Cree was hesitant so as to add a smart bulb to its greatest-selling LED lineup, however that modified this yr with the addition of the $15 Cree Connected LED. Sharing the construct and lighting specs of final year's well-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the new Connected LED adds in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a management hub, and EcoLight you'll be in a position to turn it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting changes. At launch, EcoLight reviews Cree's sensible bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you'll buy both off the shelf at Residence Depot. Since then, nevertheless, we've seen official assist roll out for added management gateways, including SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You can add the bulbs to the new D-Hyperlink model of the Staples Connect Hub , EcoLight home lighting too, though there isn't official, Zonoff-certified support just but. The bulb works well across all the platforms we've examined it with, and it shares the sturdy lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that came earlier than it.

Most interesting is the price. At $15 -- just a few dollars more than you'll spend on non-linked opponents -- it ties with the GE Link LED as the most inexpensive linked bulb in the marketplace. For primary automated lighting, it's the best possibility we have examined but, EcoLight reviews and our present Editors' Alternative winner. Cree adapted its smart bulb design from last yr's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the prevailing construct. That implies that this is not a bulb that goes out of its approach to look fancy or newfangled -- as an alternative, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of classic incandescents. I liked that approach with the 4Flow, and i prefer it with the new Linked LED too, although some would possibly find the plastic construct to be a bit low cost-looking, particularly when the bulb is turned off. The brand new bulb also shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which makes use of vents to circulate air by way of the physique of the bulb, eliminating the necessity for heat sinks.

That helps bring production costs down, and energy-efficient bulbs also signifies that the bulb is exceptionally gentle for an LED, weighing in at less than 2 ounces. The Cree Related LED shares the same lighting specs because the 4Flow LED, too, and that is largely a great factor. Each claim a light output of 815 lumens, and both clocked in even larger than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very spectacular 872 for the Connected LED. By way of effectivity, the 4Flow puts its light out utilizing eleven watts, but the number rises to 11.5 watts for the Connected LED on account of the Zigbee radio's energy draw. When we examined it out, the number was really closer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's accomplished a superb job of preserving this bulb comparatively efficient. Nonetheless, EcoLight reviews it is price noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are even more environment friendly, every one drawing less than 10 watts.

Cree additionally did an excellent job with coloration temperature right here, landing extremely close to the acknowledged 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Connected LED lands closer to the mark than some other good bulb we have examined, so if you're picky about that perfect shade of heat, yellowy light, you will like this LED. The one place where Cree's good bulb lags behind no less than a few of the competitors is the colour rendering score, which measures how precisely a given light source illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Linked LED hits a relatively atypical rating of 80 out of 100, and on condition that both the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Link LED hit closer to 90, EcoLight reviews I would have liked to see Cree do higher. To entry the Cree LED's smart options, you may have to pair it with a management hub that can translate its Zigbee signal into Wi-Fi. Like the GE Link LED, the Cree Connected LED got here out the gate trumpeting Wink help at launch, EcoLight home lighting however soon expanded its third celebration compatibility to include options like SmartThings, Staples Connect , and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Completely different platforms offer totally different features -- SmartThings and Philips bring IFTTT support into the picture, for instance -- however generally, the automating experience is largely the same. We tested the bulb on a number of platforms, EcoLight dimmable and by no means ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. Regardless of which platform you're utilizing, EcoLight reviews you may be ready to show the Cree Connected LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it utilizing no matter controls your system offers. These likely embrace setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with things like motion sensors. The bulb paired simply with every of the above-mentioned platforms. Wink and SmartThings both have devoted settings and pairing instructions for the Cree LED proper within the app, which helps. Staples Join does not offer machine-specific support for Cree simply yet, however it was in a position to detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee system on the first strive. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was fairly painless, too, EcoLight reviews though I needed to manually reset the bulb in the course of the pairing course of so as to assist the bridge find it.