previous starter kits. When shopping for a starter kit, make sure you buy one with the square bridge, not a circular one. Otherwise, the system will not work with Apple HomeKit.

Which starter kit should you buy? That depends on your answers to three critical questions.

What size bulbs do you need?

By definition, you determine the size of a light bulb by measuring its diameter. Each size is expressed in 1/8-inch or one-millimeter increments, depending on where you live. For example, an A-19 light bulb is 19-eighths of an inch or 2-3/8 inches in diameter. In metric, this is the E26 bulb because it has a diameter of 26mm.

If these measurements confuse you a bit, don't do it. When it comes to smart home lighting products, the options are still somewhat limited.

In the United States, A-19 or E26 is the size of most light bulbs. This light features a "medium" or "standard" base. You'll also see E26 bulbs in a BR30 form factor. These are often described as flood lights or downlights and are perfect for recessed can fixtures.

You'll also come across E-14 "chandelier" smart lights. These are smaller lights that Philips Hue first brought to the market in 2017.

Beyond this, you will also see special smart lighting products on the market. These include LED strips, all-in-one lamps, and more.

What is your budget?

One of the reasons people switch to smart lighting products is to have the ability to change bulb colors on the fly. Therefore, the first purchase is often for a starter kit with these types of bulbs included. However, as you learned earlier, Philips Hue white and colored lights are the most expensive on the market. Therefore, from a budget perspective, your starter kit may only include white settings or white light bulbs which are less expensive.

But do not worry. Once you install a Philips Hue starter kit, it doesn't matter what type of bulbs you select below. For example, you can buy the cheapest starter kit and then start adding white and colored mood lights as your budget allows. Conversely, you can start with the more expensive bulbs in the starter kit, then add less expensive white bulbs elsewhere in your home.

Why do you want to buy smart lights?

There are many benefits to using smart lighting products in your home, which you will learn more about here. Generally speaking, the most important reasons to use smart light bulbs is automation and to be more energy efficient. If these two goals don't appeal to you, chances are high, you won't benefit from buying smart lighting products. Instead, you should probably stick with LED bulbs.

Philips Hue Starter Kit recommended options

At the time of this writing, the Philips Hue website sells three starter kits, each containing four E26 bulbs (either white and ambient coloured, white or white) and a bridge.

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 60W Equivalent LED Smart Bulb Starter Kit (4 A19 Bulbs and 1 Hub Compatible with Amazon Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 60W Equivalent LED Smart Bulb Starter Kit (4 A19 Bulbs and 1 Hub Compatible with Amazon Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) 1 Hub Compatible with Amazon Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) Buy now on Amazon $171.77 Philips Hue White Ambiance Smart Light Bulb Starter Kit (4 A19 bulbs and 1 Hub works with Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) Light Bulb Starter Kit Philips Hue White Ambiance Smart Light Bulb (4 A19 White Bulbs and 1 Hub works with Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) Buy Now on Amazon $141.00 Philips Hue White A19 60W Equivalent Smart LED Home Light Bulb (4 A19 White Bulbs and 1 Hub Compatible with Amazon Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) Philips Hue White A19 60W Equivalent LED Smart Bulb Starter Kit (4 A19 White Bulbs and 1 Hub Compatible with Amazon Alexa Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant) C Buy Now On Amazon $99.97

For some, buying four bulbs at once may be overkill. Fortunately, Philips Hue starter kits will have fewer bulbs at retailers like Amazon.com and Best Buy. These kits typically include two bulbs, not four, and are sometimes available in sizes other than E26.

These smaller kits are ideal for those looking to save some money, have a smaller home, or are new to smart home living.

Installing your Philips Hue Lights

To connect your Philips Hue starter kit, follow these instructions.

Hardware installation for Philips Hue

First, screw your new bulbs into your existing light fixtures and make sure to turn on the wall light switches. Then plug in your jumper, and it will turn on automatically. Connect it to your Wi-Fi router using the provided cable. Wait for all three lights on the bridge to turn on.

Yes, from a hardware perspective, installing Philips Hue lights is that simple.

Then download the Philips Hue app from the App Store or Google Play Store. In the app, you will be prompted to connect to the bridge and find your lights. Make sure your smartphone is connected to the same network as the bridge, otherwise the app won't be able to find your light bulbs.

Software installation for Philips Hue

After you've installed your Philips Hue starter kit, you'll want to see everything you can do with your system. Not surprisingly, this step depends on the type of bulbs you use.

Before going any further, note that for home operation, your mobile device must be connected to the same Wi-Fi router as your Hue bridge to control your lights. To control your lights outside your home, your Wi-Fi and Philips Hue must be operational and connected to the Internet.

In addition, you will need to set up a free account on the Philips Hue online portal, My Hue, located at meethue.com. You can also create your account through the Philips Hue app (iOS | Android) in the Explore tab.

Automating Your Philips Hue Lights

The Philips Hue lighting system offers some brilliant features, including:

Create rooms

Over time, you'll probably want to expand your lighting system to more rooms. While you're at it, you'll want to group your lights into different rooms in the Philips Hue app. By doing so, you can control the lights based on where they are in your home. You can control these lights individually, or as a group.

Quick control and scenes

If you prefer to start slow and not involve other companies, you should consider Philips Hue's quick control feature. With this, you can use the app to turn lights on/off, dim, and even change the color of all the lights in a room with a simple tap.

Once you feel comfortable doing this, consider the Scene feature, which allows you to change the color of your room using a recommended color palette. You can also create favorite scenes using an image or simply by selecting the intensity of each light.

Personal routines

We are all creatures of habit and typically follow routines. Philips understands this, which is the reason behind Philips Hue's personal routines feature.

Thanks to this feature, you can have your lights automatically adjust based on the time and day and whether you're home. With the Home and Away routine, Philips Hue uses your smartphone's geolocation to turn your lights off when you're away and back on when you return home.

You can also have your lights gradually wake you up in the morning or put you to sleep at night thanks to the bedtime routine.

Other ways to control

The Philips Hue lighting system can't just be controlled via an app. You can also adjust your lights using widgets on both Android and iOS. These widgets provide easy access to your lights even when your phone is locked.

Do you have an Apple Watch? In fact, you can also control your lights from your wrist.

Finally, there are plenty of third-party apps that can help you achieve an even more personalized lighting experience. 8 Great Apps for Philips Hue Lights 8 Great Apps for Philips Hue Lights The Philips Hue system has its own app, but why settle for the default when there are so many cooler options out there? These 8 apps give you fabulous options for some really cool effects. Read more . These apps offer cool effects and, in some cases, let you sync up with your favorite songs to create musical light shows.

Using Philips Hue with third-party devices

One of the reasons Philips Hue remains a popular choice among smart home owners is the Friends of Hue partnership. Through this initiative, third parties can work with Philips to develop new ways for customers to control their Philips Hue lighting system.

Using Philips Hue with Amazon Alexa

For example, you can now control your lights with your voice. The best Amazon Alexa voice commands for Phillips Hue. The best Amazon Alexa voice commands for Phillips Hue. . Read More

Amazon Alexa remains the most popular voice assistant service on the planet. Once you link your Philips Hue and Amazon accounts with the official Alexa app, you can use voice commands to further automate your home.

As Hue Home Lighting explains, you can change the colors of Hue bulbs or rooms using commands like:

• “Alexa, Turn on/off specific light or echo room or group”
• “Alexa, set light to 50%”
• “Alexa, make my room light green.”
• “Alexa, turn the room light to orange,” or “Alexa, warm the room,”
• “Alexa, light room to 60 percent”, or “Alexa, dim room lights”
• “Alexa, room turns on fifty” or “Alexa, room turns on fifty percent”
• “Alexa turn on the tomato lights” - a nice pink color.
• “Alexa turn on the lights peru” - good champagne color at home.
• “Alexa turn on fire thief lights” - A dark red warm color scene
• “Alexa turn on the lights LightSalmon” - A warm light rosy pink color.
• “Alexa turns on dark khaki lights” - A dark green color.

Looking for more things to do with Alexa and Philips Hue? Try things like:

• Change the color temperature of the lights:“Alexa, make the room lights a little warmer.”
• Adjust temperature:“Alexa, raise temperature by degree.”
• Set temperature:“Alexa, set the temperature to x.”
• Lock the doors:“Alexa, lock my back door.”

Using Philips Hue with IFTTT

To automate your Philips Hue lighting system, consider using IFTTT 6 Philips Hue Automation You Need Now 6 Philips Hue Automation You Need Now Have you installed your Philips Hue lights and aren't sure what to do next? Here are some handy (and easy) automations to get you started. Read More

Some of my favorite IFTTT-Philips Hue applets include the following:

• Applets like “If it starts to rain, change the light colors to blue.” it will adjust the color of your lights if something happens, like a change in the weather or a drop in temperature. There are similar applets with a much less practical purpose, like the ones that will change the color of your lights when your favorite sports team scores or wins a game.
• An applet like “Automatically turn on your lights when you get home” uses the position of your smartphone to determine your location. By doing so, when you are close to being home, the lights will turn on automatically. Similar applets will turn off the lights when you leave your home location.
• To save power, other applets will turn lights on/off at dusk and dawn.
• Finally, “Turn your lights on/off with a single touch on your phone” It is one of the most basic applets recreated. Use it to turn lights on/off with a simple tap on your phone.

There are new Friends of Hue associations announced each year. For the latest, be sure to visit the official Meet Hue website.

Troubleshooting your Philips Hue Lights

For all its benefits, the Philips Hue lighting system has some drawbacks.

What happened to the internet??

The internet in your home may occasionally lose its connection. When this happens, you can't control the lights with your phone or voice. The same thing happens when your smartphone requires charging.

On the plus side:Philips Hue lights will work with the wall switch even if the internet is down.

A lightbulb comes out

Smart light bulbs should last up to 25 years, depending on the number of hours you use them per day. If you notice a bulb going out, you should first turn the bulb off at the switch and try again. If that doesn't work, unscrew the bulb from its base.

Still have a problem? Shake the bulb and see if you hear anything moving. If you do, there is likely something permanent with the bulb.

You can't control your light bulbs

If all your lights are working, but you can't control them with your smart device, you first need to make sure your home Wi-Fi is working. If your connection is fine and you still have problems, unplug the Philips Hue Bridge and turn it off. Please restart the device and try again.

If in doubt, do a factory reset

If the steps above don't work, your best option might be to force a factory reset on the Hue bridge. A reset erases all your lights and scenes; You will have to turn the lights back on from scratch.

To reset your Philips Hue bridge, press and hold the “Restore Factory Settings” button on the back of the device for a few seconds. Then go back to the Philips Hue app and start the process again.

Philips Hue setup complete

The Philips Hue lighting system remains one of the most popular and easy to set up smart home products on the market. If you're looking to join the smart home movement for the first time, it's a good place to start if you want to add a smart light bulb to your home or 50.

The bottom line:have fun and enjoy!