How Many Hue Lights can I have Per Bridge?
There are a lot of reasons to use smart bulbs, not the least of which is being able to control them remotely. Nothing worse than forgetting to turn a light off after you leave the house, wasting electricity until you get back. There are a number of brands out there, with different methods of setting up, and Philips Hue bulbs are arguably some of the best in the industry. Until recently, Philips Hue bulbs required a bridge to connect to Wi-Fi. A common question asked about the bridge is: how many bulbs can be used at once per bridge.
The Philips Huge Bridge is capable of having a lot of Philips Hue light bulbs. In total, the Bridge is stated to handle up to 50 Philips Hue lights connected to the Philips Huge Bridge at any one time. However, in truth, the Philips Hue Bridge can handle up to 63 Philips Hue lights, although the more lights you have at any one time, the more the performance will suffer.
But is there any way to have more than 63 Philips Hue lights connected to your Bridge? And even if you can, should you?
How Many Hue Lights can I have Per Bridge
When you look up how many Philips Hue lights can be connected to a single Philips Hue Bridge, the number you will usually see is 50. However, this is not actually true – while you can have 50, you can have even more than that. In total, the Bridge actually has a hard cap of 63 bulbs and 62 accessories.
While you can have up to 63 lights connected to a Philips Hue Bridge at any one time, it begs the question whether that is a good idea. The more Philips Hue lightbulbs you have connected to your Wi-Fi, the more your Wi-Fi will struggle as a result. After all, since there are 50 devices connected and using your Wi-Fi connection, that is going to put a pretty severe burden on your connection quality, affecting all of your Wi-Fi-enabled devices. It is recommended that you limit the number of bulbs you connect to your Philips Hue Bridge to no more than 40-45 bulbs at once.
Can I buy a second Bridge to connect more lights?
If you are one of those few people who needs to connect more than 63 bulbs at one time to a Philips Hue Bridge, the good news is that you can actually connect more lights in your home than that. However, you need to get a second Philips Hue Bridge in order to actually do this. You can connect multiple Philips Hue Bridges to your Philips Hue app,
Do I need a Bridge to be able to use Philips Hue lights?
Whether you even need the Philips Hue Bridge will ultimately come down to the year the lights you own were released. Philips Hue has required the bridge for years, but starting in 2019, they began making smart bulbs that are capable of working on their own. They do this by having the Bluetooth functionality built into the bulbs themselves. You will still need a bridge to connect any Philips Hue lights that do not have Bluetooth built into them, however. Because of this, it is likely to be a better idea to simply get Philips Hue bulbs that do not require a Bridge in order for them to function.
How to set up the Philips Hue app
In order to get the Philips Hue app, you have to go to the app store for your phone, with the store depending on which phone you own. You should use either the Google Play Store or App Store for Android or iPhone, respectively. Download the app, and then open it. Once the app is opened, select the ‘Login’ option, and put in your email and password for your Philips Hue account. If you do not have an account set up with Philips Hue, you can sign up for an account.
You can also sign up for a Philips Hue account on your computer, tablet, or phone’s browser. On the browser, it will ask you which country you reside in to determine your privacy settings. After selecting this, select ‘Sign up’ or sign in with either your Apple or Google account. If you do not have one, or do not want to use one of them, instead choose the email and password you want to use (make sure to use a secure password). After you pick your email and password, you will be sent a verification email. Click ‘Verify email’ in the email you get sent. If you wait more than two weeks to do this, you will need to do these steps again to get a new verification email. Once it’s set up, you can now begin to use your Philips Hue app.
Once you are in the Philips Hue app, go to the Home section, and select the three dots option. From here, select the ‘Add lights’ option. Either search for the smart bulbs or, if this fails, enter the serial number attached to the smart bulb. This serial number can be found on the box it came with, or in your order history. When it finds the light, tap ‘Start configuration’. You can also name the light, which helps you if you want to use a device like Alexa or Google Home to control them.
Can non-Philips Hue bulbs connect to the bridge?
It is entirely understandable that a person may have more than just Philips Hue bulbs in their home, which leads people to wonder whether they can use the bridge to connect other brands of smart bulbs to their Philips Hue Bridge.
The thing is, however, that for many brands out there, you don’t even need a bridge to connect to Wi-Fi in the first place. Thus, even if the Philips Hue bridge was capable, it is not likely that your bulbs would require it.
- How to Pair Meta Quest 3 Controllers with Your Quest 3 Headset: A Quick Guide
- How to Charge Meta Quest 3: A Guide to Powering Up Your VR Experience
- How to Cast Meta Quest 3 to Samsung TV: A Step-by-Step Guide
- How To Factory Reset Your Meta Quest 3: A Step-by-Step Guide
- How to Power On and Off the Meta Quest 3