I don't currently have an Alexa and am very reticent to have a device "listening" to me at all hours.

Philips Hue has no microphone in its control device, called the "Hue Bridge" (unlike Alexa/Google Home), so it has no way to listen to you. That should hopefully allay your privacy concerns, at least for one option.

Out of the box, Hue doesn't have a feature that allows similar gradual changes in brightness throughout the day, but it can be done using the iconnecthue app - although I've never tried it.

@WhiteOleander said in Best Smart Bulbs / Tools for Circadian Lighting:

I think the extra EMF "smart bulbs" would create would totally negate any positive benefit (changing the color) is that it?

That's not how it works.

In terms of EMF radiation: cellular data > 5 GHz WiFi > 2.4 GHz WiFi > Bluetooth > ZigBee

As it happens, smart bulbs use a 2.4 GHz frequency with an extraordinarily low power output - making them both more energy efficient and the safest of the lot. This is why it takes about an HOUR to perform a tiny little firmware update on these smart bulbs. The data transfer protocol they use is optimized for low power consumption, with slow data transfer as a side effect.

My Bluetooth keyboard only needs to be charged less than once per YEAR, which gives you an idea how little radiation is involved with Bluetooth, so you can only imagine how low the energy consumption by the ZigBee protocol used by smart bulbs must be.

You probably have more Watts of energy being emitted by your little toe than the EMF energy emitted from a whole house of smart bulbs. Try to keep things in perspective.

The human brain uses around 20 Watts of energy. Smart bulbs use less than 1 Watt each when not emitting visible light (so their RF output is a fraction of 1 Watt). You're getting much more RF radiation from your neighbor's cellphones, tablets and router than any ZigBee-enabled bulbs in your own house.

@WhiteOleander said in Best Smart Bulbs / Tools for Circadian Lighting:

Sounds like an awful idea. You can now expose yourself to more EMF radiation, making whatever these bulbs are supposed to do moot.

That's not how it works.

The thing is that not emitting EMF radiation isn't the point of smart bulbs - it's increased flexibility. They were never touted as a "healthier alternative" to regular LED bulbs.

@WhiteOleander said in Best Smart Bulbs / Tools for Circadian Lighting:

If one is sensitive to visible light frequencies, your likelihood of being sensitive to the invisible ones, particularly the EMFs is higher.

This is untrue. What does "sensitive" even mean? Psychosomatic? Physiological?

Let's suppose someone is sensitive to visible light (such as people with blue eyes) or they may have photophobia. This is certainly possible; however, such people are affected due to the effect of visible light on their EYES! Human eyes are unable to detect invisible frequencies of EMF radiation (such as WiFi), so their being sensitive to visible light actually has no bearing whatsoever on their sensitivity to invisible light.

Some people get sunburn more easily. Those people are certainly more sensitive to invisible (UV) light - but it's quite separate from photophobia or light sensitivity. People with cataracts are much more sensitive to bright lights as their cataracts cause scattering of light from their lens across their retina - but those people are NO MORE LIKELY than anyone else to be "sensitive" to invisible EMF radiation.

People with brown eyes are 2.5x MORE likely to develop cataracts than people with other eye colors (possibly as the iris absorbs more light from the sun, it causes slightly higher temperatures within the eye and, therefore, a greater risk of the lens developing a cataract). Technically, people with brown eyes are more "sensitive" to UV light in one respect, but it has no bearing on their susceptibility to getting sunburn (which is related to how much melanin is in a person's skin).

Red heads with freckles and fair skin have an equivalent skin-cancer risk of 21 years in the sun, so red heads are technically more "sensitive" to light than other people in one respect - but again, this has absolutely no bearing on their susceptibility to health problems due to WiFi or other kinds of EMF (which occur through entirely different mechanisms).

I think it's important to always back up opinions with facts and sources, rather than just framing opinion as fact (and risking misleading people).

@WhiteOleander said in Best Smart Bulbs / Tools for Circadian Lighting:

You at least wouldn't want anything 'smart' by your bed.

Why not? If you put your cell phone in airplane mode, all the transmitters shut off and the EMF drops to zero. Just because something is "smart", doesn't mean it necessarily emits harmful amounts of EMF radiation. You should try to take a more nuanced approach in your appraisal of technology - rather than throwing everything into the same risk category.

Smart devices things aren't mysterious or radioactive. If you turn them off completely (or turn off their communication systems selectivity, such as with airplane mode), they stop broadcasting EMF frequencies.

In my experience, people tend to be more fearful of things (even irrationally so) when they don't really understand them. People who grew up when there was no such thing as smart devices are usually the most wary of them!

I get it. It took me a few weeks to persuade a friend of mine that he didn't need to unplug his modem every night to "protect himself from hackers". Some people have an irrational fear of newer technologies.

If one is sensitive to visible light frequencies, your likelihood of being sensitive to the invisible ones, particularly the EMFs is higher.

You at least wouldn't want anything 'smart' by your bed.

The EMFs are so destructive to so many of our biological functions that now adding EMF to regular AC (which even can affect some people is a recipe for disaster IMO

I think blue light, light color could be an issue, but it pales in comparison to the amount of microwave radiation that is being blasted at us more and more (anything smart). If you are already sensitive to visible light, you are more likely to be sensitive to EMF effects, so I would use caution.