Building a Z-Wave Network

[zenith linden]

Hello all! We’re going to be moving soon and I’m taking the opportunity for a ground up rebuild of my Home Assistant setup. One aspect is I would like to replace as many WiFi devices as I can with Z-Wave. Open to Zigbee too, I’m sure there is a post somewhere on here comparing them at length.

I want to do some level setting and planning, so my questions are:

1. Is there a calculation to figure out how many devices would build a mesh that is considered pretty reliable/stable? Assuming a somewhat even distribution throughout the home.
2. Is there a cost floor for devices like switches or plugs where anything cheaper shouldn’t be considered reliable? I.e. if I buy cheaper hardware and have issues, would it be safe to blame the cheap hardware before trying to diagnose other issues with my network?

Any thoughts on these or other general advice is greatly appreciated!

Update: some more info, I plan to mainly be using light switches, bulbs, plugs. This would be for a single family home, 2 stories + finished basement so a good amount of area to cover.

[granite pagoda]

How many and which types of devices are you looking to use? If you're talking about WiFi that makes me think they're hardwired/mains wired things like switches, etc, but also knowing if you have battery powered devices like contact sensors, motion sensors, and how many would be important

If you're going to be in a densely packed area (condo, apartment, etc) Z-Wave makes a lot of sense since you're in the 900 MHz band instead of the noisier 2.4 GHz for WiFi, Zigbee, and Thread

[late kiln]

A few recommendations:
Get the Home Assistant ZWA-2 and put it in a good location.
That will reduce your reliance on the mesh which can be a burden if it's not rock solid.

Include everything that does energy/power metering with Z-Wave Long Range to keep it off the mesh.

There isn't really a cost floor. Zooz can be pretty damn cheap for Z-Wave, especially during sales.

[zenith linden]

Thanks for the info! Primarily would be stuff that either is plugged in or hard wired. I have some motion sensors and contact sensors from Ring, I forget which protocol those use under the hood (or if they play nice anyway)

[zenith linden]

Thanks for the reply, glad to know cheap stuff should work fine! My HA stuff was probably going to live in the unfinished part of the basement, but maybe I can buy like a Z-Wave repeater or something to plugin above it on the main floor to really solidify the network without needing to optimize the mesh.

[granite pagoda]

I believe those are Z-Wave. I would just give it a try because range is pretty good

They work! I got a 6 pack for $30 recently