Philips today sent out an email announcing that its White Ambiance E12 candle light bulb is now available for pre-order in the United States.
Priced at $29.95, the candle (or candelabra) bulb is designed to fit small decorative lamps with E12 sockets in the United States. Like other Hue bulbs, the new candle bulb can be connected to a Philips Hue bridge and controlled via HomeKit.
At the current time, Philips is only offering the White Ambiance candle bulb for pre-order in the United States, but the company has said that it also plans to offer a color version, so customers who prefer the Hue bulbs that support shades beyond white may want to wait for that version.
Philips originally announced its candle bulbs in March of 2017, launching them first in Europe. E14 candle light bulbs have been available in Europe in both color and white ambiance versions since April. According to Philips, the candle bulb is "one of the most requested products" from Philips Hue customers.
The bulb is a 40W equivalent, offering up to 570 lumens. It features deep dimming from warm white to cool daylight with a 2200k to 6500k color temperature range. The White and Color Ambiance version, when available, will offer the same white options along with support for 16 million colors.
Top Rated Comments
Yikes. To outfit the six fans in my house with these little bulbs would cost $539.10. I'm really tempted to do my bedroom and living room, but might wait until there is a sale or something.
If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the hue subreddit - The users there are often posting deals that they find and sometimes the deals are drastic.I was able to get a complete starter kit (three x Gen3 Colour bulbs + hub) for 50% off retail due to a post there and they post great deals like that practically every month from various retailers (Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy etc)
Cheaper would be nice, but I also want more lumens from their standard bulbs (i.e. make a 75w or 100w equivalent, rather than just 60w equivalent bulbs). The Hue ecosystem is nice though, I can control them with Siri, from the Hue dimmer switch wallplates I have by a few doors, and from my custom-built Raspberry Pi weather station / home automation system's touchscreen (Hue has a very useful HTTP REST / JSON interface).
You actually bring up a pretty good point. I would also be in favor of a brighter 75w or 100w replacement. Definitely a few places in my house where the extra light would make a difference. Hopefully we'll see that option sometime in the near future.