Ikea’s smart lighting system, called TRÅDFRI, which launched last year won’t be arriving in Australia until later this year says IKEA who amended the launch date in a statement to Ausdroid.
Ikea previously had advised that the TRÅDFRI lighting system would be arriving in Australia in ‘early 2018’, but in a statement to Ausdroid an Ikea Australia representative said
With IKEA Smart lighting, Australians will be able to have access to easy, wireless and affordable products to bring more personal lighting into their homes. The Smart lighting range is expected to launch across Australia in late 2018.
When the Ikea smart lighting system launched in selected markets last year, the ZigBee based smart light globes were announced as soon to be supported by Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker, Google Assistant and Apple’s Homepod, meaning a broad adoption was imminent. There seems to be some mixed results for Assistant, but Alexa support seems to be well and truly alive and with Alexa now available in Australia we have a little longer to wait.
The TRÅDFRI lighting system requires a base unit, with a Gateway Kit which includes a gateway, remote control and 2 E26 (white spectrum) LED light bulbs (large base) priced at $79.99USD with additional bulbs priced at $19.99USD each. Ikea Australia hasn’t announced pricing for Australia as yet, but we’ll find out the pricing later this year.
Are you interested in the Ikea TRÅDFRI lighting system? Which globes do you use in your smart home?
just messaged Ikea AU on facebook, April 2019 is their current target for release 🙁
Is it only available in US so far?
Anywhere in Europe?
I use WeMo bulbs. The standard bridge was rubbish, though. So I bought a SmartThings hub which means the Google Home and Echo can control them. The SmartThings hub seems to get it’s ZigBee knickers in a knot every time there’s a power outage, though.
I also have a few WeMo Light Switches. They work great and never fail. Everything talks directly to them and old people don’t need to learn anything new to use them.
So far, I’ve avoided smart bulbs as being the most expensive way to have smart lighting. I do have three smart plugs for use with lamps, as they do not have a limited lifespan (in the same way that bulbs do). The rest of the house uses downlights so that’s a pretty difficult smart light option at this time.
In the same situation and of the same opinion here. I’ve looked at smart switches but Australian-certified ones are pretty rare and require a neutral to be wired to the switch which our townhouse lacks 🙁
My other vague concern with smart light bulbs is how much additional power drain am I putting in place when every light bulb must remain powered on and “always listening” over the wi fi network. 40+ downlights though the house turned on 24 hours per day adds up pretty quickly even if the individual power draw when the light itself is off is low.
I’m hanging out for the GU-10s to connect to my Echo Plus. I’ve already got a Philips Hue and an Osram Lightify and both work perfectly with it. At $7.99 US last time I looked I presume that even with the Australia Tax they’ll still be less than the others at ~ $30 for the Lightify.
One of two disappointments I have with the Echo is it doesn’t support my Mi Yee Lights. Might have to get some of the Osram bulbs to join the Hue globes
From my experience the Osram bulbs work spottily with the Osram Spotify app/bridge (although my poor internet connection might be affecting this), only works with Google Home in the US and well with the Echo Plus.
Where’s a good place to grab them from? I’d love to try them with the Echo I’m reviewing.
I got mine here:
https://reductionrevolution.com.au/products/osram-lightify-gu10