Fluorescent Lighting - Hue Bulbs?

hotdiamond

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Hi there,

I have fluorescent lighting in my laundry room and would like to install smart bulbs along with a motion sensor. Are there smart bulbs for fluorescent lighting? If not, is there a work-a-round?
 

pkcable

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Thank you. I thought so, but was hoping I was wrong.

They DO have some commercial grade tube LED lights out there, but they are very new and tough to find and I don't believe they are smart, plus I think you need to convert your shop to have them installed. I don't believe they are available for home use. Florescent lights are going to go away eventually.
 

mavsguy842

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You'd have to install different lighting fixtures to get smart lighting, but you might be able to install a smart switch instead. Lutron has occupancy sensing switches for around $20. For the laundry room is actually a great idea - I might steal it! If I do I'll report back how it went.
 

mavsguy842

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They DO have some commercial grade tube LED lights out there, but they are very new and tough to find and I don't believe they are smart, plus I think you need to convert your shop to have them installed. I don't believe they are available for home use. Florescent lights are going to go away eventually.

I actually did decide to get a Lutron occupancy sensing switch for my laundry room. I bought it at Home Depot for $30. They also had plenty of tube LEDs that can be used as direct replacements for fluorescent tube bulbs in existing fixtures. I need to grab a new switch plate before I install the switch, plus I have a 7 month old daughter so time is at a premium. I'm hopeful I'll find time to install it tonight.
 

pkcable

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I actually did decide to get a Lutron occupancy sensing switch for my laundry room. I bought it at Home Depot for $30. They also had plenty of tube LEDs that can be used as direct replacements for fluorescent tube bulbs in existing fixtures. I need to grab a new switch plate before I install the switch, plus I have a 7 month old daughter so time is at a premium. I'm hopeful I'll find time to install it tonight.

Nice! good to hear tech in this has advanced!
 

hotdiamond

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I actually did decide to get a Lutron occupancy sensing switch for my laundry room. I bought it at Home Depot for $30. They also had plenty of tube LEDs that can be used as direct replacements for fluorescent tube bulbs in existing fixtures. I need to grab a new switch plate before I install the switch, plus I have a 7 month old daughter so time is at a premium. I'm hopeful I'll find time to install it tonight.

Great! Please keep me updated. I might go grab one as well. I'll also look into purchasing the tube LEDs.
 

mavsguy842

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I actually did decide to get a Lutron occupancy sensing switch for my laundry room. I bought it at Home Depot for $30. They also had plenty of tube LEDs that can be used as direct replacements for fluorescent tube bulbs in existing fixtures. I need to grab a new switch plate before I install the switch, plus I have a 7 month old daughter so time is at a premium. I'm hopeful I'll find time to install it tonight.

So I installed the switch, which was VERY easy because it uses wire nuts. I actually installed it with the power still on (just be careful to only touch one wire at a time). I'm having an issue in that I cannot get it to turn off the light, and I can't switch settings at all. I have a hunch that's because the way the switch works is that it needs to discharge a very small amount of power to the ground to form some sort of relay. The old switch I replaced was so old it didn't have a ground screw at all, so the ground wire was just unused in the box. I suspect that in the light fixture itself (also very old) the ground wire is similarly sitting unused.

My plan is to take the fixture off to inspect the wiring, and connect the ground wire to the ground coming from the service panel and see if that allows me to change settings on the switch. If it doesn't, I'll exchange the switch for a new one (assuming something is wrong with the switch). My house was built in 1971, so if you have a newer house, or a house that was rewired more recently I would guess you have less of a chance of this specific issue.

I have read that a heater nearby (mine is RIGHT next to the hvac) can cause the infrared sensors to not detect when you are no longer in the room, but there are other occupancy sensors that use a mixture of technologies, not just infrared, to overcome that issue. I'm not sure if I will actually experience any issues related to this, just something to consider. I hope that my experience helps you to jump in, and to more quickly troubleshoot if you run into issues.
 

hotdiamond

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So I installed the switch, which was VERY easy because it uses wire nuts. I actually installed it with the power still on (just be careful to only touch one wire at a time). I'm having an issue in that I cannot get it to turn off the light, and I can't switch settings at all. I have a hunch that's because the way the switch works is that it needs to discharge a very small amount of power to the ground to form some sort of relay. The old switch I replaced was so old it didn't have a ground screw at all, so the ground wire was just unused in the box. I suspect that in the light fixture itself (also very old) the ground wire is similarly sitting unused.

My plan is to take the fixture off to inspect the wiring, and connect the ground wire to the ground coming from the service panel and see if that allows me to change settings on the switch. If it doesn't, I'll exchange the switch for a new one (assuming something is wrong with the switch). My house was built in 1971, so if you have a newer house, or a house that was rewired more recently I would guess you have less of a chance of this specific issue.

I have read that a heater nearby (mine is RIGHT next to the hvac) can cause the infrared sensors to not detect when you are no longer in the room, but there are other occupancy sensors that use a mixture of technologies, not just infrared, to overcome that issue. I'm not sure if I will actually experience any issues related to this, just something to consider. I hope that my experience helps you to jump in, and to more quickly troubleshoot if you run into issues.

I did purchase one and my husband installed it last night. Ours works like a charm. I love it. You should be able to adjust the settings on the switch itself before putting on the face plate. We have ours set to go off after 1 minute.
 

mavsguy842

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I did purchase one and my husband installed it last night. Ours works like a charm. I love it. You should be able to adjust the settings on the switch itself before putting on the face plate. We have ours set to go off after 1 minute.

That's awesome! Mine would not enter settings mode (the light would never flash no matter how long I held the button/s down). I opened up the fixture and there is no ground coming from the service panel. So the solution is to run new wire in that ~ 6 foot run to the fixture, but it's not worth it for me to do so at this point for the sake of an occupancy sensor switch. I swapped it out for a new toggle switch in the mean time. It does make me wonder what the deal is with that run of wire, because the older wire in the rest of the house does have a ground. I'm guessing it was a DIY kind of thing and the previous home owner cheaped out to save a few pennies - shame...
 

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