I’ve been playing around with various LED smart lights for over a decade. The first set of household bulb replacements that I really got into was a Philips Hue kit I bought in 2012. It was pretty cool– and it was extremely handy to be able to remotely control lighting over the internet with an iPhone app–but it was expensive. And at that time, it required a Wi-Fi bridge as well. Up until a few weeks ago, I still had one of those Hue bulbs, but last year Philips dropped support for the Hue Bridge and so that remaining bulb was relegated to being an ordinary LED bulb.
I decided it was time to get some color-changing capability, programmability and remote control back into my home lighting, specifically my front porch light. It’s the Christmas holiday season and green light on the front porch seems more festive than white. This time around I decided to go with some smart bulbs from Govee. I’ve tried out several of the company’s smart lighting products before (here’s a review of a smart table lamp) and they worked well. They are also inexpensive (I paid $20 for a pair in a Black Friday sale), app-controlled and no bridge is required for internet access. Here’s what you can expect from the Govee H6008 smart LED light bulb.
A Very Attractive Price
Nearly 12 years ago, that Hue kit (three bulbs and a bridge) set me back about $200, with additional bulbs available for $60 each. I bought a two-pack of Govee H6008 smart light bulbs for $20. Even at the regular price of $30, they are inexpensive enough to be an impulse purchase and with an e26 base they’ll fit pretty much any standard light fixture.
Dual Wireless Connectivity Options
Govee offers a number of different smart bulb options including ones that can be app-controlled over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The H6008 bulbs support both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (2.4Ghz). Once set up (a very quick and easy process), when I launched the Govee app, the bulbs would connect by Bluetooth if I was physically near. If I wasn’t, the app used their Wi-Fi connection to my network to access the bulbs over the internet. Connectivity was transparent from the user point of view, it just works. And no bridge needed.
Brightness
These bulbs are rated at 800 lumens, which means they put out about the equivalent brightness of a 60W incandescent bulb (while using 9W of power). Of course as a smart bulb, it can be dimmed for mood lighting.
Multicolor But Also Multiple Whites
This smart LED bulb has the expected massive range of colors. 16 million to be exact. However the “WW” part of the RGBWW technology it uses signifies two different white LEDs. This means the Govee H6008 supports color temperatures of 2700K-6500K, so its whites can be very warm, cool, or anything in between.
Outdoor Use
There are a lot of electronics packed into one of the bulbs, so outdoor use requires some care. However, I was looking to use one on my front porch. On Amazon, a Govee rep indicated that the H6008 smart light bulbs can be used outdoors so long as they are protected by an enclosed light fixture. I installed a bulb in an enclosed fixture on my roofed porch and so far, it has been fine. No connectivity issues and it’s had to live through sustained below freezing temperatures.
Tons of Extras
The Govee mobile app (Govee Home to be exact) opens up a vast menu of customizations, features and capabilities. The amount of stuff you can do is almost overwhelming: 30 preset scene modes, DIY mode, Alexa or Google Assistant voice control, timer, music sync, group control for up to 50 bulbs and more.
That’s all cool, but I’m not doing a whole lot of playing around right now. I set the front porch bulb on green at full brightness. Whenever someone turns that light on using the old school physical light switch, it remembers and stays green. So long as that switch is on (so the bulb has power), I can remotely control the Govee H6008 smart LED bulb from anywhere.
All in all, I’d say this is a pretty smart buy, especially when even at the regular price you can pick up two of these smart LED bulbs for $30.
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