Alexa and the bastard lightbulbs

[fuckingalexa]

DH has recently fitted smart lightbulbs to our lounge and bedroom.

I fucking hate them. I just want to be able to switch the light on and you know, have light! But no, these apparently smart bulbs that are linked to Alexa mean me shouting across the room for her to turn them on. She may turn it on if she hears ok, or she may not. Then when she does, the last time it was on was clearly when one of the dc had turned it green so Im trying to see what I'm doing in a fucking green room. Tell her to change the colour and then adjust the brightness about twenty times before giving in and sitting in the pigging green room.
It would've been much easier to press the fucking switch.
Am I being unreasonable to want a normal light?!!

We have Philips Hue but you can buy a dimming switch for them for like £17. There is a wall "bracket" but you can also have to next to you like a remote.

I’ve got a couple and use the app on my phone more than Alexa to be honest... especially the colour changes but DD(10) loves the one in her room as she gets all snuggly then just tells Alexa to turn the light off and play her music to go to sleep......

Can't smart bulbs be used the normal way also. I know mine can, so I can turn them on and off at the wall as usual, but if you want Alexa to turn them on and off you keep the switch on.

I always turn mine on the old fashioned way then just use alexa to set the brightness level, then just end up switching g them off the old fashioned way xx

Lol. Change the bulbs to ones that aren’t colour changing.
Do the voice recognition with Alexa so that she knows your voice.
Why did DH buy colour changing bulbs if you didn’t want the ability to change? There’s your problem, not Alexa.

Oh god not anywhere apart from kids bedrooms. DB has them and it is bloody infuriating being round his house and it’s less-than-reliable Internet and we’re all sat there in pitch black or whatever because Alexa is having a funny turn. How many people live in houses so big it’s such a massive inconvenience to get off your arse and turn the lights on??

Yea just use the app.

We have white ones in the living room so use Alexa to dim them for watching tv or to brighten them for eating etc but for the coloured lamps I just use the app on my phone.

I like using Alexa for when I’m leaving the house and can say Alexa turn all lights off and I know they’re all off - can obviously also check on my phone.

I really love my Phillips Hues and Alexa. Need to sort them all out though.

Eg now I know all my lights are off apart from the lamp in the kids room which they’ve chosen to have pink and super bright for some reason so I can adjust that from the app there.

Honestly these remind me of my ex who used to shout at the light bulbs all the time and Alexa wouldn't understand him and he'd get angrier and id say just turn the bloody light on at the switch.

The bulbs can be set to come on in a specific colour when you power them up, so get that set to bright white. If they've been "alexa lights off"ed then you'll need to flip the light switch once to remove power, then again to turn them on.

You set this in the Hue app, Settings, power on behaviour.

You can get a button or dimmer switch for £17. Insist that several of these get bought.

I'm really enjoying mine - I also got motion sensors for the hallways, stairs and kitchen, and now it's possible to traverse the entire house without hitting a light switch.

DH did mention he was going to purchase some but I was only half listening and tbh, didn't really care as I quite like Alexa normally and I like the smart plugs he bought.

I do use the app to change them, but when I have my hands full and trying to see where I'm going and turn the light on to be met by a green hue, it's not much use!
They even have a disco light option!!

Oh fuck that. This is why I’m sending Alexa back without even opening the box; the day we can’t get up to switch things off, is the day we can resign ourselves to the planet ending up the the ones on Wall-E! Plus my 6 year old will drive me batty with it....

Voice activation by a personal assistant is a bonus, they are still bulbs and can be used like non smart bulbs. Treat them like normal bulbs and you won’t have a problem.

We have most of the house on these, and all the appliances on smart plugs. We were sent back to the middle ages a few weeks ago when the WiFi went down 😂

OP

Set up a 'routine', you could even call it, "FFS alexa" bu you could have that to put the lights on and set to the colour and brightness you like.

How many people live in houses so big it’s such a massive inconvenience to get off your arse and turn the lights on??

I'm disabled so they are useful. My home has high plug sockets and low light switches but lots of homes don't, smart bulbs are cheaper than putting in new light switches.

Ugh, I’m with you OP! Thankfully my DH finally had concerns about Alexa listening on, and decided she had to go! I am so relieved, and love using switches for the lights again! (DH always used to leave our bulbs on red, drove me absolutely crazy!)

We have Alexa and light bulbs and a switch that works like a normal one, the best of worlds.

You are not being unreasonable. People at work love Philips Hue lights, but I have never been convinced. I decided to give it a go and bought some. The integration with Alexa is pretty poor. It only seems to work about 70% of the time.

ours takes her time sometimes to grant our requests, like she's been on the pop. Plus she's hard of hearing or its our accents.

Don't get me started on these. Got Hue bulbs in the bedroom a couple of years ago and did have an Amazon Echo.

Set the thing up correctly and it still didn't understand what we said. When it did, the bloody lights came on random colours. Siri on my phone did a better job!!

We sacked off the Echos (the boys have them now) and normally switch them on and off at the wall. I've got the Hue bridge plugged in to the router still, as I'm thinking of dicking around with some LEDs on the outside of the house.

In all though, I feel your pain, they are shite!

My whole house is ‘alexad’ and i hate it, the light switches dont work properly when she has turned them off so im stood switching on and off to get the lights on and it drives me insane

I dont mind it for playing music etc but the lights thing drives me nuts! My dh bought another one for upstairs so now he calls me on it when im putting washing away or whatever to ask me questions, it make me want to punch him.hard.

My dh bought another one for upstairs so now he calls me on it when im putting washing away or whatever to ask me questions, it make me want to punch him.hard. 

But it's fun setting alarms at shitty times in a teenagers bedroom when they have them!!

I'm with you OP
My DH did the same over Xmas

We have them but as very first poster said: just get the switch with it. Works very well.

I think Alexa handles lights (and most things) really well but I have regular not multicoloured lightbulbs. Maybe you should switch your bulbs for non-coloured ones? x