POLL: RGBW vs CCT

Digital Lounge General Discussion
#1

Hey all,

Just wanted to do a quick poll to get some feedback on color and temperature bulbs and which is more popular, RGBW (full color) or CCT (color temperature)?

If given the option to buy an A19, BR30/40, what would you prefer to buy?

  • CCT (Warm to Cool Temperature) - No Color
  • RGB+CCT (Color bulb w/Warm to Cool Temp) - Full Color and Temp

0 voters

If you’re thinking, “it depends” on the situation, answer it by letting us know what the first smart bulb you bought was (RGBW or CCT) or if you don’t have a smart bulb, answer as if this would be your first purchase.

Follow up question – How many of each do you have?

  • 1x RGBW
  • 2x RGBW
  • 3-5x RGBW
  • 5-10x RGBW
  • 10+ RGBW
  • 1x CCT
  • 2x CCT
  • 3-5x CCT
  • 5-10x CCT
  • 10+ CCT
  • None

0 voters

Thanks and happy to see the discussion too!

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#2
#3

I only have experience with LED strips. I found I only leave it on white and dont care for the color. My most recent strip has CW and WW leds. Being able to pick the temperature was amazing.

3 Likes
#4

Yeah this is what is fascinating to me. I like hearing other people’s thoughts around this topic and it’s sparked quite the debate internally.

Myself, I always buy RGBW but very rarely do I put it on color. Only the kid’s rooms and some accent lighting behind my TV.

All others are warm lights… I don’t even change it to cool lol.

So then the logical question I get asked at home is… Why spend twice as much for color, when you never use it? And it’s a fair question.

My thoughts are that I know it’s there in case I ever want to go nuts and have some color in the house.

I also like color bulbs for outside too for the various holidays.

3 Likes
#5

I’m a color guy myself. Mostly everything from bulbs (mostly hue) to led strips. (Several different brands there) I have automations running certain lights coming on and setting different colors for certain days of the week. Have 3 inovelli led strips set to do the same thing and they are all over the house. I try setting certain lights colors here and there but my wife isn’t a fan of the color stuff so I can only get away with it so often. Haha

1 Like
#6

All of the bulbs in our entire house are 2700 Kelvin “dumb” LED bulbs.

I bought three of the old Inovelli color Z-Wave bulbs a few years ago, with the specific use case of using them for easy on the eyes red night lighting in the bathroom vanity fixture for my hourly visits to the drivers lounge to drain my aging bladder. Never got around to installing or configuring them. TL;DR - I didn’t vote, since I would not buy either in the future…

3 Likes
#7

I did have a crazy idea to put one of the color Inovelli bulbs in the outdoor light fixture near our front door, to flash red as a locator for emergency responders if we ever had to push the panic button to call 911 (five down taps on any Inovelli switch in the house/garage). Sadly, the bulb is not rated for use in an enclosed fixture or outdoors…

2 Likes
#8

I have 12 Sengled RGBCCT bulbs, along with the RGBCCT strips I put in my ceiling fixtures. For me, I use the CCT more then RGB on them. It’s really nice having my main lights fade in the evening to warm while also switching over to my lamps.

I don’t use RGB often, but I think it’s still nice to have color available. One of my dream automations would be to have my lamps match the color of my local watches and warnings. That’d be helpful once storm season decides to kick off. I’ve also enjoyed having my lights on cyan or green on occasion.

1 Like
#9

Haven’t you seen the weather plug-ins and tie to the switches notifications? Could easily mimic to a bulb I would think.

3 Likes
#10

I’ve got some RGBW bulbs. I tried real hard to come up with a reason to use the colour mode so I set a scene for when I use the spin bike to create the “studio” vibe. I normally forget to turn it on.

On the flip side, I use the CCT range all day every day with circadian lighting. It’s actually one of my favorite parts of having a smarthome. Definitely top 3 for me.

So while I think RGBW bulbs are cool, CCT is much more practical for me.

2 Likes
#11

Peloton or some other app connected device? There is a Peloton integration for HA. Your lights could automatically turn on vibe mode

#12

I would eventually like to add CCT lights to the ceiling cans in a number of rooms for light harvesting and circadian color temperature adjustment. I really like the look of the Hue retrofit wafer lights instead of bulbs but can’t stomach the $60/light price.

#13

Echelon, but I let the subscription expire and use qzfitness with some YouTube content. Although that does get me thinking of a few ways I could automate it like a pressure mat to detect if someone is on the bike.

It’s still the only time I have a use for RGB bulbs, the rest of my RBG lighting is through LED strips which are much more capable. I’d still prefer cheaper CCT, but I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority on this one lol

2 Likes
#14

I don’t own smart bulbs. I don’t really see the point. Modern homes usually have overhead lighting and the better solution is to control the lights through smart dimmers. Most people have a preference for a certain color temperature (anyone not doing soft/warm white is insane IMO :grinning:) So, buying dumb bulbs in the preferred color temp is simpler and more economonical.

I think RGB and CCT smart bulbs are a cool concept and I have seen some interesting automations that would be fun to play with, but I haven’t seen anything that adds significant value. Most of the automation are done for automation sake and while tech-nerds like us might like them, most normal people would be annoyed by them. My personal rule for smart-home gear is it has to be unobtrusive and easily defeated through manual controls anyone can figure out… so that rules out color changing.

As for the A19 or BR30/BR40 debate. I wouldn’t use either in my house. I have zero use for either in my home. I prefer sealed flat can retrofits. If I was forced to choose, it would be BR30 for can lighting, but in reality, I’m never going to replace my sealed cans.

Something to think about: There are probably a lot more A19 bulb sales, followed by the BR30, but in modern homes where people are more likely to want smart-home gear, they are likely going to have can lighting and would be more likely using BR30. Take that a step further and most new builds in the last 5+ years are using sealed cans. It’s what people are going to use in full-scale remodels. It gives a cleaner look and gives both an aesthetic and functional upgrade. If it were my business decision, I would start with the sealed-cans.

2 Likes
#15

I have many Hue color bulbs (“white and color ambiance”), but I almost exclusively use them for whites. I mostly use them to create dim-to-warm/circadian lighting type scenes (brighter = high color temp, dimmer = low color temp). I do also have a few “white ambiance” tunable white bulbs. I favor the color bulbs because they can go to lower color temperatures, which I like for very dim scenes.

Most Hue “white ambiance” bulbs are only tunable from 2200K to 6500K. 2200K is pretty good, but I sometimes want lower (redder). I wouldn’t buy a tunable white bulb that only went to, for example, 2700K. Dimming to very lower brightness levels is also important to me (newer Hue bulbs do this very well).

I don’t make use of color temperatures above 4000K, primarily because most Hue bulbs hit maximum brightness at 4000K (internally, they use 2200K and 6500K LEDs… so peak brightness is reached when both sets of white LEDs can be turned on). There are times that I would like higher (bluer) color temperatures, but this is less important to me than the low (redder) color temperatures.

I think if I had to pick a reasonable (technically/economically practical) tuning range for a white bulb, I’d want 1800K to 4000K. It would need to hit max brightness at 4000K though.

I’m generally happy with Hue bulbs (and there don’t seem to be any better alternatives right now), but I have some complaints. My biggest complaint is their relatively poor/inconsistent CRI/TM-30 (and their total lack of any published specifications around CRI - so I have to buy bulbs and measure them myself). The newer ones are better, but still mediocre compared to good fixed color temperature bulbs.

I’d like to see > 90 CRI over the full white tuning range (ideally > 95 CRI when above 2700K), along with good R9 values - and have it actually spelled out in the specs.

Hue bulbs also use PWM dimming instead of a better variable constant current driver. It is pretty high frequency (1-2 kHz, depending on model/generation), so it is unlikely to cause any discomfort - but it can be visible under some conditions (cell phone cameras can pick it up at shorter exposure times). I wouldn’t want to buy a bulb that uses a lower frequency PWM.

I’m also disappointed that Hue has so few offerings for narrow beam angle spot bulbs. They only have a GU10, and recently a PAR38 - it would be nice to also have PAR30 and PAR20 bulbs with a few different beam angle options, or maybe even some canless regressed gimbal fixtures. But this isn’t something that I’d expect a smaller company like Inovelli to address (there is a much bigger market for regular A19 bulbs).

Hue bulbs have completely nailed the user experience. Everything just works very smoothly with them. This seems to be something that other cheaper smart bulb manufactures tend to get wrong - e.g. not being able to do smooth transitions between different color temperatures and brightness levels, or not even being able to transition both color temperature and brightness simultaneously.

It is worth extra money to me to get all of these details right - but I realize that I may be in the minority here (judging by what most smart bulb manufacturers are actually selling).

1 Like
#16

As I answered above, most of my bulbs are RGBW. They are used in white mode nearly 100% of the time, but I’ve got color for two reasons. First is that I do make use of color at night sometimes; instead of turning on to a really low CT (or I think some people actually do a really high, moonlight-esque CT) at really low brightness, I just do red at really low brightness. The idea is that it allows me to see a little but doesn’t wake my eyes up too much in the middle of the night so I can still get back to bed easily. This is in the bathroom, hallway, and similar areas.

The other reason is that my partner insists we need all color bulbs (even though there are only a few rooms I’d normally want to do color in, like above), seemingly an all-or-nothing thing. I digress. But I accept. :slight_smile:

The areas where I have CT-only bulbs are in places like the laundry room, pantry, unfinished basement, etc. Really, a fixed white bulb would be good for most of those — but I’d pick cool white if I had to choose (or really more of a neutral to cool), while warm white is the most widely available CT. And the CT bulbs don’t cost that much more, so it’s worth it for me just in case.

1 Like
#17

At my previous house I started out 100% zwave so I only had two GoControl zwave bulbs in our two living room lamps. They worked ok but didn’t reliably report their state. And no features other an on/off and dimming.

I eventually added four Sengled A19 bulbs in the fixtures on the front of our house. Had them set up to normally be 50% soft white, as my wife didn’t like harsh lighting on the porch. When motion was detected by one of the cameras or doorbell, the lights went to 100% cool white for a few minutes. Also had them programmed for red/blue/white for July 4th and Memorial Day, red/green around Christmas, orange for Halloween, etc. My wife thought that was cool. The Sengled’s weren’t 100% reliable though, even with some zigbee repeaters I added.

In the house we just bought, I took a different approach. For lamps, I went with Hue white ambiance A19’s. Eliminates having a plug in-dimmer, extension cords and a three way adapter in order to control multiple lamps. They’re pricey but it’s a lot cleaner to just plug in the lamps to the nearest outlet, and they’ve been 100% reliable.

Also in the new house we have about 22 recessed 6" cans. I put Hue White Ambiance retrofits into about half of them, bound directly to a bunch of Blue 2-1’s. Again, expensive but 100% reliable. I have not yet programmed different white values, they’re all at 2700.

For the remaining cans, which are all mounted close to walls, I’m probably going to use Hue color retrofits. I think I can make use of color in those fixtures to make some nice effects without being garish.

And finally in the garage, I plan on installing about 12 Hue white ambiance low profile lights (there are no existing cans). I can definitely make use of different white temps out there.

Honestly, none of this is necessary. Dumb led bulbs and dimmers would suffice and I try not to think about how much money I spend on stuff like this, but my wife never complains and tends to like the automation. She thinks geeky guys are cool. I am lucky.

1 Like
#18

I like the option of both, but in practice most of my bulbs are just white most of the time. The only one that really changes is my front porch Pendant. I like the yellow/gold to mimic a “bug light” inbthe spring and summer, but when i need the light it switches to a warm white at 100%.

Honestly though in most of my scenarios, unless it is a table or floor lamp, I just go with a switch. Most bulbs won’t work well in enclosed fixtures.

1 Like
#19

I do not use bulbs. What I wish was an option are those thin puck lights that have the junction box and those other recessed light led replacements that screw into existing high hats like these Amico 5/6 inch 5CCT LED Recessed Lighting 12 Pack, Dimmable, IC & Damp Rated, 12.5W=100W, 950LM Can Lights with Baffle Trim, 2700K/3000K/4000K/5000K/6000K Selectable, Retrofit Installation - ETL & FCC https://a.co/d/dhCYzyr.

I would love to be able to control the temperature without having to pull them out and move the switch. Adding rgb color on top of that would be excellent. But either way, I think that form factor would be ideal.

2 Likes
#20

The more I see them posted, the more I want those can light retrofits. I didn’t even know they existed until the other day!

1 Like