Philips Hue lights are a lot of fun right out of the box but if you want to get the most out of your (expensive) smart lighting, you're going to want to try out scenes and routines for Philips Hue's lighting products. Instead of painstakingly adjusting individual bulbs to just the right color, temperature, or brightness, scenes can help you make sweeping changes quickly. Instead of pulling out your phone when you get home, scrambling to turn on the lights so you can see where to leave your groceries, routines can help you automate the process. Here are 10 great scenes and routines to improve upon the already-awesome Philips Hue lighting system!
1. Wake up
The Wake up routine will help rouse even the heaviest of sleepers. This routine gradually fades up the lighting in your room(s) of choice, providing subtle encouragement to get out of bed. Even cooler, you can set the lights to turn off at a certain time — that works for folks who want to sleep in and for folks who'd rather not leave the lights on in the bedroom after they've begun their day.
2. Go to sleep
The Go to sleep routine encourages you to get some sleep by slowly warming and then fading down the lights in your room(s) of choice. It's a gentle reminder to stop binge-watching the latest Netflix show you're into and catch some Zzzs.
3. Coming home
Remember that bit before about scrambling to turn on the lights when you get home from the grocery store? Yeah, that's where this routine comes in handy. You can set your lights to turn on when you arrive home, picking and choosing the rooms of your choice.
4. Leaving home
You won't need to spend even a single second wondering if you left the lights on when you left home with this one. With this routine enabled, you can set your lighting system (including specific rooms) to turn off when you leave home.
5. Timers
This is easily one of my favorite routines, 'cause it lets you make your lights flash if you want. Maybe you're cooking some brown rice in the other room — that stuff can take, like, 45 minutes to cook through — and you want to make sure you don't forget about that sweet, sweet sustenance. You can set a timer that'll flash the lights in a room of your choosing. You can also simply have the lights turn on or off.
6. Relax
The Relax scene will warm up your lighting (think warm white) and dim or brighten your lights to a little more than 50% depending on their current brightness. If you want a scene that's easy on your eyes and mostly free of that pesky, energizing blue light, the Relax scene can help with that!
7. Concentrate
The Concentrate scene will cool your lighting slightly (think soft white) and set the brightness to 100%. If you're working on something that requires a lot of light and an equal amount of focus, this scene should work for you!
8. Energize
The Energize scene is one of my favorites. Along with setting the brightness to 100%, this scene will cool your lights to the whitest white setting available (think direct sunlight). This bright light is great for waking up in the morning, providing you with the closest approximation to that pesky sunbeam that always seems to make its way through your curtains.
9. Bright
Think of the Bright scene as the 100% version of Relax. The lights remain on the warmer side, but the brightness is cranked up to max. If you want to avoid challenging your eyes with a lot of blue light but still need to see around your room, try the Bright scene!
10. Nightlight
Both incredibly dark (1% brightness) and incredibly warm, the nightlight scene will help you navigate your home in the middle of the night without disturbing sleeping partners, pals, or pets. I like to use this scene in conjunction with my hallway Hue light and Hue Motion sensor to provide a stubbed-toe-free trip through my hallway in the dead of night.
Your picks?
Those are my picks for the most helpful and pleasant scenes and routines for your Philips Hue setup. But there are loads of other possibilities. What are your favorite scenes? Any particular routines you've got running? Give me a shout in the comments or over on Twitter!
