I forgot to update this thread.

I've gone a little crazy...

I now have 24 Hue bulbs*, 8 Hue dimmer switches, 2 Hue Taps, 2 Hue motion sensors, 17 Lutron Caseta dimmer switches (with 8 pico remotes in 3-way switch locations), and one iHome plugin switch.

And believe it or not, I still have a ways to go. I still have 10 zwave dimmer switches to swap out, and a couple plugin switches. I also want to replace my zwave door lock and my Nest thermostat that will never get Homekit support.

So far my experience has been VERY positive. The reaction time of HomeKit over ZWave - at least in my house - is night and day. I have four scenes that control every light on the main floor of my house (about 18 switches and three lamps), and with ZWave it would take upwards of 30 seconds to finish the scene. HomeKit takes about 1 second.

From the moment I set up my first Hue bulb and saw that I could change course and change its dim state in the middle of running a previous command, I was blown away. It's SO FAST.

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the biggest concerns was replacing the Aeon Labs Minimotes. My wife really wanted a physical remote to choose scenes, and I really like having them too. I still prefer the size of the minimotes and the fact that they can be programmed for 8 scenes, but I don't miss them. I was fortunate that the week before I planned to start swapping for HomeKit devices, Hue enabled their remotes for HomeKit support, and they work extremely well, allowing a greater customization to the switches than I had before (I can have one button run multiple scenes and device commands).

I initially thought I'd like the Hue Tap remote, but I'm not fond of the feel of it. I get that the feel of the button press comes from the very cool kinetic recharge feature, but I prefer the dimmers. The dimmers also release from their magnetic wall plates much more easily, which is good when I'm grabbing one to change scenes in my son's room at night when I'm putting him to bed. I'll press the reading mode button when I'm ready, and he likes to push the nightlight button when I leave.


Now, here are some of the negative impressions I've had of it so far:

- It's not that smart. There are definitely some more advanced programming options missing, especially conditions. With my zwave controller, for example, I had it set up to turn on the three lamps on my main floor at sunset as a security measure. But I also had it set so that if any of those lights were already turned on (for example, because I already set a scene manually), the scene won't run and change the dim levels on those lights when I don't want them to. Home can't do any of this.

- Home has shockingly bad occupancy controls. I initially placed a Caseta switch and pico remote in my laundry room along with a Hue Motion Sensor. I wanted to be sure we could turn on the light manually in case the sensor didn't fire. Unfortunately, the Home app is only capable of a "when motion is not detected" command. What it SHOULD be is a "when motion is not detected for __ minutes" command. What happened is that we would bend over to take clothes out of the dryer, and because the sensor couldn't see us moving, the lights would turn out. My wife wasn't pleased. So I had to remove the switch and install a Hue bulb. Now occupancy is controlled by the Hue app which DOES have the correct command.

- HomeKit can be flaky sometimes. I've had several times where I'll try to run a scene and it won't go. Then I'll look at the Home app and see the Hue devices are listed as "Updating." But I'll be able to control them from the Hue app. I've also had this very annoying problem where I'll add a Hue dimmer switch, assign scenes to the buttons, and when I press the buttons they register in the Home app...but nothing will happen. It won't be until I restart my Apple TV (HomeKit hub) that the dimmer will start actually running the scenes. This took me a long time to figure out and Apple support wasn't any help.

- Device support is still limited. Apple has a decent list on their site, and my priority is lighting, which is all covered, but the list is still pretty small (though growing).

- It bothers me that HomeKit is only usable on iOS. The devices I'm using have Android apps too, but they can only be tied together in iOS.

- Siri control is fantastic, but the Home app on the Apple Watch takes an eternity to initialize. It's weird. I can use Siri on the watch in seconds to run a scene, but when I load the app I can't press any of the buttons for at least 15-20 seconds. So I don't use it.



Wishlist:

- better occupancy rules
- better guest management with access control and selection of approved devices
- Logitech Harmony support (this one's on Logitech though)
- I REALLY want Hue to make a 2700K version of their light strip. The color one is just too freaking expensive.

I'll add more if I think of anything, but that's my experience so far. I'm thrilled with it, and hope it only improves.

*because of the sheer number of bulbs I needed, I opted for the plain white 2700K bulbs. They can be found for as little as $12.50 a piece.