I hate using The Big Light™, but I can’t always have my room dark. My led strip that is up in the corner of the ceiling just died, so I’m looking for replacements. I’m not opposed to another one, I’m just curious what all else there is. thanks
edit: I might actually just replace my big light bulbs with hue bulbs or something (though those are mad expensive)
I am a sucker for indirect, coloured washes aiming at the ceiling
You didn’t specify a context, did you?
I mean, this is “ambient lighting” amrite?
Thrift stores almost always have desk or standing lamps. Combined with cheap, warm colored low wattage LED bulbs (25w equivalent or lower), they add wonderful ambiance without breaking the bank.
Four lamps in different parts of the room, all with smart bulbs.
They’re tied together into a single dimmer/color/temp selector in HomeAssistant.
For ambiance, they’re usually running at like 35-40%.
I got room for like one lamp on my nightstand at best. I’ll look into it though, I just have to make sure that whatever I get can be controlled from one Foss interface, no proprietary garbage
Good luck. I’ve had issues finding non-cloud smart bulbs/plugs. These came from Ali with Tasmota pre-installed. Haven’t looked for a couple of years, so hopefully the non-cloud options are easier to source these days.
I think Hue or ones that use Zigbee are viable. !homeassistant@lemmy.world may be able to offer some suggestions.
A lot of the Chinese smart bulbs can be controlled through Home Assistant. The ones that are almost universally unsupported are the Feit Electric brand.
Good to know. I just went with the Tasmota ones because I’m familiar with the firmware and can upgrade it independently from the manufacturer. Plus, it takes a month to get a shipment from Ali, so I didn’t want to play any guessing games; I knew Tasmota worked.
IKEA bulbs are cheap and work nice with my HA and ZigBee USB stick. Quality of light is good though obviously Hue is better for x4 the money.
what abiut controlling them from your phone? the price of hue kinda put me off lol
Home assistant has a mobile app that integrates with the (normally) Google home quick tile and lock screen shortcut, so it’s pretty much just like using Google home.
Same here. I love the soft diffused shadows from multiple light sources and that they can be set low and yet the entire room is illuminated.
Lamps? Or am I missing something?
We use desk and reading lamps, most being 24w LED a few 12. We don’t use much ambient light… beside the sun, coming by the windows ;)
A single light in the ceiling, controlled by a wired switch next to the door.
When I want light, I want a lot of it; when I want dark, I want complete darkness.
see I like haveing just a little light like 90% of the time. I can read and write I’m it, just not well, but its dim enough that Iit doesn’t interfer with my monitor
I get eye aches pretty quickly without enough light. I find I need light behind and around my monitor otherwise I get soreness.
I mostly use custom built RGB lamps running WLED which are controlled by Home Assistant and the Adaptive Lighting integration which adjusts the brightness throughout the day based on the position of the sun. I do have a couple Govee lights that are controlled in the same manor as well.
Same here, but didn’t know about that integration, have home assistant rules controlling the lights based on sun status, bedtime for the kids and presence. Also a few lamps with hue bulbs. Expensive as hell, but offer the most stable zigbee network.
I find IKEA’s ZigBee bulbs to be rock solid as well and they’re significantly cheaper. And another +1 for Home Assistant with Adaptive Lighting here.
The problem I have with the Trådfri from IKEA is that they can’t do Cyan, it looks just white. I have 2 of them for places that I don’t use cyan.
Adaptive Lighting is pretty nice. You can set it to adjust the brightness and/or light temperature throughout the day and even setup a “nightlight” setting for overnight.
I like floor lamps. They can be pointed at the floor/ceiling for ambient light, or pointed at what you’re working on/reading. They don’t take up desk space, or fall over as easily.
Flashlight pointed at the ceiling, mostly. Which one varies, but lately it’s often ~2600K and very high CRI.
On the off chance that you have a drop ceiling or some other means of doing some light wiring, I recently installed these and the feature makes for a lovely ambience. https://a.co/d/cBrNSwU
If linky no worky, search Amico 6 Pack Black 4 Inch 5CCT LED Recessed Ceiling Light with Night Light
Bonus feature: it comes with The Big Lighttm too. Install is 3/10 for simplicity.
My glow in the dark butt plug is always there for me in the dark.
I like my lava lamp.
My partner uses about 10 lamps at any given time, and the room must be a black hole because I still can’t see shit
Red LED tape on the underside of my desk, dresser, and shelves. Keeps a nice dull red glow in my room, just enough to see around, but low enough that I can sleep through it. Smart plug for scheduling.
There’s a lava lamp on a smart plug that turns itself on ~1hr before I go to bed (so it’s movin and groovin by the time I’m in there). It’ll also turn off after 8hrs regardless of whether it was turned on manually/automatically. Saftey/longevity of the lamp.
Finally a regular bedside lamp, with a dimmable smart bulb.
The smart controls let me set schedules so the desired lights come on as I’m going to bed or with my morning alarm, and making sure that they’re off when I leave for work. Plus I can turn them on/off or set brightness from my phone without getting up from bed.
oh god red would make me feel like I was in a horror movie
lava lamp might be a decent idea tho
Can always go with RGB and pick colours on demand. I just like the color red. Blue light wakes/keeps me up.
I have RGBW tape on the underside of my kitchen cabinets, inside some nice tracks to keep them out of direct line of sight. White during the day for counter top lighting; red at night for nightlighting that doesn’t wake you up when you go for a late night snack. And random disco colours for parties, just because…
I have a plug-in CO detector that has a green light and it basically becomes my ambient light when I sleep.
haha I need a bit more, I enough to read by
