Does Philips Hue Work With 220V? 💡 Yes and No!

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Gained early experience with automation technology in the private and industrial sector, can turn his living room into a movie theater with one voice command and is the owner of this website. He is happy to share his accumulated experience with every new article.

What Does The Manufacturer Say?

If you look at the official American Philips Hue website, you will find the following information:

Philips Hue Bridge: 100-240V
Philips Hue LED Bulb: 110-130V

Accordingly, the Philips Hue Bridge should work perfectly at both 110V and 220V. But for the single bulbs, 220V is a bit too much – at least on paper.

But has anyone ever tested whether 110V Philips Hue LED bulbs work with 220V? Yes!

What Does The Experience Say?

When I wanted to buy my Philips Hue Starterkit for my German home, the price at amazon.com was much cheaper than at amazon.de. For comparison:

→ Philips Hue Starter Kit at amazon.com*

→ Philips Hue Starter Kit on amazon.de*

At the time, I just took the risk and ordered the American starter set. My courage was rewarded because I could not see any difficulties yet! The installation ran smoothly and the operation and automatic functions also run without problems.

Now that a little time has passed, I have done some research. They confirm my experience as well.

For the normal Philips Hue bulbs, the result is the same as my experience: Philips Hue also works with 220V!

What definitely doesn’t work, however, is a Philips Hue Lux light bulb at 220 volts. Just leave it and get the Philips Hue Lux for your voltage.

After a few hours, Philips Hue Lux light bulbs start to flicker at the wrong voltage and then die completely suddenly. In addition, the internal control does not seem to work with a different voltage, because the automatic control is disturbed in another power grid. Either the Philips Hue Lux light bulbs do not react to commands or switch themselves on and off without command.

The other way around: Will 220V Philips Hue work at 110V?

A Philips Hue light bulb manufactured for 220V does not work at 110V. It is simply too little voltage and the LED lamp does not light up.

Why is it Worth Investing in Philips Hue?

There are several advantages to a smart lighting system. The most obvious advantage is that you can control your light from your smartphone or with a language assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

And this is also possible for every single bulb. You can even give them their own name and say, for example, “Alexa, turn on the reading lamp”.

After I bought the Philips Hue Starter Kit*, it didn’t take me long to replace all my light bulbs with Philips Hue!

Another advantage is that you can save a lot of money with automated light bulbs. You can set them to go out automatically after a certain amount of time, or you can give them a schedule according to which they have to light up.

Especially if you have children, you know the problem that some light is burning all night long unnecessarily…

With an intelligent light bulb, you can avoid this and save a lot of money. In contrast to a normal LED lamp, which is already very economical, a smart LED lamp pays for itself after about one to two years.

If the enormous lifespan of several tens of thousands (!) hours are taken into account, the purchase is definitely worth it.

Many people are also unaware that you can make your home safer with a smart lamp. Automated schedules in which lamps are automatically switched on and off allow you to fake your presence even when you are on holiday. That way strangers and burglars think you’re at home and don’t come up with stupid ideas in the first place.

There are so many advantages of smart lighting that I have listed a few of them here:

They are dimmable by app or voice command.
They are easy to install.
You can control them completely with Alexa or Google Home.
You can give each individual LED bulb its own name and thus address it individually.
You can connect up to 50 light bulbs to one bridge.
You can create schedules to automate your home.
The Philips Hue system is very easy to expand. E.g. with LED light strips or smart outdoor lighting.

Can Philips Hue Also be Used Without Bridge?

Philips Hue Smart Dimming Kit, No Hub Required*

Check Price:

AMAZON*

Normally the Philips Hue light bulbs are connected to a central hub, the base station. They can be controlled with a smartphone or with a voice assistant like Alexa.

But if you want to save the $50-60 and you don’t need some features, you can also use them without a bridge.

The trick is to use a Philips Hue dimming switch. This is also available as a bundle with a normal Philips Hue bulb together*.

With such a switch you only have to screw in the bulb, turn on the light switch and insert the batteries. You can now operate your smart light bulb.

So if it is ok for you to control your light bulb with this switch, you don’t need a bridge.

However, since this is a rather improvised solution, the two biggest drawbacks of this method are listed here:

You can only operate 10 light bulbs with one switch: In most cases, this is not a problem, as you rarely need more than 10 light bulbs per room. If you prefer the solution with the switch, you would have to have a separate switch in each room to operate the respective light bulbs. As mentioned above, you get the dimming switch in a bundle together with a light bulb. If you want to buy more single bulbs, just place them next to the switch and press the button on the switch until the small LED light in the upper left corner turns green. As soon as they are connected, the light bulb flashes to confirm.
Philips Hue light bulbs with color change function cannot change their color: One of the many ingenious things about the Philips Hue lighting system is that there are light bulbs that can reproduce the entire color spectrum at the touch of a button. If you use a dimmer switch to operate your Philips Hue light bulbs, you will not be able to use this feature. With the switch, you can only turn them on and off and adjust their brightness. So if you want to save the money for a bridge, you should buy only white LEDs.

Bottom Line

Since I can personally confirm that Philips Hue also works with 220V, I can only recommend the Philips smart lighting system.

You can see the current price of the Philips Hue Starterkit here*.

Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
Disclosure: This website is the property of Martin Lütkemeyer and is operated by Martin Lütkemeyer. Martin Lütkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to enable Web sites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Links marked with * are affiliate links.