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To put it simply, NO! If you are out to save some few bucks, then by using the Philips Hue bulbs you can control your lights by using your smartphone. Though you can still bypass the hub and use a Hue Dimmer Switch. Although by using the hue dimmer switch, you will miss out on many features you would have gotten elsewhere.
Not one would like to spend so much money on getting new Philips hue bulbs for their home only to realize that they must have a hub, which they had not thought of in the first place.
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If you get the Philips hue dimmer switch, it will enable you to control your Philips bulbs, and there will be no need for you to have the hub or the hue app on your smartphone.
You can check the current prices of the Philips hue dimmer switch here on Amazon.
If you are starting your home automation journey, it will be common sense if one would first start with buying a hub before they can go the extra mile of buying other smart gadgets. If you buy smart bulbs which require a hub, then, unfortunately, they may not be able to talk to Alexa without using the hub.
Philips Hue Dimmer Switch
This is one of the best things that Philips has ever done in fixing their designs that were not of good quality. It has buttons on it which are labelled well for one to see them on and off. It also has the brighten / dim icon labelled buttons in between.
The design of this dimmer switch is like that of a traditional switch shape, and it has a wall mount plate. It has a magnetic mount which enables it to be easily removed which also acts as a remote control.
Philips Hue Starter Kit
The Philips hue kit comes with the Hue Dimmer Switch and a Hue white bulb. Their set up is just as easy as screwing in the light bulb, turning it on at the switch, pulling the battery tab out of the remote and starting to control the light.
The process of setting it up takes less than 30 seconds. You can get the starter kit here on Amazon.
Philips Hue bulbs do not necessarily need to have a hub, and if that is the case with you, then that means that the dimmer switch has a lot and you don’t need the Hue Bridge Hub at all.
Here are some considerations that you may have if you are planning on using the Hue Dimmer Switch in your home.
Number of Bulbs To Connect
The Philips hue dimmer switch can only connect to ten bulbs though it is still plenty to have for one switch. This is limiting especially if you want to make your whole house automated with the smart lights.
Having a whole house full of hue bulbs may mean that you need to get more hue dimmer switches that will help you in accomplishing the task. Then you will have the task of assigning almost ten of the bulbs to a hue dimmer switch.
The Philips Hue Bulbs Won’t Change Color
The Hue White and color bulbs have this one driving feature that makes them so awesome. They can change to any type of color that you can imagine.
Unfortunately, when you are using the hue dimmer switch, this is a downside to you because you cannot take advantage of this awesome feature. All the hue dimmer switch will enable you to do is to turn the lights on and off, dim them and brighten. This may then make you to just stick to the basic hue white bulbs here on Amazon.
More Than One switch can control the lights.
If you realize that having one switch is not enough to help you in controlling the lights, then you can have the option of adding another second switch which will create a three-way setup.
You can have a Hue Dimmer Switch in your living room which will help you in controlling the light of that room, but also have another second hue dimmer switch that is mounted upstairs in your bedroom to help you in turning on the lights downstairs before you get there.
This could of very much great help especially when it is dark at night.
Linking the Hue Dimmer Switch to the Hue system
If you have bought the hue dimmer kit which comes with the hue bulb, then you may not be required to have any linking or pairing for them to start to work. Once you have screwed in the bulbs and you power on the dimmer switch, then it starts to work immediately.
The point of having a Hub instead of several Hue Dimmer Switches
If you plan on buying several hue bulbs for your home and other several hue dimmer switches, then it may just make sense if you go ahead in the first place and buy a Hue Bridge anyway instead of spending so much money and time to install each.
Having a hue bridge is far much better because it will open up the whole capability of the hue ecosystem to your home. You will enjoy every feature that the bulbs have including creating scenes, controlling the lights using your smartphone and having the lights turn on and off at automated times.
Is Philips Hue Compatible with SmartThings?
When I was starting to automate my house, I bought the Samsung SmartThings V3 hub. I knew that my smart home would require to have a brain that will enable me to connect hundreds of smart devices even including Philips Hue Bridge and many more others and make them work together as one.
All that I need when was my Samsung SmartThings hub and a Philips Hue starter kit with a bridge.
Many people do not know this, but I realized that Philips Hue works with Samsung SmartThings just fine. Especially in my house, it customizes and controls the lights in a perfect manner.
I use the SmartThings multipurpose sensor to turn the Philips Hue lights on and off or even change the color.
I use the SmartThings motion sensor to turn my Philips Hue lights on and off whenever they detect motion in the house or in changing the
You may also have a look at my article here on how smart lights work for more information.
Conclusion
There is more to just having lights in your home to having the Philips Hue. They are what everyone who wants to automate their home needs, and a smart hub would also do well for that matter. You will have the ability to control the lights in your home using your phone. Modify the color schemes, the brightness and themes which will suit your needs.
For more information, you may consider my article on weather you need a hub for smart lights here.
