best lights and plugs?

[lizargh]

Hello there. My 84 year old technophobe Mum has taken a shine to my echo and so am going to buy her one. While Im at it thought Id get her some plugs that link to it for her fan heater and lightbulbs for her reading light. SHe has no hub at the moment (i have a hive hub that echo talks to lights and heating) has anyone got any recommendations for a system? Im assuming it will need some sort of hub to talk to lights and plugs. all Advice gratefully received. Am finding the choices on amazon bewildering.

thank you
lizzie x

[mike27oct]

Check out the affordable line of TP-Link smart devices that require no hub and work well with Alexa.

[fstbusa]

I have a Smartthings setup and I think it works great. 

[renegade600]

if you go with no hub devices, be sure to look at the overall cost.  it is cheaper to get multiple bulbs and a hub than to go with no hub devices.  if you are only going to get a couple of bulbs, then it may be cheaper to go with no hub. 

eventually you may need a hub anyway.  personally I use wemo switches and a combination of ge link, cree, and philips hue bulbs.  I have a wink hub.  I wanted a combination of bulbs in case one manufacturer drops their support for their bulb.  I have already been burned over this once when I had all tcp connected bulbs. 

[bargepower]

I got my Echo for Christmas, ordered a Philips Hue starter pack and two extra bulbs on Christmas day (Just the plain white bulbs, not the colour change ones) which were delivered on the 27th and I think it's one of the best investments I've made. Total cost was £89. Works perfectly and easy to set up, took less than 30 minutes. You do need to plug the Hue hub into the router with a network cable which is the only possible downside for some people.

[DParker]

http://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,1370.msg8046.html#msg8046