I’m currently on a bit of a bent with automating my home lights, integrating them in with Google Home. To date I’ve installed Philips Hue, LiFX and now Xiaomi Mi Yeelights.
After installing a few of these bulbs I’ve found that cost is key. Finding a well priced, decent Wi-Fi connected light bulb that I can connect to my home which then offers Google Home integration is where the Xiaomi Mi Yeelight steps in. It’s regularly priced at between $12-$20 on sites around the internet so if you find a good deal you can outfit your home pretty cheaply.
The light I purchased is the ‘Original Xiaomi Mi Yeelight E27 8W White LED Smart Light Bulb’. There are multi-coloured Yeelight bulbs but I’m really not interested in anything other than white for the house.
I purchased through BangGood which I pointed to when the Yeelights first became compatible with Google Home. This prompted a couple of requests from readers on how long delivery took etc. from BangGood. So, my light arrived. It took 28 days from order to arrival on my doorstep.
I finally got around to installing it, and it’s now part of my home lighting setup and to be frank, it’s pretty darn good.
Hardware
There’s not much you need when you buy the Xiaomi Mi Yeelight, it has Wi-Fi built-in so you don’t need an additional hub on your network to make it all work. Simply plug it into your light socket and it’s a go.
There’s a rider there with the plug it in and go, the Yeelight is an E27 Screw Cap connector, so if your house is using the B22 Bayonet Cap connector in your house as I am you’ll need an adapter.
For those who do need an adapter, Ikea sells the ‘KOPPLA‘, a B22 to E27 bulb converter for $2.99 for a pack of 2 which will let you plug the bulbs in with no issues. Or if that’s a bit much you can of course try random eBay sellers.
So, the bulbs are smart bulbs, they operate at a colour temperature of 2700K, which Xiaomi describes as being ‘the best balance between warm light and brightness’. For me it’s a bit yellow, I prefer a more stark bright white light which I get from the LiFX bulb, but the Yeelight is pretty good. It’s an 8W globe with an estimated 25000 hours of usage on it, so it should last a fairly long time.
They’re rated at 600 Lumens, which isn’t the brightest but it’s good enough. For reference, Philips Hue bulbs are about 800lm while LiFX are around 1,000lm or more depending on the bulb you buy.
Overall I was pretty happy with the bulb itself, it’s a little yellow for my liking but that’s not a huge issue and it’s decently bright. The Yeelight os also quite well made, it feels solid enough though not overly so.
Setup
The setup is fairly easy. I first setup the Yeelight using the Yeelight app on Google Play. Once you open the app you’ll be prompted to setup an account with Xiaomi. You’ll find several options for servers to use in the app, I went with Singapore as it was the closest to Australia – but feel free to try out some other options. The setup was fairly simple and English the whole way through so pretty impressive.
After adding my single Yeelight to the app, I was quickly turning it off/on, dimming/brightening smoothly. But of course the end-game is getting this light integrated with my current automated home lighting thanks to Google Home.
Adding in Yeelight Actions require the connection to my Xiaomi account, I entered these details in….and it failed. There seems to be some issue with Google Home and Yeelight Actions for me as it kept telling me it couldn’t connect my account. But, it seems something went right, because when you checked the connected accounts it was connected, sitting right near the Hue and LiFX accounts connected. I unlinked my Yeelight Actions account,re-linked and everything went smoothly this time.
After that, it’s as easy as assigning the Yeelight to a room in the Google Home app.
Wrap
I have to say I’m a bit of a fan of these bulbs. I love my LiFX but the price for new bulbs can get expensive if they’re not on-sale. Hue is great, and bulbs are pretty decently priced, but you do have to have their hub installed. For my money I think I’ll be investing in some more of these Xiaomi Mi Yeelights.
Where to get them
If you’re like me, you want these cheap. The best two places for the Yeelight appear to be GearBest and BangGood who both compete on price. Every time I’ve purchased from either I’ve found discounts by simply searching on Google, so I definitely recommend you do that. The GearBest deals are also often bolstered by additional discounts by ordering through their app, so make sure you take that into account as well.
| BangGood | GearBest |
|---|---|
| Standard White Original Yee Light – $18.77 | Standard White Original Yee Light – $16.21 |
| RGB LED Yee Light – $23.01 | RGB LED Yee Light – $21.07 |
| LED 2M RGB Smart Strip light – $54.43 | Original Xiaomi Yeelight Smart Light Strip – $45.81 |
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Hey Dan, do you have your globes set up on the Singapore server? I’ve got mine set up on the mainland China server because it’s the only server that supports all the Xiaomi products I have. But Google home only seems to work with yeelights on Singapore server, any ideas?
Yep. On the Singapore server. Just got the Xiaomi WiFi camera, I’ll attempt to set that up and see what happens.
I know we have sooo much of our data pinging around with smartphones etc…. but are you not concerned with yet another company having some fairly intimate data about you – when / where / how you turn lights on and off?
Obviously, your Google Home collects all that data… but having a smart bulb that then needs to connect through a server in singapore to give you access to it… Clearly Xioami is not making money from these bulbs so it is our data they are after…
Question about these, and smart lights in general – can you still switch them on and off with the regular light switch? Or do they have to be always switched on and then controlled via an app?
Yes, definitely. However if they’re off at the switch you can’t turn them on with either the app or Google Home. This is a reason many people are preferring smart switches over smart globes. This unfortunately requires electricians to replace the switches which gets prohibitive cost wise. Me? I just remind my wife and parents in law to use Google Home to turn on/off the lights. The good news is that as soon as the light switch is turned back on the switches have all re-connected to their services with no issues within a few seconds so you can turn… Read more »
Hey Dan, do you have your globes set up on the Singapore server? I’ve got mine set up on the mainland China server because it’s the only server that supports all the Xiaomi products I have. But Google home only seems to work with yeelights on Singapore server, any ideas?
Thanks for posting this. We have been using the ORSRAM ones and have had a few issues where firstly the base station bricked its self twice with the first software update and now I think we have already had at least 1 of the bulbs die. We have been looking at some of the Yee lights to try out but like you have B22 sockets. The cool thing with the Xiaomi system is all of the other things that you can get that should work together. As for the mailing, I am guessing you just chose the basic surface air… Read more »
Interesting, I was thinking of trying the Osram but hadn’t looked at them seriously yet. I may have to get one after the Belkin WeMo globes I want to try.