A "few" general questions

Hardware
1

Hi,
I am new to this “game”, so I have a lot of stupid questions … so let’s try:

I have a DS918+ Synology NAS, and I installed the Docker HA. I have a ZWave Aeotec USB, plus a few Aotec Tri-Sensors for now. I will test a zigBee soon as well…

  1. I am confused about lighting options … I live in a country that loves lamps … so all my rooms have a light-switch that powers a … wall-plug that goes into a … lamp! So I am quessing I should replace the switches … would this be a decent option ? I see they dont have dimming but they are very cheap … Any better suggestions ? “Real” Light-Switches ?.. I don’t have “grounding” on any of them (older building). What is the point of using smart bulbs ? Dont they get shut down by the switches by a non-happy-automation-wife ?

  2. For my other lamps I would assume i need something like this ? Are they all WIFI ?

  3. I connected HA to Alexa and Alexa to my Synology Audio Station … pretty cool (I had to create an US Amazon account … amazing 2020 location technology challenges). I “dream” of having one Echo Dot in each of my kids rooms and make sure Alexa is reading them a to-do list in the morning and also one when they come home … any suggestion on spliting the tasks and triggering them individualy ?

  4. I want a web-cam to use outside of my appartment (indoor) to recognise faces/movement … all the webcams I’ve seen are “huge” … I need a very small (and white) one that won’t be the floor attraction … do you have any suggestions ? … I may use same in house …

  5. Door locks … any good one that does not look like a “THIS IS A VAULT” ? I just want one that looks like a normal lock … at least from outside …

  6. Heating Centrale … quite a few on the market … again any suggestions will be appreciated.

  7. GPS trakers … besides Iphone (I see is working) what can I use to track the family members (light, small) … a cheap watch for kids ?

  8. What Vaccum Cleaner do you recomend ?

Thank you!

2

  1. Personally, I think you’re better to put smart switches (or modules) in - then things work as people expect. Smart bulbs, for me, are kept for things not connected to wall switches.

  2. You want to check the integrations list. Random WiFi devices probably won’t work with HA - Zigbee and Z-Wave are far more likely to.

  3. Triggering is “just” an automation and text to speech.

  4. Best to start a separate thread

  5. As (4)

  6. See (4)

  7. Also see (4), but … see here too.

  8. See here, and start a fresh topic if you want to discuss further

As you’ve probably got the idea by now, I recommend one topic per, well, topic. Then you don’t get a long rambling thread that doesn’t really help you.

3

Thanks! Will do so.