Looking for some recommendations for my setup. I have had HA for about 6 months and the only hardware I successfully setup were a few Matter Switches and a smart thermostat (that I had to leave behind). I just moved to a new apartment (USA) and want to either adopt ZigBee or z-wave for all my devices as they seem to be the best options for running things 100% from my server(?). I want to eventually invest in another smart thermostat, smart lights, windows sensors, smart blinds/or/curtains, temp/humidity/air quality sensors. HA server is set up in a Proxmox VM so I would need to just pass through any hardware that needs to be added to my host machine
#Starting fresh, and new to Home Assistant Zigbee vs Z-wave
lime helm
wooden stag
Since you’re in an apartment I would suggest Z-Wave so you’re not fighting with a bunch of 2.4 GHz WiFi networks
round hearth
... on the other hand, apartments are generally small enough that the reduction in zigbee or thread range caused by wifi interference isn't as big of a deal (I've got both zigbee and thread networks in an apartment without issue)
earnest zinc
on the flip side, I've lived in several apartments without issues with Zigbee
wooden stag
Zigbee should be cheaper so worth a shot
lime helm
is there one that's more widespread in the market?
round hearth
there are a lot of inexpensive battery powered sensors for things like doors, windows, temp/humidity with zigbee, and far more variety available in smart bulbs for retrofitting existing lighting fixtures.
(my understanding is that z-wave lighting stuff tends more towards professional installers rather than consumers, so it tends towards things like dimmers, relays, lighting fixture controllers rather than smart bulbs)
thick parcel
As of today, ZigBee with a SMLIGHT SLZB-06 or similar coordinator. Also, Zwave is proprietary technology
lime helm
would you then recommend looking for something that supports ZHA or is Zigbee2MQTT fine? not sure why there are two options
wooden stag
would you then recommend looking for something that supports ZHA or is Zigbee2MQ...
ZHA is HA’s built in Zigbee implementation while Z2M is an entirely separate project which can then be integrated with HA via MQTT as the name suggests
In my case I actually started with Zigbee before Home Assistant, so it was easier for me just to continue using Z2M
New devices seem to get support via Z2M faster than ZHA, but the setup is not as straightforward since ZHA is completely built in
Anyway, I am using the SLZB-06 over PoE with Z2M and it’s great
lime helm
good to know!