I've mentioned before that I live in an old house. I've recently been finding that parts of it are older than I thought, although the majority seems to be 1850's Granite.
One of the idiosyncrasies of the house is ceiling height.
The Ground floor is quite generous , whilst the 1st floor (2nd floor to Americans) is not, with the ceilings being only 206cm (6ft 10"). Easily enough for most humans, but then when you start thinking about hanging lights from the ceiling, that distance rapidly decreases and it would not be uncommon for modern humans to be hitting their heads on light fixtures. e.g. the average UK male height is 178cm (5'10"), and we aren't exactly a nation of giants. Indeed, if you are a data nerd like me, you can discover that the average male height has increased by 15cm (5.9") since 1850.
This means that I needed low profile lights in a few of the rooms, particularly my study. I don't need anything too fancy, as I already have Nanoleaf Canvas for that. Just something simple to put on the ceiling and replace the awful light shades that were there and that were hanging down about 15cm (6"). Neither Nanoleaf (At the time) or Hue did anything suitable for my application. Nanoleaf announced Skylight at CES 2023, When I first wrote this post it was not shipping but it is now. Also, since then, Aqara have announced and started shipping their T1M.
DoHome Smart Ceiling Light
Nothing like a good internet search, and I found the DoHome Smart Ceiling Light and bought 2. This was on the basis that they were HomeKit compatible, seemed to be very low cost with decent functionality and, as I bought them through Amazon, I could easily send them back if they didn't meet requirements (Living in a remote village in Cornwall makes Amazon a god send when the nearest hardware store is 30 minutes away).
Installation and set up.
When it arrives, it comes in a very flat box, not surprisingly I suppose. What I was surprised about was it didn't say DoHome, but did say CozyLife.
I'm guessing, therefore that DoHome OEM's these from CozyLife.
How it is connected is actually very cool.
In the above photo, you can see that the light slides on to a sled that is attached to the ceiling, and power is passed via the two prongs. This means that the ceiling connection is VERY low profile.
You literally just have to connect up the wires from the sled to the household wiring. In this photo I have connected the first one of the two so the extra wires go to the 2nd light further down the ceiling.
Then you slid the light on and two pins on the slight slide into the wire connectors on the ceiling mount.
When power is turned on, the light continually flashes for about 5 minutes which, I must admit, is quite annoying as it is really quite bright.
You can pair it with HomeKit in the standard way and the QR code is conveniently stuck to the rim of the light housing. However, I did find that it was a little difficult to focus the camera on the QR code due to the flashing light.
Well, in the perfect world you can. I will say, at this point, it was not a DoHome/CozyLife issue, but caused by Eero. I run an Eero Pro 6 mesh and there was a bug that if you had HomeKit Secure Router turned on, you couldn't add any devices to your home. What was particularly annoying about this was that Eero didn't exactly tell anyone, so I wasted hours of time trying to get the lights to work. Whilst I could see them on WiFi, and I could set them up outside HK, I could not get them to join.
I only found out the solution when a new version of the firmware was released. So, well done to Eero for fixing it, but bad Eero for causing the problem, and not telling anyone!
This, however, did take me down an interesting track because I discovered that you can't manage these lights via the DoHome App, and that you have to install the CozyLife app.... not that you really need it as, so far, I've not seen a firmware update and as usual, you can do everything you need to via the Apple Home App. The only thing they can't do is adaptive lighting, but that was not a requirement for me.
Now I have them installed, I created a Device Group called Study Ceiling Light and 2 simple automations so that when I walk in the room, and the blinds are closed, the lights will turn off. When there is no-one in the room, then the lights go out.
Thoughts?
Will I get some more of these?
Hmm, I like to keep life simple, but stylish. Sure, these are low cost and they met my requirements. I do find them a little tacky was they feel very plastic, but they do look OK in place. I think the simple answer is I'll wait for the Nanoleaf Skylight and see what that has to offer. These may get relegated to being used in bathrooms.
<update 25th March 2024>
I found these to be very unreliable, constantly dropping out of HomeKit and I only persevered with them because of the lack of alternatives.
Nanoleaf Skylight
Finally, Nanoleaf launched the Skylight. In the UK they started shipping in February of 2024 and I bought some, for the family bathroom.
At the moment, you cannot buy a single panel. The minimum you can buy is 3, for £229 which works out at £76.33 a panel. Packs are available in 3, 6, 9 or 12. If you get the 12 pack, at £832.13, then this works out at £69.34 a panel. I have seen the 6, 9 and 12 panel sets on sale so I would look at deals for those. Expansion panels are £69.99, and I have not seen these on sale.
They were very easy to install, and the only installation criticism I'd have is that when you open the box, you do it from the back, but the first panel you need to install is actually at the front. This initially led me to be confused with regards to the instructions. Once I worked it out, though, it was plain sailing. There are two connector wires between each panel. One for earth and the other to transmit power and commands. These are passed through holes in the side of the base, through a grommet. Why that couldn't be a single cable, I have no idea. Certainly would have made installation life a little easier.
In the above photo's, you can se them on my bathroom ceiling both off and on. I was actually quite surprised about how much area they cover. There is one thing knowing it intellectually, and another actually seeing it on the ceiling.
Quality wise, the base is metal and the diffuser is a milky plastic. They are really very bright, which ws great for us as our previous ceiling light was not bright enough and made putting on makeup a bit of a pain.
The set up in the Nanoleaf app and to add to HomeKit was easy. There are a bunch of preprogrammed scenes you can use and I'm sure that they could be nice in some circumstances, but so far have not found that useful for the bathroom.... unless you were in for a soak, with candles, etc... that'd probably be nice.
Thoughts?
I know I'm going to be asked about the IP rating, as I put my first set in the bathroom (I've subsequently bought another set for another room). It has an IP rating of 20, which means the product is touchproof and will be resistant to dust or objects that are over 12mm in size. However, it has no protection whatsoever against liquids and will be susceptible to damage if it comes into contact with sprays of water. However, I'm not intending to spray the ceiling with water (This is not over my shower).
The one thing that does disappoint me is that, although this is Apple Home compatible, it does not support adaptive lighting. I asked the question of Nanoleaf and they suggested using the app.... but I want a single place to go. I don't want to think about having to use an alternative app. Also, I was actually surprised that they didn't offer it with Matter support. I'm wondering if that is coming.
To get around the lack of HomeKit adaptive lighting, I've now had to program that via automations and it is nowhere near as granular. For me, this detracts from an otherwise excellent product.
Aqara T1M
This has become my direct replacement for the DoHome light. It is slightly deeper, much wider and much brighter than the DoHome, but is a much better product. Then again, it should be at £149.99 each, although you can get a two bundle at £269.98, which is basically 10% off.
Interestingly, the outside rim is a seperate light from the centre, and it is RGBIC, which means it doesn't have to be all one colour.... not that Apple Home supports that. It is an interesting quirk, but I'm not too sure on the use case, although something Star Trek Transporter like is eating away at my thoughts.
I do think Aqara's advertising is a little disingenuous. It says that it is Homekit and Matter compliant, along with just about everything else, but this is via an Aqara hub. Now, it just so happens that I have an Aqara E1 hub, and so I was good to go. However, I'm surprised that Aqara is still pushing Zigbee product when they are starting to go beyond that. After all, Zigbee has the same radio as Thread. Theoretically it is just a firmware change.
Installation
Installation was easy. There is a bracket that goes on the ceiling, and you just have to position it so that the wires come through a grommet, again, and into the light to connect to a junction box. Each junction has two holes which is nice if you want to add a 2nd light, which I did... so no doubling up of wires in the same hole. There are a further 3 holes to really secure it to the ceiling.
Once the light is added to the Aqara app, you can then create groups in the Aqara app, which unfortunately do not show up in Apple Home, and the lights automatically appear inside Apple Home.
As almost always seems to be the case, particularly with Aqara products, there was a firmware update.
Integration with H1 Wall Switch (No Neutral)
One of the issues of having an old house is that nearly all of my wall switches do not have a neutral. This severely limits me as to what I can use. Aqara, fortunately, has one, which comes in Single or Dual Rocker format.
Why would I want a wall switch when I have smart lights and presence detectors?
Well, you have to always remember that you are not the only person, or people, to use a house. Most people are used to using wall switches to turn on/off lights. So, when you have visitors, you have to cater to them. Also, I have found that the presence sensors are not 100% accurate. At times, they miss someone coming into the room or, more often, someone leaving. I get that you can't change colours, or the dimness of the light.... but it does enable simple on/off.
Aqara has the ability to integrate its lights with the H1 so that the wire circuit is permanently on and that the switch now, essentially, acts as a button. I've seen this described in Home Assistant forums as "decouple mode", but in the Aqara app it calls it "Change to wireless switch". To be honest, I'm constantly surprised that companies like Eve do not offer this capability with their switches. When you have a digital switch, it is just a matter of developing it in the firmware.
Pressing the 3 dots in the top left hand corner gets you into some of the configuration capabilities of the switch.
If you now select "Device Settings"...
You see a number of options, one of which is to go to Wireless switch, where all you can do is toggle it on or off. Why they didn't put the toggle on the "Device Settings" screen I have no idea. Seems weird and breaks the user experience.
Now, though, the switch keeps the line live. You would think you would be able to control it via Apple Home, as the switch still shows up there. However, all you see is a switch that is permanently on. You literally can't turn it off. Aqara should have changed the functionality to either a button, or enable you to click the switch on/off at a digital level inside the Home app,
Now, I have to define automations inside the Aqara app, something I'd really like to avoid as I want a single place to do all my automations.
If you go back to the Wall Switch details page, you will see an option called "Related Items". You can create automations here.... or all the way back to the Home Screen.
You will see I have two Automations. One for turning on the centre lights, and one for turning them off. In this way, it is identical to Apple Home automations.
I would say that it is an easier interface to use than Apple Home Automations, but not as powerful.
The example you can see here is self explanatory and says that if you press the light switch (BTW, the only option is "Single Press") and the light is off, then turn it on.
The other automation does the opposite.
Why not use the Aqara wireless switch? Because I don't want more batteries!
Thoughts.
Unlike the Nanoleaf, though, it does support HomeKit Adaptive Lighting!
Again, it is a very bright light. It also has IP20 certification.
Annoyingly I have to have a hub because it is Zigbee but, as I said, I already had one.
I love that I can control this via a Smart Switch, but rather disappointed that I have to use the Aqara app to do it when it could have so easily enabled me to do it via HomeKit. This, then, limits me to Aqara lights, of which they have 2 - the T1M and a Lightstrip.
Conclusion
Nothing is perfect.
- The DoHome has a great price, but is unreliable.
- Nanoleaf Skylight has a high entry price but has virtually all of the functionality I want.... except Adaptive Lighting, so this will be limited to being implemented in areas that require area coverage or for something to look cool and stylish.
- Aqara, has a lower entry price, but once you get to more than 2, it is more expensive than Nanoleaf, It does have adaptive lighting and can be integrated with the Aqara H1 switch really well... but I want the functionality of the H1 to be exposed to Apple Home, not another place to do automations.
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