This was posted 2 years 4 months 14 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Nanoleaf Essentials Smart Bulb $27.50 (Max 5 Per Customer) + Delivery ($0 with Prime/ $39 Spend) @ Amazon AU

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These came down in price around the time of the recent JB Hi-Fi deal. Fantastic with HomeKit, even better if you have a HomePod Mini/ATV4K or other Thread border router.

~~5 PP limit isn't stated, but Amazon blocked me from ordering a 6th E27 - YMMV?

E27 bulb
B22 bulb~~ EDIT 2021-11-16: Amazon prices back to $39. Bunnings deal below still active!

Bunnings Warehouse: E27 bulb, B22 bulb.

EDIT: Should be possible to price beat at OW to get down to ~$26.13/bulb: E27 bulb, B22 bulb

EDIT 2: Amazon is up to $34.60 E27/$39 B22 - nice job OzB ;)

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

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  • These any good?

    • Good enough for me to check if there were any more deals and post this as my first when I saw there weren't!

  • Your move, LifX or Hue….

    • I find the colour bulbs quite gimmicky. Grabbed a bunch of the $15 lifx day dusk ones and pretty happy with those.

      • +1

        True you don’t normally light up a room entirely in blue or Red.
        However I have a HA scene that runs downlights in warm white but has cycling colour changing bulbs for extra atmosphere.
        Maybe also works for IFTTT where you have a red light if door sensor opens?

      • +2

        Of course. If you don't like colour, then it's a waste. Dimmable and colour-temp-choosing white is plenty for most people.

        It may seem bland to turn a room purple, but if you have a couple bulbs and you set them all to pastel colour related colours (the apps have 'themes' built in), this is leaps and bounds cooler than a flat bright colour, and can really help with the ambiance. Relaxing, hosting parties, time-for-bed routine, etc.

        • You can also share scenes through the Nanoleaf app, which means you can have a colour-changing scene spread across several devices.

          The whites are also great in terms of brightness, colours less so.

  • +3

    Keep in mind these are BT or Thread compatible. NOT wifi.

    So in order to use them when away from home, you need one of these Thread border router: Apple HomePod mini, Apple TV 4K (2nd generation), Nanoleaf Shapes Controller, Nanoleaf Lines, Nanoleaf Elements Controller, Apple HomePod mini eero pro, eero beacon, eero Pro 6, eero

    • They are controllable remotely without Thread through Google Home, assuming you have a Nest Mini/Wifi point etc. within BT range of the bulb. But I found GH integration unreliable.

      • Sound like a dud design then. I expect these will get thrown into the obsolete bin in no time and got written off to a few buck. If I were you I'd rather spend the money on tp-link kasa for the price, unless paying by price protection credit card.

        • +1

          The whole point of this Essentials bulb line was a low-cost Thread-compatible item. As long as other manufacturers hop onto Thread, it'll be great.

          But, relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/

        • Not really. The Thread stuff is great and more and more devices are becoming Thread border routers - Eero routers are available now, Google Nest is coming soon (maybe). Thread being a core component of Matter means that it's unlikely these are getting written off any time soon.

          Kasa bulbs seem fine but I'm not a big fan of WiFi bulbs if you're using more than a few.

  • Smart home noob question: What are the main differences between the expensive and cheap smart lightbulbs? Apart from wifi vs zigbee, Is it mainly down to software?

    • +2

      These are ~800 lumen bulbs, which is plenty for most areas. Hue and LIFX have 1100 lumen colour bulbs. Hue has 1300 lumen white-only bulbs.

      The brands vary on 'colour quality'. Hue has the best whites. LIFX has the best/brightest colours.

      Software is an issue too, yes. However I suppose if you want to put them into Google Home or Apple HomeKit, then you're not gonna be using the manufacturer apps on a day to day basis. HomeKit wants some 'extra security measures' and this is more expensive, so all kinds of cheap smart bulbs will support google home but not homekit.

      The connecting tech does make a massive difference once you start getting a bunch of bulbs/devices in. Thread is supposedly the best. Zigbee is awesome. Wifi, you need solid connection if you're getting into double-digit device numbers.

    • +1

      This is something that I spent a few weeks researching before settling on the Nanoleaf stuff myself. Context: I have a bunch of Apple stuff, with Google Wifi/Nest Mini speakers. So Alexa integration wasn't needed, but GH or HomeKit was.

      To start with, I grabbed a cheap Laser WiFi smart bulb to see if that was any good (paid $12, currently $8 at Big W and found that the app control is essentially useless. Unintuitive, to put it kindly. Apparently these Tuya lights are all a bit how ya goin, will get the job done but won't offer any fancy lighting controls, WiFi only means you won't want to fill your whole house with them. A lot of people also have issues connecting to them due to the need to be on the 2.4GHz network when doing so. Also: not very bright.

      I tried scoping out any Hue deals, because Hue tends to be the best-regarded. No dice. I'd be looking at ~$200 for a starter kit with colours, and ~$100 at best for a bridge with 2 lights (likely more). I didn't really want to go for any other WiFi bulbs, and the IKEA ones seem to get mixed reviews.

      So I settled on these - I found that they worked fine with GH, better with HomeKit, and even better once I got a HomePod Mini for a border router.

      Also, on tech:
      * Zigbee is used by Hue, as well as IKEA and some others. It's great at managing traffic (no direct WiFi competition, all gear meshed with a single connection to the network) but you need a specific bridge to connect the network. The Hue Bridge needs to be hardwired to ethernet, not ideal for me with a Google Nest Wifi with one port.
      * WiFi is easy to configure (apart from the 2.4GHz bit) but will clog your network if you add a ton of devices. LIFX seem to be the best of these ($$$ though). I've heard of reliability issues, devices dropping out etc. However, WiFi will be part of the Matter standard going forward, along with…
      * Thread. This seems to be the best of all worlds - one device as a border router (not a bridge only), all devices mesh, low energy, and will be a core part of the Matter standard.

      Also, depending on whether you use HomeKit/Google Home/Alexa (or anything else like Home Assistant etc) you'll have a different level of compatibility. Tricky landscape to navigate.

      Hope that… somewhat answers your question, lol

      • I am not convinced that Nanoleaf essentials ( or any thread device) is the way to go…

        I really like the Canvas and I suspect the bulb will be good quality and work well with the app however,

        I have weather station and temp monitoring on 433MHz
        Zwave devices on 915 MHz
        Zigbee devices on 2.4 GHz
        IOT Wi-Fi devices on 2.4 GHz ( approx 50 devices)

        I don't think adding thread to already crowded 2.4GHz spectrum is a good plan… but I guess the big players have this figured out? Or maybe they don't and there will be reception issues unless you get deep in the weeds and plan out spectrum usage and channel allocations….. probably a step too far for most users…

        Thread is good idea and it is nice to save power especially for battery devices, but this is a always on light bulb, why wouldn't it just go onto a Wi-Fi network?

        • +1

          I had a more detailed reply typed up and accidentally closed the browser window, but basically:
          * Thread uses the same parts of the 2.4GHz spectrum as Zigbee as it's built on the same standard.
          * Zigbee/Thread use 2.4GHz spectrum in a different way to WiFi - Zigbee/Thread use narrower (2MHz) non-overlapping channels, WiFi uses 20/22Mhz channels which overlap (and therefore cause noise in adjacent parts of the spectrum). WiFi devices interfere with Zigbee/Thread devices more than the other way around.
          * Zigbee/Thread are mesh, WiFi devices need to connect to a router directly. WiFi also has higher power req's, and generally seems to be a dog's breakfast in terms of speed and reliability compared to Zigbee/Thread - my Thread devices respond instantly, WiFi lags a tad. Plenty of horror stories about even high-quality WiFi stuff randomly disconnecting. (This might be more of an issue if you have 50 devices…)
          * Zigbee needs a dedicated hub to connect devices to the internet, whereas Thread allows devices to connect to the internet directly as long as there is at least one Thread border router in the network. Something about IPv6?
          * Zigbee Alliance, Amazon/Apple/Google etc. are backing Thread, so likelihood of future support and compatibility for the technology seems high.

          I'm not an engineer so take all of the above with a grain of salt, but it was good enough for me. That said, I don't think anyone's sending me free lightbulbs as a commission for spruiking the tech, so if I've got that wrong I'm all ears.

  • If connecting to this bulb via bluetooth (I don't have a thread router), does the nanoleaf app have a schedule option to turn on the bulb during dusk hours only?

    • +1

      From the manual:

      Schedules
      Coming soon: Automate your Bulb to turn on or off. Currently, scheduling can be done through HomeKit with a Home Hub available (over Bluetooth or Thread) or through Google Home.

      If you have an iPad for a HomeKit hub or anything Google Home within BT range, it should work in those apps - can verify it worked with an iPad on HomeKit. Can't be done within the Nanoleaf app though.

      • I don't have The homekit… But what do you mean by Google home? I do have a Google home mini. Would this provide better connectivity?

        • Google Nest Mini will be able to set them up with Seamless Setup. It won't provide Thread connectivity but can control lights if they're in Bluetooth range of the Mini, not as responsive as Thread but usable.

          Google Nest Hub Max/Nest Hub 2nd Gen/Nest WiFi support is coming soon, according to the list of border routers. If you don't have or want any of those border routers, I probably wouldn't go for these right now though.

  • -1

    More BT and Tuya crap.

    Just grab some 15watt "1400lm" (to be confirmed) pre-flashed tasmota bulbs from ali. Singles are about $24 inc post and tax. 4pk $72

    I'm gunna grab a couple of cheap zigbee bulbs from fleabay to act as extenders for some sensors.

    • It's not Tuya, and it uses Thread if you have a border router. Only uses BT if you don't have one.

      Those bulbs look pretty nifty for WiFi though - keen to hear how these go. Any reviews?

      • +1

        Yeah just over Tuya in general, E27 bulbs are time consuming to flash to tasmota. Thread looks to be the next big thing, ill wait for the tech to be more widespread and mature. Ordered a couple days ago, ill message you when i receive them.

        • Entirely fair. I got a Tuya E14 (Laser), looked into HomeBridge/HA ways to manage it, and decided to just leave it on a colourful scene and switch it with a smart plug instead. Got enough hobbies without getting into flashing my bulbs… although I'm still tempted to one day upgrade my IKEA Ledberg to something fancier.

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