homeassistant

Hey there, I've got the same Zigbee dongle in HA through Zigbee2mqtt and it runs flawlessly.

Zigbee by design is fully local and can't phone home, and everything that uses Zigbee will be able to pair directly with your dongle without using the Hue hub. Check Zigbee2mqtt docs to ensure compatibility of the items you're planning to buy, but almost all of them should work.

I've got Hue and Ikea bulbs along with other Zigbee switches working perfectly. If Hue is too pricey, check Ikea Tradfri or any other recommended by Zigbee2mqtt docs.

Welcome to Home Assistant. If you are starting out it’s best to start small, pick a particular room or two you think would benefit from smart features and go from there.

I have tried a few of the IKEA bulbs and they have worked OK. For lighting however I much prefer to to use smart relays or smart switches. The problem with smart bulbs is they don’t play nicely with dumb switches, and they depend too much on a working HA instance.

If a smart bulb is turned off by a dumb light switch, it can’t be turned back on via Zigbee - because dumb switch cuts all power to the bulb including the Zigbee chip. Likewise, if you turn a smart bulb off via HA and then HA breaks, it’s going to be difficult to turn the smart bulb back on until HA is back up and running.

Smart relays and smart switches avoid both these problems. They still function normally as physical switches, and will function independently even when HA is down. The main downside is these require minor electrical wiring work to fit, so consult and electrician if you are comfortable with that.

My current favourites are the SONOFF ZBMINI smart relay and Samotech SM232 smart dimmer switch. The latter is one of the few UK style smart dimmer switches available (I am assuming you are in the UK as you linked to Amazon UK and mention bayonet fitting bulbs). I prefer to only use smart bulbs in lamps etc for secondary or accent lighting.

Another option for lamps is to use smart plugs, IKEA, SONOFF and Smarthings Uk smart plugs have all worked well for me.

I have 4 of the Sengled multicolored LED bulbs, 2 inside and 2 outside. They're pretty decent and interface directly with HA through to ZHA Add-on. The lights are toggle-able through dumb switches and restore their last state after a power interrupt, so you could even use them in place of dumb bulbs too.

The color spectrum is a little "green" for my liking, and while the light output is adequate, I think Philips is brighter but not enough so to justify the added cost. I like dimmer lighting anyway.

The indoor bulbs are in table lamps that we just leave on. Sometimes the wife or kid space out and turn the lamp off by its switch, but they're getting better about using the app once I published a simple control panel-like dashboard for them.

The outdoor lights are in coach lamp fixtures fro t and back, fed by dumb switches. I just taped those switches off with white vinyl tape as a reminder not to toggle them, but in a punch, we can control them like normal bulbs.

I like the smart-bulb-dumb-switch paradigm because my strategy for home automation is to never give up local, manual control over the fixtures. I also have dumb bulbs on smart switches, but the smart switches still work as regular switches without the HA controller. I specifically design around those "server is hard down" failure modes, and won't use ANTTHING that needs a cloud connection. I view Home Auto as an augmentation for my experience at home, more a convenience thing than a necessity. It all has to fail usable, or it doesn't pass muster.

tl;dr: Sengled bulbs and ZHA have been solid performers for me for a good price and adequate functionality & reliability.

I have a combination of Lidl and ikea bulbs. The Lidl have lasted a couple of years, and are a bit ropey, plus you can’t get them when you want them (in the UK at least).

The ikea bulbs have been better, so far, and you can get hold of them a lot easier.

Both are connnected via a sonoff usb dongle and zha.

I use the Hue Bulbs you can block all outside network traffic in your router and the hue bridge will continue to work. I have see that the bulbs will work without the hub too but I have not tried that.

I’ve switched from LIFX to IKEA bulbs, I’ve found them to be cheaper and more reliable.

fwiw the hue hub is reliable and has some nice features. it’s also not too chatty online and you can block it from the internet and everything still works great.

i use a zigbee dongle and a hue hub