One of the biggest challenges with latching lighting is giving the people in your home life-changing habits. When you install a new lathcing light bulb, you need to make sure the light switch stays on and on, otherwise it won’t work with voice assistants like Alexa or Google Home. You can’t set a schedule, and if you create routines, they won’t work if the lights are off. One of the simplest and easiest ways to get around this is to use latching switches to control your lighting so you can get the best of both worlds.
The new Philips Hue Tap Dial is powered by a single CR2052 battery with a two-year lifespan. The dial is divided into two parts: a bracket that can be glued to the wall, and a dial switch with four buttons and a dial around them. With each individual button on the Tap Dial you can control up to three rooms or a zone.
The square mounting plate is the size of a standard light switch plate and can be glued to the surface with pre-installed adhesive foam pads or screwed on with the included hardware. The Tap Dial can be used as a remote control or placed on a mounting plate next to an existing wall switch or elsewhere for easy access. I use it in my home office and although the mounting plate is next to the light switch on my wall, I usually use the Tap Dial on my desk to control all the lights in the room.
To use the Tap Dial, you need a Philips Hue bridge and a Hue light. Adding it to the bridge is as easy as adding a new light bulb, and once installed, you’ll have tons of options and features in the Hue app.
I have found the Tap Dial very useful in my office where I can control four different lights. This gives me precise control over each individual light at different times of the day, depending on what I’m doing. I also use Alexa to control my lights, but when you need to control multiple devices at the same time, Tap Dial is more convenient.
The same parameters can be individually configured for each of the four buttons. The button can be used to switch between five scenes or select one scene. Press the button to close the connected room or area.
If there are a lot of lights in the room, such as spotlights in the kitchen, you can set up zones to control different areas of the room – bright areas above the countertop area, then soft light above the dining table.
You can also set the buttons to temporary lighting settings. For example, if this feature is enabled, the lighting will be bright white during the day, dimmed by warm light at night, and then very dim at night. You can set a time period for each of the three behaviors.
The large dial around the four buttons provides incredible flexibility. If the light is off and you turn the dial up, it will gradually increase the brightness of all the lights associated with the four buttons to achieve the set scene, such as bright, relaxing, or reading. You can customize the dials to control all the Hue lights in your home, or choose a separate set. If a light or single light is on, the dial can be set to be dim but not turn off, or stay dim until the light turns off.
I love using the Philips Hue Tap Dial to control the lights in my office and I get more for the rest of the house. However, if you only want to control one light in a room, all you need is a switch, such as a momentary button or a dimmer. Tap Dials offers advanced controls that are easy to use for everyone, and the addition of a rotary dial is and looks great.