Philips Hue Outdoor smart lighting: A splash of colour to brighten up your Autumn
Philips Hue outdoor smart lighting. Picture: Philips.
There’s something magical about this time of year with the autumnal colours starting to appear. I love the splash of colour but hate the shorter evenings — winter is coming. However, there’s no need to be dismayed as there are ways to brighten up your outdoors to bring the colour back into the darkness.
I don’t have a massive garden but with a little creativity, you can make any outdoor space more inviting and atmospheric. I’ve been blown away by the variety of lighting options available and here are some of the lights I’ve installed in my back garden over the last few weeks.
One obvious prerequisite to installing lights outside is a power socket. If you don’t have one, it’s relatively easy to install just make sure to get a fully waterproof one. However, if you’re 100% sure of what you’re doing, just get a professional to do it for you.
All of the lights I installed were sent to me from Philips Hue and although you need to plug them into the mains, the power going to the lights is a safe low-voltage DC current. This is a big deal and makes installing the lights easy with the peace of mind that you’re not going to get a shock.
Light strips are a great way to get creative as you can form them into unique shapes from love hearts to squiggly lines along a path or use straight lines to accentuate a wall or railing.
The Philips Hue Outdoor lightstrips are fully waterproof and you don’t have to worry about them getting damaged during bad weather.
The lightstrip comes in two or five-metre lengths and although you can’t connect one lightstrip to another end-to-end, you can daisy chain multiple sets to create larger lighting creations.
The lightstrip is not only dimmable but also features 16 million colours to further tickle your creative flare and enhance the atmosphere in your outdoor space.
The long stripe can be laid out on the ground or pinned to a surface using the supplied 15 (approximately) white brackets and screws — create the shape you want and then the lightstrip just clicks into each mount.
Curries.ie €130 (2m)
The Lily spotlight can be purchased individually or in a pack of three. Each spotlight is encased in a matte black metal housing that protects it from the elements thanks to an IP65 rating for dust and water ingress. It also features a 24-volt power system that is plug and play and the 3-pack option includes a 40W power unit that is also IP65 rated.
The spotlights come with screw-in wall mounts that have two holes to mount the lights on a wall. However, they also come with ground spikes and extension arms that are ideal for ground installations. You can adjust the angle of the spotlights and have them pointing upwards towards a feature, bush or hedge. I found the latter setup ideal for me as I could easily move them around for a quick change of scene but mounting them on a wall also works well if you can point down or sideways.
It's so easy to interconnect each light and you don’t need to turn off the power when doing so thanks to the simple interconnect system and low-voltage current.
Each light is 6 watts and you can add more later up to a maximum of 40w. There’s also an optional 100w power unit (€59.99) if you feel the need to add many more lights including some of the others on this list.
Like the lightstrip, you get 16-millions colours and shades of white and each spotlight can be a different colour and light intensity when controlled via the Philips Hue app.
Currys.ie €299 (3 pack)
The Impress wall lamp is stylish light that provides both functional lighting as well as atmosphere to an entrance or wall.
The light from the Impress is ambient and again, you can play around in the Philips Hue app to find your favourite colour from a pallet of 16 million — have all your lights the same colour or go for a psychedelic setup for a garden party.
Installation is easy too with a simple back panel that is screwed into a wall and then the black aluminium lamp just clips into place. It uses the same low-voltage power and plug-and-play interconnect cables as the other lights. And, thanks to the snap-into-place method of the Impress light you can always take it down and store it during the winter months if you prefer. The same advice goes for all the other lights here too.
Lights.ie €149.99
With a stainless steel exterior, the Calla Bollard brings a touch of style to your garden as well as brilliant light to light the way. This is the only light on this list that doesn’t come with a power supply but it is compatible with the low-volt system.
Suppose you're illuminating a driveway or putting a spotlight on your favourite portion of the patio. In that case, you can decorate the outside exactly like the inside thanks to the over 16 million colours and 50,000 hues of warm and cold white light.
Lights.ie €149.99
The Philips Hue bridge (€59.99) is a requirement and will need to be purchased separately if you don’t already have one. It’s required for setup along with the Hue app that connects all the lights to your WiFi. Once installed and set up the lights can be controlled via the app using your voice with Alexa and Google Home. You can set schedules and scenes for special occasions like Halloween or Christmas or have the lights come on at dusk.
You can also add the Philips outdoor motion sensor to trigger lights to turn on when you enter the outdoors or control your lights with the Philips Hue dimmer indoor switch for on/off and dimming functionalities. The possibilities are endless and this experience has opened my eyes to just a small percentage of what is possible in any outdoor space.
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