Philips Hue Natural Daylight Simulation

Coming soon and hopefully this year is the ‘natural light’ scene that would run across 24 hours helping and matching the sunrise and sun set as the day goes by.

Hue natural light simulation

This circadian lighting combines the sunrise and sunset features and incorporates the addition of maximum white light such as the energise and concentrate scenes, moving towards read and relax scenes to help you wind down for the evening and help your body prepare for sleep.

This time based light sequence allows your lights to adjust throughout the day depending on the time and where the sun would be.

This graphic shows how the ‘natural light’ scene could work:

This can be created using Apples HomeKit’s Adaptive Lighting, however if Hue can inchoate this it will make it easy for hue users on both Apple and Android devices to use and create.

Can Philips Hue replicate daylight?

Hue bulbs are not bright enough to replicate true day light, however 5000K is generally regarded as daylight by light manufacturers, the ‘energize’ scene is 6500K and is a bright white light which replicates the true light of the sun. 

Read our guide on how to use Hue for sunrise SAD light therapy here.

With Hue white ambience, these Hue Lights are designed to automatically simulate the sun.

“With Philips Hue white ambiance, we want to give people control of the impact that white light has on their wellbeing at home, particularly around day to day routines. By having every shade of white light at your fingertips, you can choose the perfect light you need to feel better, whether you want an energizing light for exercising or a dimmed nightlight for winding down to sleep.”

How bright are Hue bulbs?

Many of the Philips Hue lights can only reach a maximum brightness of 806 lumens, however the newest and most recent bulbs now have an increased brightness of 1,600 lumens, equivalent to a 100 Watt bulb. This increased brightness makes it better for recreating a day light scene and brightness.

Although this is brighter, a SAD lamp such as the ‘Lumie Vitamin L SAD and energy light’ is greatly larger at 10,000 lux and better for effective light therapy.

How to recreate natural light based on the time of day?

While Hue doesn’t have a solution for this at the moment, project Kelvin can help do this and adjust the color temperature and brightness of your lights based on the local sunrise and sunset times, while adjusting your lights throughout the day to your routine and schedule.

“In a nutshells Kelvin uses your Philips Hue bridge to talk to all the Hue lights in your home and will automatically configure them according to the schedules in your configuration file. In order to do this it will request the current state of every light every two seconds.”

Mike Ford

Founder & Editor

Mike is the founder of Hue Home Lighting, a huge Hue fan with far too many lights, covering home and garden. A smart home gadget addict and also enjoys the odd bit of DIY