Landscape lighting is one of the best ways to add atmosphere and ambience to the great outdoors, and now that Philips Hue has added outdoor lights to their lineup, there’s so many amazing ways to add light and colour to your yard. I’ve already tested out the Philips Hue Calla Outdoor Pathway lights, and this past week I’ve spent some time lighting up my yard with a set of Philips Hue Outdoor Lily spotlights.
Philips Hue Lily Outdoor Spotlights come in a three pack, are easy to use and install, and can create a cozy glow or a bright white light outside. Here’s a look at how they work and what you can do with Philips Hue Outdoor Spotlights.
Appearance and features on Philips Hue Lily Outdoor spotlights
Philips Hue Lily Outdoor Spotlights are slightly different from the Philips Hue Calla Outdoor Pathway light. While the Calla is a small, cylinder-type light that resembles a solar light, the Lily looks like a small, standard spotlight.
Each box of Philips Hue Lily Outdoor Spotlights comes with three spotlights, and they are made from durable, weatherproof aluminum. They’re IP65 rated LED bulbs, are Safety Extra Low Voltage, and they’re dust tight and protected from any sort of water spray. That means you can have them outside with your sprinklers and not worry that they’ll short circuit due to water.
Besides the fact that you can control these lights with your smartphone and play with over 16 million colours out in your yard, these lights are also dimmable and can be set to the brightest whites. They are 8 watts and 640 lumens, which is about the same as a 40 watt bulb.
The base unit package includes the three spotlights, an extra long cable that connects all three lights, and stakes you can use to securely place the lights. You also get the power supply, so all you’re required to do is figure out where you’ll place them, stake them down, and you’re ready to go.
How to install Philips Hue Outdoor Lily Spotlights
I recommend that you unpack the Philips Hue Outdoor Lily Spotlights in your house before you take them outside. These lights require the Philips Hue Bridge to control the colours, dim the lights, and set up timers and schedules. That means you’ll already have to have the Philips Hue Starter Kit for indoor lights or you’ll have to pick up a bridge.
While still indoors, you should plug the lights in, connect them together, and sync them with your bridge. All of this should be done before you take them outside. To sync them to the Hue Bridge you just need to tap the button in the center of your bridge, and it should discover the lights. If you install them this way, you won’t end up outside with lights that won’t connect to your bridge.
Each spotlight connects to the main extension cord via a connector, and it’s fairly easy to see how to connect them when you look at them. One section joins to the other, you twist it to establish a firm connection, and then you move onto the next light.
The extension cable is very long, and I was happy to see that. My outdoor plug in is either near my front door or near by back door, but there are a lot of trees I wanted to highlight that weren’t right by my door. Having that extra long cord meant I could set the lights up where I wanted to.
You can use the lawn stakes to really secure the lights into the ground, and there’s a small dial on the side of the light that lets you twist to tilt them up or down.
Testing out Philips Hue Outdoor Spotlights
When you’ve installed your spotlights and put them in the perfect location, you’re now in complete control via the Philips Hue App. Here’s a quick low down on what you can do with these lights.
Play with 16 million colours
How many lights give you access to 16 million colours? I’ve played with my Philips Hue indoor lights many times, and I’ve loved the colour combos I’ve come up with. With the Philips Hue Outdoor Lily Spotlights, it’s even more fun.
You can choose one of the pre-formulated colour combos, or build your own, and each spotlight can either be the same or a different colour to create the perfect effect.
Philips Hue makes it easy to change the colours. All you have to do is tap on the phone and the colours change. There might be a ten second lag between when you tap and the colour changes, but it’s a pretty quick process.
Highlight with bright white light
When you have so many colours to choose from, why would you choose white light? For me, white light is one of my favourite outdoor colours. It highlights the trees perfectly, and I feel as though bright white light is great for security.
You can choose any shade of white light, and these spotlights are also dimmable if you’d like to turn them down from bright white to soft white. Usually an outdoor light would require an extra switch to dim, but you can dim these right on your phone.
Set the perfect mood with light
One of the best parts of Philips Hue smart lights is that they can be used to celebrate holidays, set a festive mood, or liven up a party. I’ve loved using unique light recipes for Halloween and Christmas, and you can do the same thing with your spotlights.
These are great lights for a party when friends come over. If you’re hosting an outdoor movie or watching Netflix on your tablet out on the porch, you can adjust your spotlights to create the perfect atmosphere for your show. If you download a few extra apps supported by Philips Hue, you can automatically sync your movie or music with your lights.
After using the Phillips Hue outdoor spotlights for a few weeks, I’m convinced that these are a must have come Christmas time. You can light your trees up with red and green, or blue and white, and they are so easy to change up, you can do a new theme every day.
Timers schedule your lights
I had outdoor lights before I tried these, but the one major thing that was missing from those lights was a timer. Philips Hue lights can be scheduled to turn off and on automatically. If you’d like them to turn on at sunset and off at sunrise, you can do that. If you’d like them to turn on when you drive into the yard, you can set the Home and Away function.
I love this function. I set my lights to turn on when I was near the house, and they did every single time. The app automatically picks up your location, so it’s a seamless experience. There was only one time when the lights were offline due to a power failure, but other than that I drove in and they turned on.
You can also do this with multiple users, so if you and your husband have the Philips Hue App on your phones, you can both use Home and Away. In my experience, once the lights turned on when one of us was home, they stayed on when the other person drove in.
Overall opinion on Philips Hue Outdoor Lily Spotlights
Just for the sheer fun factor, I’m so happy I’ve been able to test out the Philips Hue Outdoor Lily Spotlights. They are easy to add, so fun to play with, and give you a really seamless experience overall. I’ve plugged in standard light strings, and that was easy too, but you don’t get the same amazing functionality with standard string lights or spotlights as you do with Philips Hue.
I love the colours you have access to, but I also like the security of knowing I can flood the yard with light with a few taps on my phone. My yard gets really dark at night, so controlling outdoor lights via my phone is a real plus.
Although you’ll enjoy them any time, you’ll have a blast with these during holidays. Last year I synced my indoor Philips Hue lights with the music from Nightmare before Christmas, and it was so amazing. I can’t wait to try that this year with the Philips Hue outdoor Lily Spotlights.
You can find a wide range of Philips Hue Outdoor lights right now at Best Buy.
