I am just getting started into modern home automation at my new house in the country. I am a very long-time X-10 at my old house, but need more than that old tech can provide. I have my Pi and HUSBZB-1 on order and am already an experienced Pi tinkerer, as well as being a fairly good programmer (IMHO, of course).
I am currently determining which switches, controllers and devices I want to get for the various priority areas at my farm. Because of distance, (house to barn) I know I will be using at least some z-wave devices (and might even be pushing that range a bit - may have run an ethernet line to the barn for a 2nd pi there). But will likely gravitate toward zigbee within my house.
I have read the post comparing zigbee, z-wave and wifi from earlier this year. It is quite a good read. My main question now is whether or not anyone has really noticed the difference in bandwidth and performance of zigbee products vs z-wave products? If there is a noticeable difference, how does that difference manifest? Is there more delay between pushing a button and the light turning on? Or maybe only noticeable when you are trying to make a button control multiple lights?
IMHO - this is more a function of your prevailing conditions locally. For instance, I’m in suburbia, USA and I tend to have a lot of neighbors that work in tech. I can’t get away from Wi-Fi signals EVERYWHERE here. My neighbor seems convinced that he has to bathe his house with a 2.4Ghz Wifi signal on channel 11 you could receive from space.
How that translates? I had to engineer my Zigbee network around it by choosing particular channels that wouldn’t interfere with his Wi-Fi, My Wi-Fi and everything in between. Does everyone have to do that? No.
It doesn’t make it any more or less ‘fast’ or responsive, it’s a matter of ‘works’ or ‘doesn’t work.’
Otherwise, I have not personally experienced one faster than the other or more responsive or even needing different considerations from range or a device placement perspective. I plan all my devices no farther than 30’ (~10m) from the nearest wired repeater of the correct protocol Zigbee or Zwave (plus or otherwise) Yes I maintain both. So it’s two maps.
So, choose your tech based on what works for you. Here I have all of mmy hardwired switches and fan controllers as ZWave and all of my Wired power outlets (Yes, I did all the outlets too) are Zigbee.
While my neighbor wants strong Wifi, My Zigbee and Zwave meshes would make Clark Griswold jealous.
Given that, My decision tree is usually something like:
Best in class Zwave device in the category?
No - Zigbee device in category?
No? Ok fine, is there a WiFi device? (I’m FRIMLY in the no wifi devices unless I HAVE to camp)