Hive Lights Dimmable B22 Bayonet Smart Bulb, Works with Amazon Alexa, 9 W [Energy Class A+]
 |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screw/Bayonet | Bayonet | Bayonet | Bayonet | Bayonet |
| Colour of Light | Warm White | 16 Million different colours | Cool Blue to Warm White | Warm White |
| App Compatible | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wattage (W) | 9 | 9.5 | 9 | 9 |
| Lamp Life | 25,000 hours to L70 | 25,000 hours to L70 | 25,000 hours to L70 | 25,000 hours to L70 |
| Beam Angle | 240° | 240° | 240° | 240° |
| Includes: | 1 x Dimmable B22 Bulb | 1 x Colour Changing B22 Bulb | 1 x Cool to Warm White B22 Bulb | 2 x B22 Dimmable bulb and 1 Smart Hub |
| Weight: | 70 g |
| Dimensions: | 6 x 6 x 12 cm; 70 Grams |
| Brand: | Hive |
| Model: | HALIGHTDIMWWB22 |
| Part: | HALIGHTDIMWWB22 |
| Colour: | White |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Hive |
| Colour: | White |
| Dimensions: | 6 x 6 x 12 cm; 70 Grams |
| Quantity: | 1 |
Took me about 5 minutes to set up. Linked to hive first and then to my alexa. My 7 year old has it in his bedroom and can voice control it easily.
Plug in. Search via hive app. Run Alexa update. Done.
Easy to install does what it says on the tin.
The good thing is you can control from your normal light switch. You just need to remember if you want to control from the app or turn it to schedule, you need to first turn the switch on, this will then show it online. You can then control from your app. Great for when we are away. Schedule setup is easy. Love how yoh can dim to reduce energy
Works as expected. Not used with Alexa but with a different wifi system. It’s dimmable.
I already have the hive hub and a smart plug. I plugged the bulb in – went to the hive app… searched and found the bulb – renamed it and it work perfectly. My only critique is the dimmest could be dimmer. Reacts really well to audible cues for Alexa.
Really easy to inallah and use via the Hive App or Alexa
Does what it says on the box had a little problem trying to get it to work in the bedroom. However when I called the room master bedroom work fine
I previously bought a different bulb under the impression I could turn it on and off from my phone, it was rubbish and I sent it back. This bulb paired to my hive in a matter of seconds and now I can control my lighting through my hive app, it was so quick and easy to set up! I wish I had bought this first.
This works really well and if you already have the Hive hub the set up is super-easy. I have two of these, plus the Hive home surveillance and Hive home heating control. They all work perfectly without fail. They are not cheap but I got this one in the Amazon Black Friday sale, so it’s not too bad.
I have quite a few Hive Bulbs and Radiator Valves etc. The packaging and delivery from Amazon was excellent. This Hive Bulb was very easy to setup and install. You can adjust the colour from warm to cool via the Hive app. You can also dim or make the bulb brighter. You can set up schedules for different days of the week to switch on and off automatically. You can also group bulbs together so they come on or off together. You can also schedule them to come on and off randomly which is great for when you are out in the evening as it will give the impression someone is home. I have absolutely no negative comments for this product apart from it would be nice if it was cheaper! I would highly recommend this Hive Bulb. Buy with confidence. I hope you found this review helpful.
Used hive bulbs for a while and this performs exactly as expected – works perfectly with Alexa.
After struggling to try and install other cheaper smart bulbs, as I already had a Hive hub I tried this one. More expensive yes but so quick and easy to link to the Hive hub. Very quick and easy to link with Alexa too.
Very easy to setup, bought to extend my HIVE system, can say if it works with others systems.
Very easy to use and have had others for over 2 years and working fine still. A little pricey! But i want them to last very weary of cheaper alternatives.
Could do with being a bit brighter, fully dimmable with Alexa integration, simple to install using the hive app.
As I already have a Hive set-up it was very easy to install. Plug it in and use the Hive app to find it and that’s it. I set up a schedule when to come on and what brightness I needed and when to go off. I linked it to Alexa that took about 2minutes, job done
I find them a little expensive but pleased I can turn them on from my chair. Work very well
They do exactly as described. I have.now bought 4 of these they are brilliant for when I stay out later than expected
Found it very easy to install via the hive app. Alexa intergrated too-makes it a doubly good product. Fantastic product. Easily controls the lights in house in person or remotely. Great schedule to control remotely when not at home.
Love it.
Just pop into your light socket, turn on light and let your hive app scan for them, rename and everything can be done at the touch of a button. Alexa will turn them on and off for you. Has a on holiday mode to mix up on and off times to make it look like someone at home.
Think I have said it all, I think it’s a brilliant idea to be able to control your light with your Mobile device but I think they’re a little on the expensive side not many can afford in my case I be needing 8 to complete my home and it’s so expensive for people with a large house. I also have a problem in finding correct bulbs for my home like my wall lights takes bayonet candle. I am happy overall with the product.
Simple to install & integrate with Hive hub but expensive compared with alternatives
Hive bulbs are great for Alexa control..
They have a wide range of dimmable light..
They can be very bright and warm and go very low when dinned at 1% still giving off a warm glow..
Set these up with Alexa and set routines and voice commands and you will soon have them dimmed for movie time, bright for dinner time and slightly dimmed for reading time..
So just an important note.. if you don’t already have a HIVE HUB, you will need to get one to use these bulbs.. if you already have a hive heating system, you may or may not have a HUB, if not then you can use the same hub to control the lights and hive heating system, and this also means away from home via the app..
The only downside is the need for a hub and the price can be pricey.
But these do come up on offer, as do the HUB..
Up and running in under 5 mins where others failed to install. You cannot go wrong with Hive. They may not be the cheapest but pound for pound they are consistently the most reliable.
Works really well with the app and phone. Easy to install and setup schedules or use actions with, a little bit pricey if you don’t get them in the Black Friday sales like I did.
This is a great quality zigbee light bulb. Was much happier buying this than some of the unknown brands available.
I have it connected to zigbee2mqtt with a cheap CC2351 zigbee USB adapter.
The light is quite bright, I have it in my bathroom and its more than bright enough on maximum brightness. The colour of the light also looks quite natural.
When I got these I thought I would need a Hive plug to switch them off and on but no they worked right away and voice control with Alexa works a treat. I have no idea how they work but they are great.
I have set them with the multi timer and there is always a light on during the dark nights, in or out.
Great value and I will probably buy more.
Those who need this know what it is for. Good quality, brand and value.
Checking the zigbee2mqtt compatibility list online the Hive bulbs are listed, I decided to try one to integrate with my home assistant zigbee2mqtt setup, and it worked like a charm.
its quite a nice warm light, dimmer function works well, integrates with home assistant nicely, and is cheaper than a Philips hue bulb.
Overall very pleased I may purchase some more.
Just to clarify, I don’t have any other Hive items, nor any Hive hub, nor any Zigbee hub, just home assistant running zigbee2mqtt and a zigbee usb stick.
We were using lightwaverf for many years, however we found it buggy and at best a beta release, the latest software screwup by Lightwave made us reconsider our options. At the time we were looking at smart control of the system and on a whim I purchased the hive system, which worked faultlessly compared to Lightwaverf. As we had the hive hub I thought I would try out a couple of bulbs for our outside lights. Now the switch one of the is connected to is a tripe gang and just the lightwave switch would have been 150, coupled with the difficulties of switching low wattage led bulbs. So I bought the hive build from Amazon for 15, bargain of the century! It just works everytime, we have it connected to a few Alexa routines and at the correct time, bing, light comes on, and then when it’s time, bing, light goes off. We even have it so that when we come home they jump from 25% brightness to 100% brightness for 10 minutes. It’s flawless. We have since bought some more outdoor lights and they will all have hive bulbs in. We have gone with TPLINK for the plugs, and the LightwaveRF system that we paid in total over 2k for? Well it’s now where it belongs in the bottom of a very muddy skip.
Really impressed with this bulb. Got two for my lounge lights as wanted dimmer facility. Also wanted to be able to use voice control via Alexa. I have Hive heating and hub so seemed best option.
So easy to set up and link to the Hive App and then Alexa easily identified them.
Cost a bit more but ease of activation worth it.
I was apprehensive to buy these at first due to price, but they are extremely bright, easy to use on my phone and didn’t take much effort to set up. I’ve since bought a further three and they are perfect for all rooms.
We wanted to be able to dim various lights in the house and I looked at dimmer switches. The cost of these and my time to fit just didn’t add up compared to the cost of these bulbs and the ease in which they are set up. You do need the Hive hub first though which we already had. We are now using 4 round the house with Alexa and they work great offering a nice 10% brightness Minimum all the way up to full as you’d expect.
This is the second one I had bought as the first one does such a good job I cannot understand why I have not bought more of them before. I also like that I can control it through Alexa.
A bit surprised that this works no better than the cheaper types I have bough previously the only plus side is it integrates with my Hive Hub which was already installed in my heating system. My main issue is that when ever the power is cut for what ever reason the bulb defaults to on when power is restored. We had a power cut the other day at 1AM so the bulb came on when the power was back on, and illuminated our lounge until 7:30AM when we got up. Not so eco-friendly as they make out!
Great product but have found if you add them to other hive bulbs in the same room so that they can all come on or off as a group they all go off line which is a little annoying having to set them up again.
At full price of around 20 I always think these are overpriced for what they are. However, Amazon often seems to have them on offer for 12, and they’re well worth that:
– easy to install (turn on the light and go to the app)
– full brightness straightness
– dimmable
– works so easily with the Hive app
– works so well with Amazon Echo
I could not get the bulb detected through Alexa integration but I can from my Hive home hub which is a little annoying.
Easy to set up with the hive app, could be better set up with Alexa without needing a smart hub device particularly as other smart bulbs/plugs can.
Brightness is good equivalent to 60w and adjustable to a dim.
One negative, it can take a bit of fiddling to work if it’s been switched off and on from the main switch for it to pick up the signal again,
Love the fact I can turn the light on from anywhere when out for that safety deterrent.
As most smart devices could be cheape
I swapped my living room bulb for this so I could dim my lights because of chronic migraine. I got an Alexa dot at the same time so I could dim the lights with my eyes closed. It worked perfectly and was easy to set up as I already had a hive device.
These bulbs are great. Working alongside the hive hub, purchased separately, you can dim the light bulb. Add a motion detector and you can get the bulb to turn on, for an amount of time chosen by you. Also you can set the light bulbs to come on whilst your away. This can all be done from the hive app on your phone.
I changed to this from a hue, but don’t like as much as there isn’t a many choices of colour and it doesn’t dim as much. But it is ok and I like that it links to my hive account.
Excellent setup, not a fath to setup at all, installed them, logged into my hive app, added them, all done within 2 minutes, if that! Easily control my lights for when I am out to make out someone is in the house, once added onto the hive app it gives you the option to have them on a “mimic mode” between certain times that you set. Once I’m mimic mode the lights will go on and off periodically to make out as if someone is at home, and saves you logging onto the app to manually switch them on and off.
Overall – excelle
Normally way too expensive, but whilst reduced worth buying. Integrate seamlessly with Echo products, some issues with a Google device though.
Good brightness from the lights and fully dimmable.
I have a hive hub and had previously bought some cheap smart bulbs, the brand name which I won’t mention here. I couldn’t get them to install so I swallowed the expenditure and ordered these instead. I had them in and working in minutes, what a relief. I have set them up to go on and off on a schedule and they work perfectly. I also have some Amazon Echoes so I just ask Alexa to turn them on and off outside the schedule if I need it. Great products.
Prefer to multi colour ones but these are great to control from your phone or alexa. The mimic mode for when your on holiday makes it look like people are home. Great product when on offer.
We have a lot of Hive in our house now and they work flawlessly, despite reading about other peoples criticisms! Alexa integration is also great (provided you speak clearly and don’t give them technical names!)
One thing I would say is remember the light switches have to be in the “on” position as almost a power on function, so if you switch off accidentally, you won’t be able to voice command them on or off or use your phone. For this you would need smart switches I think, but I am used to this way of doing it now and it works great for us.
I purchased these bulbs in conjunction with an Amazon Echo Dot as I’ve recently had a hive hub and hive active heating fitted.
Well, I have to say they make life so much easier!
The bulbs can be turned on and off using the hive mobile app or by voice command via Alexa.
The brightness of the bulb can also be adjusted effectively giving them the same abilities as a dimmer switch.
Great when arriving home in the dark as the hunt for a light switch is no more!
Love how easy it is to turn the light on/off. No more getting into bed and then thinking dame, no more fumbling around for the light switch. Dislikes, why are BC versions more expensive. Maybe the app (Alexa) but doesn’t always work, sometimes have to repeat yourself 3 times. But mostly my biggest hate is the delay in turning on the light, operating a switch is instant, going “Alexa turn on kitchen light”, this takes several seconds, and not great if your carrying bags of shopping and your keys are in your teeth. Plus if you forget and turn the light off at the switch you can be going “turn on the lights” several times before you realise and use the switch. Especially if you have visitors, they just turn it all off. So these things you need to weight up as it is not cheap to kit out your home. Personally I think having the control in the light switch would be better and hence you could use either voice or switch, but I guess that would need an electrician to fit.
A fantastic smart bulb.
So easy to set up and control. The ability to set up a schedule on the hive app means it turns on just when you need and and can be dimmed for atmosphere or movie time & security. It’s so good we’ve bought another for the nursery.
Works great with “Alexa” giving you the ability to turn it on/off and dim via voice control.
One thing that the Hive ecosystem is missing is a light switch with dimming capability. The novelty of having to whip out your phone/iPad to control the lights can wear off quickly. Really, you are going to want voice control set up. On the other hand, you can obviously turn these off from a regular light switch (*not* a dimmer) and when you turn the switch back on, the bulb will come on, so even if none of your smart-home stuff is working, you can still turn on the lights. This has the downside that if there is an interruption to power, when power is restored the lights will come on and will remain on until they are turned off. Philips Hue bulbs used to do them same thing until – under pressure from users – Philips released a software update which made this behaviour configurable. There is (currently) no such option with the Hive bulbs.
Be aware that these are completely proprietary to Hive: you can’t use them with the popular Philips Hue or Ikea controllers. If you don’t already have a Hive controller for central heating, don’t get one just to control these lights. The bulbs are also very expensive compared to some of the quality alternatives, so if you are thinking of embarking on a large-scale move to smart lighting, it might be better to go for a more “open” Zigbee-based system. On the other hand, for just a few bulbs where you already have the Hive, they are great.
Also check out the (more expensive) version that is both dimmable and lets you control the colour-temperature of the light: they are also excellent and work very well.
I use this in the porch. Its so bright we have at 1% power and thats plenty (or we would compete with the street lights!)
Its easy to schedule it, I have it linked to Alexa and the huve app means I can turn it on from my apple watch if Im coming home late (far increases the odds of getting the key in the lock!)
Much better than Philips Hur as you dont need the bridge.
I love my hive bulbs. I can’t comment on how long they last yet, but they are easy to install and set up with both the hive app and the Alexa app for use with the echo devices. It’s great asking Alexa to turn on/off and dim the lights. Just need to remember to leave the light switch at the on position else they won’t work. Setting an on/off schedule is handy too, particularly if you are away from home but want the house to look occupied.
Works well with existing Hive hub, app and account. Easy to set up if you already have all these.
I’ve used this bulb as an front door light (under cover), and have it set up to come on automatically at sunset, and at set times in the morning. So clever.
Surprisingly bright – I doubt I’ll ever use it at 100% brightness. Dimmed to 50% in the mornings at 70% in the evenings.
-mobailey
I bought these for a relatives who has trouble switching on and off light switches due to a disability we have a number of them around the home. to switch them on and off all he has to do is give the instruction and as a safety back up they can be accessed remotely as well. is very easy to install but when I did have any issues getting through to the hive support line was pretty easy.
Before I go any further with this review, I just want to make this very clear, unless you have a Hive hub (usually installed when you have Hive heating installed – but available separately), you cannot work the light bulbs, they cannot function in isolation. The same is true of many other makes of smart light bulbs, they need their respective hubs to function, so if you do not have Hive, or are not thinking of having it installed, this is not the light bulb for you.
They appear just like normal light bulbs, you switch them on & off with the wall switch. What makes them smart, is their features beyond that. You can program them to switch on/off on a routine whilst on holiday (Mimic – in the app), to provide an impression that the premises are occupied. You can switch them on/off remotely via the app if you are at home, or away from home. The two bulbs in my livingroom are on the same switch, so both come on at the same time. We wanted individual control, so we switch the lights on, then turn one off or down in the app. This stops glare on the TV, but allows the room to be lit perfectly well for evening TV viewing.
The bulbs are dimmable and I initially thought that this was because they were intended for use with a dimmer switch. This is not the case, they cannot be used with a dimmer switch, they flicker and make noise when dimmed with a dimmer switch. I had the switch replaced for a conventional one and the bulbs work perfectly and can be dimmed via the app.
Hive can be linked to Alexa and the bulbs can be controlled using your voice, such as “Alexa, Study light to 50%”. This is great, but make sure you give your bulbs meaningful names as you add each one in the Hive app, or you will be trying to recall which room “Bulb2” is in! You can also control the bulbs via the Alexa app and include them in routines, which allows great Alexa integration.
My review revolves around my personal experience with Hive bulbs. I have had the bulbs a year, so I have only given 4 stars for durability, as I cannot tell how long they will last. I hope they will perform well for many years to come and will be deserving of 5 stars for durability.
I’ve had this happen with previous Hive bulbs – the hub simply won’t recognise it.
I tried all the normal things that may work when Hive goes weird – and it does go weird, so it is good to have a range of CPR solutions.
I finally tried the reset option – switch the bulb on and off 6 times. The bulb then flashes to show it is ready to be recognised.
However, that still didn’t work so eventually I phoned the help number (the chat option on the app played dead and recommended that). People at Hive very helpful as always, and he went through all the same things as I had, with no effect, then he suggested trying switching the bulb on and off EIGHT times (something that’s not documented). That didn’t work, so he remotely rebooted the hub and messed about bit more, and then it worked.
The bulbs are great as long as they work, as is the Hive system. It does need tinkering from time to time though.
I’ve added the eight times on/off option to my solutions when a bulb has issues.
First the positives:
They work well.
They’re bright
They can be programmed through hive and set to different lighting levels.
They can be linked with other devices like sensors.
They work with Alexa.
Now the negatives:
They’re a little pricey for what is essentially a wifi bulb.
They don’t always work together or come on at the same time when activated.
The sensor you can link them with overrides your manual setting ie If I have them programmed to come on with a sensor for 30 seconds after midnight at 10% but then ask Alexa to turn them on at 100%, they do but turn down to 10% when the sensor picks you up. I’d like to leave them on at whatever setting I told Alexa until I tell it to turn them off, at which point the sensor should resume control of them.
I bought two of these bulbs in the Black Friday sale and I love them! I am disabled and often struggle to put the heating on. My son won’t sleep without a light on and it stays on all night because it’s too hard for me to go and switch it off every night when he finally falls asleep. These bulbs have made it so much easier to control the lights and the hive set up means I can put the heating on from upstairs when I’m unwell rather than have to wait for someone to come home and do it. Highly recommended. These bulbs are also dinmable which is controlled via the app. Brilliant!
Having had a new boiler installed, with a Hive Active thermostat and a Hive hub, I was keen to explore the advantages of a smart home. As a first step, I purchase one of these bulbs. I have since purchased three more and am looking at other devices such as downlights motion sensors and cameras.
Installation was simple, plug in the light and tell the Hive app to search for it, which takes about twenty seconds. Once found, it can be given a new name to identify its position. You can then turn it on and off, or increase the brightness from zero to one hundred percent in 10 percent increments. You can also set up a schedule to automatically turn an individual light, or groups of lights on or off at varying intensities.
Lights can also be turned on in response to movement detected by motion sensors, which will be my next project.
By linking the Hive app to the Amazon Alexa app, all of the functions can be implemented by voice control from an Echo device such as the Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen) – Smart Speaker with Alexa – Black .
I’ve had these bulbs (screw & bayonet) for just over a year and I really like them, using the app you can set timer to turn off or on, dim or brighten it to your liking and integrate/link it to other devices in the Hive ecosystem ie link it door sensors so it turns on when a door is opened. The light itself is fairly bright and is quite warm.
I’m reluctant to give it 5 stars because a few things let it down in my opinion. For one, unlike the Philips Hue there are currently no switches available on the market to turn on or off the lights, you either have to use the app or a voice assistant like Google or Alexa to control the bulb. I can see how this could be annoying and inconvenient for many people. This bulb (and the Hive ecosystem as a whole) locks you in to their own devices (and the time of writing this only allows you to integrate it with & link to Philips Hue lights), unlike the Philips Hue with can be used with many other smart devices from other brands.
I think you’d get a lot more value from these if you already have a Hive ecosystem or planning on getting one. If you are just after a smart bulb then I think there are better options out there that may be cheaper, don’t require a hub, integrates with other devices, has a better app or offers more features. Hope this Helps.
8 months old and still working. Good for security when out as can put lights on timer or in real time switch light on/off as required to increase realism. Sometimes hive app states light is on when it’s OFF but this happens infrequently so not really a huge problem. Bargain if purchased at around 15 inclusive of postage.
Great remote light, I connected it easily to the Hive at parents place. But as one reviewer said it turns on randomly.
I can control it from any where in the world on off on off. Timers are ok only get two sets of timers per day, 7 days a week. Manual control is good and the dimme
Great light which is the first addition to my Hive heating system.
The software on my phone quickly recognised the light and I’m now able to turn it on or off remotely or even dim it. I can also set a schedule for it to come on at various times of the day. This is great as I can now turn the light on for my dog if I’m going to be late home.
I will definitely be buying more of these lights to add to my system.
The only thing you need to remember, and this is obvious when you think about it, is to remind everyone not to switch it off with the wall switch as it needs constant power. Also, it always comes back on at 100% of the wall switch is used to turn it off and on.
Be interesting to see what the lifespan is. At 20 quid a go, you’d want it to last a good couple of years.
I installed Hive about a month ago and decided not to purchase the bulb at the same time due to price. But, after looking into it more and discovering that it’s life span is roughly 2.8 years I can understand the cost.
The bulb is excellent! It has dimmer functions too. I thought it being only 9w it wouldn’t be bright enough, but at its highest dimmer section it really is the brightest bulb I’ve used! I’ve played about with it and it’s 50% dimmer is best suited for brightness. Really, really good product.
Using the Hive smartphone app you can set up schedules for each individual bulb which is very useful when you are away to make the place look occupied, and these timings persist even if you make manual changes until the next timer period. If you don’t have an Echo then the control method is via the app, with a simple graphical control for on/off and dimming. There isn’t too much flexibility in terms of grouping the bulbs at the moment, though – however given that you can add window/door and motion detectors you can get creative with triggers.
The bulbs themselves are solidly made and have a quality feel about them. The light they produce is a pleasant warm white, and they are nice and bright when on full. They can be dimmed in increments of 5%.
You put the plug into a wall socket and leave the wall socket turned on, otherwise it will not work.
Then setup the device in the Hive application. I’ve created a group for my plugs as I’ve plugged in free standing lights into them.
Then let Alexa search for new devices and that’s it. You can set them up to work on a schedule or just ask Alexa to turn them on or off. By creating groups, I can turn on/off mulitple lights. There is a slight delay of about 1 second from asking Alexa to turn the lights off/on but that really isn’t an issue.
Works flawlessly.
Installation was easy! I just put the bulb in, turn on the light and added it to the Hive hub using the Hive app. Once that was done, I used the instructions on the Hive website to install it on Alexa. You do need the Hive hub, in order for it to work. The light emitted at 100% is nice and bright (thanking those people who answered my question on this before my purchase). It’s a soft white glow and you can turn it all the way down to 5% using the Hive app or voice command using the Alexa app. Also, you can set up a light schedule, or control lighting from home, using the Hive app, which is useful if you’re away on holiday and the house is empty. The price is really good, now it’s on sale, I was hesitant before, I’m hoping to get more before the price goes up again. A really good bit of tech.
My purpose for buying a smart bulb for the lounge was two fold; to be able to turn it off from the sofa (I often find myself far too comfy to want to get up) and to be able to dim it (a much easier solution for me than fitting a dimmer switch). I’m not particularly interested in the other aspects (such as schedules) and I didn’t feel there was much use for having multiple colours, hence why I went for the standard bulb.
For the lounge or bedroom I think this bulb is just fine, as the warm white is the colour I personally think is best for a room you want to feel homely, however for the kitchen or bathroom I’d probably go for the slightly more expensive bulb that can do bright white light.
Setting up the bulb was very straight forward (worth noting I already had the hub setup with the Hive heating). I simply fitted the bulb (as you would a normal bulb) and hit a button on the app to search for new devices. Within a minute it had found the device, I named it accordingly and it was good to go.
At full brightness the bulb is more than sufficient for properly lighting a room (even with a light shade) and the dimming works just as expected, with intervals of 10% to choose from (100% – 10%, 5% & off). I haven’t personally performed any scheduling with the bulbs so I can’t say for sure how well that works, however the interface for setting them up is nothing to complain about.
In my setup I do find there is around a one or two second delay for changes I submit via the app to actually happen with the bulb which isn’t a problem by any means, but it would be nice if it were a bit smoother.
Any visitors in your home who cannot control the bulb via your phone can still turn the light on/off via the light switch (It will come on at full brightness when done via the light switch), however note that if the light switch is off, the bulb cannot be controlled via the Hive app — the switch must be turned on. However, if this does happen, the Hive app wil quickly pick up that the bulb is back online after you flip the switch.
Overall the bulb does exactly what i bought for it without issue and it was certainly worth what I paid for it (~13 in the sale). I won’t be getting thse bulbs to scatter all round the house just yet — Maybe if Hive release a light switch that controls the Hive bulbs that fits over existing light switches I’d be more interested in putting Hive bulbs everywhere (similar to what Philips Hue have). For now, I’ll just be sticking with the one.
I bought 2 of these lights and have had no problems with them at all.
They are very easy to install as they are the exact same fitting as standard lights so take less than a minute to install, the only downside to these is you need the Hive Hub to be able to use them which is also quite expencive, i already had a hub as i had the hive heating installed for free when i got my boiler replaced.
The Hive app is good and easy to use, can switch these lights on and off even when not at home, or i can even dim them if i dont want them on fully.
The light brightness can be set at 11 different settings, between 5% and 100% brightness.
I would recommend this produc
Works OK, easy to set up, doesn’t like being switched off. The dimmer is fun and I can set it low if I get up early and want to find things but don’t want to wake my wife.
We’d looked at these before and rejected them because of the price. It’s still one hell of a price, even on Black Friday, so only four stars….
If you already have the Hive system installed at home, these bulbs and plugs are a good addition, but if you don’t have Hive these aren’t for you.
BULBS
They are the same size as “normal” light bulbs and come in bayonet and screw fittings, so make sure you choose the correct ones for your lamps. The bulbs are made of a plastic material rather than glass so they’re lightweight, and are fitted in the same way as you’d fit a standard bulb. You can obviously use them in table lamps, wall lights, ceiling lights etc. but they can only be used indoors according to the instructions. I have mine in coach-style lanterns in an enclosed porch.
Once installed, turn the power on and the bulb will flash as it searches for your Hive hub. Open the Hive app or website and hit Install Devices, select Add Another Device, and the system will search for new devices. Your bulb will appear after a few seconds. You can rename the bulb if you wish, for example I could name mine “porch”, and then in your Hive dashboard you can click the bulb to turn it on or off, as you can with your central heating, and you can also select a brightness setting as the bulbs are dimmable. The bulb operation can also be scheduled, and within the schedules you can also set a brightness level. They’re great in our porch as we can now have the bulbs automatically switching on in the evening, off at around midnight, and if we go out in the evening and are coming back late we can turn the lights on via the app so the driveway is illuminated.
One slight niggle is that there is no way to manually operate the bulbs without using the app. If for example you want to use them in a bedside lamp you will have to turn the lamp on and off via the app, as if you turn the lamp off via its power switch the bulbs will apparently “unpair” with Hive (according to comments I’ve read online, where people have said that after power cuts the bulbs just come back in “on” status as soon as the power returns), so in future a manual operation button or similar would be handy.
Yes they’re expensive, but as the bulbs use LEDs (they light up straight away – no slow warm-up) they will last for a long time. All in all we’re pretty pleased with the bulbs, but I wish they made them in different sizes and shapes as well, eg candle style.
PLUGS
These are essentially the same kind of thing as regular time plugs but in this case they’re controlled via Hive. Pairing is the same process as with the bulbs as described above, and is very simple. To use, simply plug your device – we use a few table lamps with ours – into the front of the Hive plug, turn the device on, and the schedule you set via Hive will turn the device on and off. As with other Hive products, you can manually override the schedule via the app or website, so if I wake up very early for work one morning and want to make a cup of tea, I can turn the kitchen lamp on via the Hive app rather than blunder downstairs in the dark and fumble around for the light switch. In addition, the top of the plug has a large, flat button which you can press to manually override the schedule from the plug itself, which is very convenient.
Easier to schedule than time plugs and easier to operate, these have been a boon for us. We think they’re great.