I realized I have some old hue bulbs laying around, and they’re working well enough with my Zigbee controller (no bridge), but if I decide to scale up I definitely don’t want to pay the Hue premium.
Anyone have a Zigbee bulb brand they recommend? I hear Third Reality is nice?
Ikea’s smart bulbs are compatible without much effort (Home Assistant running Zigbee2MQTT). Much cheaper and widely available year round, only downside I’ve seen is the temperature range isn’t nearly as impressive as the white ambiance Hue bulbs.
I just want to add that the Hue bulbs are also compatible to Home Assistant. (I’m currently using it with the ‘default’ ZHA which doesn’t work with some China sensors and actors. AfaIk, Zigbe2MQTT would do.)
OP said they don’t want to pay for Hue.
I assume they mean they won’t pay for a Hue Zigbee bridge, a relatively closed eco system, (and some cloud subscription or whatever they mean with Hue Premium) and new (expensive) Hue bulbs, but they already have Hue bulbs in use in an ad-hoc mode with a Zigbee controller.
I’ve got several Hue bulbs running through Zigbee2MQTT on HA.
No issues, easy setup, and annoyingly expensive but they have the temperature range my wife prefers.
I also consider switching to Zigbe2MQTT one day.