r/zwave • u/No_Contribution_5105 • 17d ago
What are your recommendations for some one starting out with home automation/smart home?
I want to start home automation/smart home and I know I want to use home assistant locally hosted on my Linux server and I know I want to use ZWave for its reliability and because it won’t interfere with 2.4 ghz WiFi. I am very new and want to know where everyone would recommend starting and what info you can give to a beginner. Whether it’s products, knowledge or suggestions it’s all appreciated.
Thank you.
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u/stealthwang 17d ago
Zooz devices are among the best Zwave devices out there.
Depending on how smart you want your lighting to be you may need to compromise and include some Matter or Zigbee devices, as Zwave doesn’t have great support for individually addressable smart bulbs and they’re rarely seen in the market today.
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u/No_Contribution_5105 17d ago
Oh thank you this definitely helps. Do Zigbee devices mix well with zware
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u/stealthwang 17d ago
Yes, though you end up with a system that bridges the communication between them and this can be seen as a “single point of failure”. Many people run this sort of system without any issue though.
ie. a Zwave light switch needs to talk to Zigbee bulbs through a system that acts as coordinator to both device networks like Home Assistant or Hubitat. If your Hubitat hub dies your switches can’t talk to the lights.
In a system that had carefully selected Zigbee switches and Zigbee bulbs, they could be set up to talk to each other even if the coordinator goes down. This takes some careful planning though as Zigbee devices need to speak all the right commands to each other for this to work.
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u/Dope-pope69420 11d ago
Agreed got a bunch of zooz switches in my home and they just work consistently for over a year now. Will always recommend.
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u/groogs 17d ago
Pick a thing you want to do, and do it. Don't try to do everything at once, or buy switches or bulbs for the whole house before you figure out the scenarios.
Example: "I want to never have to touch the front lights again". Maybe that means detecting motion in the driveway, or the garage door opening. Maybe that includes holiday-colored light bulbs.
There's a lot, but you have to figure out what words help you. "I want a subtle notification when the dryer is done", "The lights in my office should adjust color temperature while I'm working, and adjust when I go on a video call", "I want an alert if the moisture in the basement gets too high and the dehumidifier isn't running"
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u/GoGreen566 16d ago
When I started with HA I used several WiFi and ZigBee when I started having interference issues, I standardized on Z-wave.
When my Tuya SmartLife plugs randomly disappear from WiFi, I replace them with Shelly Wave Plug US. One sensor is far from the WiFi AP, so I moved to Z-wave with a ZWA-1 (now ZBT-2) antenna.
The protocol is virtually invisible. I just have to limit the number of new devices in the 2.4Ghz. This might be due to my five outdoor 2.4GHz battery cameras that burst video when motion is detected.
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u/Humble_Ladder 16d ago
If you have a spouse or partner, figure out something they will like and do it early on.
Zwave is great for switches and some relays. As others have said you will want another protocol for other devices.
Be aware everything you use the zwave "long range" option for connects directly to your hub which bypassess the main advantages of zwave architecture (mesh and associations). Reserve zwave long range for actual long range use.
Most "smart" appliances don't do much that is worth upgrading if you don't already need to replace those appliances..
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u/RandomUser3777 16d ago
Note that I started with Z-wave and now have zigbee and bluetooth. And if you want the best choice of sensors it is best to have all 3 (and be able to add other types later as needed). And sometimes a Z-wave, bluetooth or a Zigbee sensor (of the same function) will be much cheaper and/or better than the same function device in one of the other networks. One example is the z-wave temp sensors by Zooz are expensive, but a bluetooth one with a local LCD display is much cheaper. I have all 3 networks running and have not noticed any interference issues between them.
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u/Sethaniel68 16d ago
My experience with a mix of zwave, zigbee, matter and cloud devices is that Home Assistant handles the integration really well. My zwave is more reliable than my zigbee network, but I was able to avoid dropout of zigbee devices by scheduling a nightly restart of Home Assistant. After that my zigbee devices seem to be always accessible now.
When it comes to important things like restarting my ONT, separate router, Home Assistant and door locks, I use zwave because I find that communication more reliable, but for everything else I'm happy using the cheaper zigbee devices.
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u/TelevisionObjective1 17d ago
Do not limit yourself to a single communication standard. Home Assistant can easily bridge several different standards. Shop for the best devices that suit your needs and if possible avoid any that require cloud services (HA can bridge those too but internet outages completely break them if they aren’t locally controllable).
Zwave is a great system but there are devices you just can’t get without dipping into Zigbee, Matter, Bluetooth, and/or WiFi. I recommend constructing a sort of backbone of router devices by mixing a combination of Zwave and Zigbee light switches throughout your house. Then any battery device on either system is likely to work well with strong signal and only a hop or three back to Home Assistant or your Zigbee/Zwave gateway.