Is Costco offer for Hue starter kit a good deal?

[Scot]

On Mon, 7 Oct 2019 14:11:44 -0400, Dee Dee Sommers wrote:
> Hi XTentioneers,
> 
> I see today that Costco is offering a Hue Starter Kit (hub + 2 color 
> bulbs) for $74.99 delivered. 
> Is this a good price? What all can I do with Hue?
> Do you recommend Hue?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dee Dee
> 

I've had Hue light strips and bulbs operating through a Hue hub (not 
sure what generation) using HomeKit for a couple years now. I so far 
haven't integrated any of them with XTension. I also have not found 
them to be very reliable, especially if there are electricity 
interruptions. Originally, the lamps were programmed to come on at full 
brightness once power was restored after an outage. This was deemed by 
Philips to be a safety feature. When I returned after three and a half 
weeks of being evacuated due to the Camp Fire, all of my Hue bulbs had 
been on at full brightness for at least two weeks. My home survived the 
fire, but the thought of all those lamps being on full blast in an 
empty house left me feeling anything but safe. Not to mention the big 
electric bill I got that month, when I wasn't expecting to see any use 
at all. 

A firmware update came out earlier this year that is supposed to let 
you set the brightness the lamps will come back at, but that has also 
not been reliable. It's very dry and windy here, and the utility has 
been staging Public Safety Power Shutdowns so that their lines won't 
start wildfires. I've been getting along with a generator, but the 
resulting power interruptions and start ups have Hue lamps coming on at 
full brightness, coming on at very low levels of different colors, or 
not coming on at all. I suppose at some point Philips might get the 
bugs worked out, but for as much as they cost, I'm not buying any more. 
If you do purchase HomeKit compatible lamps, just buy one to start with 
and see what happens when the electricity is cycled off and on. You 
might not like what they do.

$.02,

Scot
Yankee Hill, California