homeassistant

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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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ZigBee and Zwave? (self.homeassistant)

submitted 2 weeks ago by gedaliyah to c/homeassistant

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I see a lot of posts about people who like their Zigbee and Z-Wave products. As I'm setting up the hardware in my home, I'm using Wi-Fi products because I already have Wi-Fi. I don't see much difference in price. What is the actual benefit of setting up a separate network for home devices? Is there a reason that I should consider setting up one of these networks?

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[–] billwashere 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I also thought zigbee was more open and had less licensing fees.

[–] deafboy 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

But also more open for the vendors to come up with new and creative ways to violate the protocol.

[–] billwashere 2 points 2 weeks ago

Seems like this is relevant:

https://xkcd.com/927/

[–] AA5B 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I read it’s something like typical $5 price difference and z-wave have to pass compatibility tests

I initially went with z-wave because

900MHz frequency has better range in my house
compatibility is good
my local home center had a few z-wave devices but no Zigbee

But I ended up with both, no problem, and will soon add Thread.

I strongly prefer local networks instead of WiFi so I know they’re not calling home, it’s cleaner separation, and allows battery devices

[–] billwashere 2 points 1 week ago

Totally agree. There is no way a zigbee or zwave can phone home. Somebody pointed this out earlier and I just hadn’t put any thought into that aspect.