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? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

ZigBee devices are really nice because they are low energy, easy to set up and don't add extra strain on your wifi access point(s). The battery operated ones last for months to years on a small button cell battery and most plug-in/wired ones act as repeaters. Also, a lot Wi-Fi devices are cloud based or require flashing to make them completely local. With ZigBee or even Zwave you are certain they have no internet access and cannot phone home without you having to put any precautions in place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

If I already have a handful of WiFi devices, do you think it is worth it to replace them? Say, 4-5 switches. I'm planning to invest in a few more and a home thermostat. I certainly want to commit before buying a thermostat, since they tend to be a little more pricey.

Is there a greater danger of ZigBee not being sustainable over decades? WiFi will probably be available for the remainder of my lifetime because it is already so ubiquitous.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I would say unless they're cloud based it's not really a priority with sometime like home assistant since it allows for devices of different platforms and technologies to work together.

It's hard to know with technologies, but I don't think ZigBee is a big risk and since it's local even if they stop producing them that doesn't break your existing devices. I mean, Wi-Fi will undoubtedly still exist, but that doesn't mean the platforms and protocols that Wi-Fi devices use will and devices that connect to the internet can be disabled by updates.

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