The RGB Landscape Lighting Thread (tm)

There have been a few posts on landsacpe lights recently. Each one seems to garner some amount of interest in RGB landscape lighting. I will be taking the plunge soon myself, so let’s take a look at the main options out there:

1. Philips Hue. At first, you’ll look and say, “No, Hue is too expensive.” But as we go along here, you may find it to be very reasonable. LINK You can grab a Hue Lilly 4-light kit from Costco for $349 with power supply and 16ft extension cables and a 40w DC power supply. You can regularly find the 100w power supply on eBay for about $50, and you can cut the cable and extend it (DC! Mind your +/-!!). There are a handful of random posts sharing DC power supplies (non-Hue) that people have used successfully. There are a few that have people sharing their story about accidentally killing their lights as well (much fewer). It’s 24v, so you can get away with some decently long runs, and you don’t have to worry much about voltage drop compared to some other options. The bulbs are zigbee and compatible with Hue dynamic scenes which can be pretty cool. They’re considered very reliable from a a connectivity standpoint, as they can jump their data from bulb to bulb without much problem. The Lilly is not as bright as the Lilly XL, but it still is decent. The Lilly XL is modestly more expensive, but you can often find it close to $100 at Costco if you look for it (either with extension or power supply, depending on the deal). Elsewhere, it’s $130 frequently with an extension cable. If I went this route, I’d probably keep the connector on the light in tact and cut the extension cable to lengthen the wire or shorten it as needed. They use a proprietary connector that no one has been able to reliably source, but they are starting to find some third-party cables (but not just a cheap molex connector in the sub $2 range like you'd hope for). I’ve written this in another thread or two, but their path light- the Hue Econic- is probably my favorite path light on the market. It’s extremely simple, functional, and has a very nice timeless look. It’s similarly priced ($100-130), which really puts it on par with a lot of the particularly nice fixtures from the likes of Kichler, FXL, and it’s actually right on par with the RGB stuff from Volt and some of their upper end path lights (though I think it would be compared to a “cheaper” path light as it is not ornate or goofily shaped). That said, no one makes a fixture like it that I’ve seen. If you find something similar in the $30-50 range, let me know! I would love to modify existing fixtures (more on this later) to accommodate RGB. As it stands right now, the simplest solution for path + spot lights is actually probably Hue. Anything else is going to require modifications. The scenes are a plus for me, as I have Hue lights under my porch (5 lights peeking between 6 columns) and in 3 dormers upstairs. I went a bit crazy and programmed a daily shortcut to set them warm white most nights, but they'll turn to dynamic scenes (a different one for each night of the week during Haloween) or static scenes (I alternate R/G or G/R for Christmas, depending on the day)

2. I currently have a bunch of FX RS up lights. They’re simple little brass tanks that I believe are quite water resistant. They take MR16 bulbs. There are zigbee-compatible RGB AC/DC 12v compatible bulbs- I own one (GLEDOPTO). They all appear to be 4w which can be slightly underwhelming. But using existing lines, tossing these on to existing runs (already tunneled under sidewalks), and replacing $16 bulbs when necessary are super attractive. The bulb itself is not necessarily designed for outdoor use. And it’s only 4w (250-350 lumens). It’s likely going to be underwhelming when colored, and ok at white (compared to my 7w bulbs, it's comparable on the brightest white). This would work with any standard 12v AC transformer. I already have two installed, so this checks a box for me. If you want to add path lighting, there is not a lot of path lighting that is designed for mr16 bulbs. Gu5.3 base MAY fit in SOME fixtures, but you are practically out of luck if you want a non-soldered, user-replaceable bulb for a path light. There are a few integrated path lights that are zigbee, but I’ve never found any that accept 12v AC. MiBoxer makes a DC 24v path light that looks an awful lot like a Hue Calla, but you won’t get dynamic scenes, and you’ll have to mix/match 12 and 24v AC and DC, so in your “savings,” you’re going to wind up adding some significant power and wiring costs. So when you throw in the price of, say, an FX RS housing (or a Volt Big Boy mr16-ready case) you’re about $50 in. Get a $16 bulb, and you’re looking at $66 before you put cable to it. If you don’t have a transformer already, the $350/4 Hue Lily kit starts to look more attractive pretty quickly (before we start to consider that the zigbee bulb isn’t really designed for outdoors. There are some other 4w bulbs that appear identical that I have seen as an option with a lamp-ready spotlight, but they appear to be functionally the same bulb with no markings indicating weather-proofing. This is fine to me as the case should do a good enough job. Call me crazy, but I'm a fan of replacing bulbs, not fixtures. And I haven't found an LED-integrated fixture that was designed to open and re-solder the LED.

3. Volt and others make a remote-controlled RGB light. You must go to each fixture to change the color. They’re over $100 for static lights that will require the entire fixture to be replaced. There’s a warranty and an hour guarantee, but a “dumb” light that doesn’t have a replaceable bulb at that price is just a nonstarter for me- as above, a Zigbee bulb is $16. Standard LED outdoor bulbs if you give up on RGB are cheap.

4. There are a handful of Chinese made 120v RGB fixtures. I don’t want 120v, so I’m not going further.

5. Gledopto makes an AC/DC 24v 7w zigbee lamp that stands alone for $41 on Amazon. Slightly frustrating as I already own 12v transformers. They made them AC/DV compatible but at 24v, so another transformer is required, and it can’t add on to existing runs of mine. I could replace the transformer and get 24v mr16 LEDs (they are available). It is a slightly annoying/barely unavailable retrofit. But if you are planning a new system, this would be a consideration. They don't really make a "path" light so much as a spot, and I don't think they're particularly attractive in comparison to, say, the FX RS uplight. But a $41 Zigbee 24v spot seems like a decent value, and they are a fairly reliable company (they make the mr16 bulb I was talking about above!)