Best devices for HA to start with

Hardware
1

Hello,

I am new to HA and I would like to know which provider of smart home hardware is the best. For example I know Aquara and Sonoff. Both have temperature sensor. But which one is the best?

Money doesn’t “matter”, and I simply want the best hardware. Additionally, it is important to me that the devices integrate perfectly with HA. I don’t want devices that require an extra hub or tinkering with HA besides HA itself and a Zigbee dongle.

I have also read that there are differences in how often a sensor transmits certain values to HA. With power plugs, it can be inconvenient if the current power is only reported every 15 seconds. This will distort the energy consumption measurement.

I would like to hear from you which manufacturers and devices you recommend. I want to start with the following devices:

  • Temperature/Humidity sensor
  • LED lamps (with color and dimming)
  • Power outlets (energy measurement and on/off)
  • Heating thermostat
  • Door and window sensor

And I have a question regarding Philips Hue: Can they be used with HA without the Philips Hue Hub? Do I just need to buy the Philips lamps then? Because if I have to tinker with the lamps, I don’t want them. In that case, the lamps from IKEA might be better since they can be integrated directly with HA without any issues?

Thank you very much… I can hardly wait to start with HA!

2

Money doesnt play a role.

Instead of asking those questions, you should ask yourself what protocol will I be using as default?

You can choose between wifi, zigbee, zwave ( always forget ), bluethooth, rf, thread or matter over therad.

And then build your smart home around it. You will probably need wifi, probably you gonna for some time want to set up vlans so there is something you can think about it. As in your case openwrt is out of the question, maybe you should look in some ubiquit devices that can provide vlan over wifi. And that alone is a big investment.

For every protocol there are better and not that better devices ( read cheap and expensive ). If you are willing to pay ie. 50 € or U$ per light switch you will get quality no doubt about it, but you gonna spend a lot of money on your smart home.

In the end of the day the question is why do you need it? I have it because it is my hobby and it does do some savings on gas bills and electricity bills. Its not huge amount but it does accumulate over the years.

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3

I want to use Zigbee. Matter is too new and there are for devices for Zigbee. So I am searching for the best Zigbee devices for the device catagories I mentioned

Just for fun. I want to do cool automations. But the devices should still be of the best quality, even if it’s just for fun

And I know Philips Hue is the best. But I am not sure if I can just buy a light bulb without the Philips Hue hub. Because I just want to have HA and no other Hub.

4

Philips Hue devices are all Zigbee, so you don’t need the hub if you already have the dongle. They’ll work with the ZHA integration or with the Z2M integration - which you choose is a matter of preference.

They’re also good quality and they stick to the Zigbee protocol more reliably than most manufacturers - some devices have additional features not covered by the protocol, but this is allowed and they’re well supported.

Another reliable manufacturer is Frient, and uniquely their website includes a compatibility table so you can check whether devices will work with HA.

Avoid Chinese products, especially if they look cheap (you get what you pay for). Avoid wi-fi devices with the Tuya label. Zigbee Tuya products are better, but it’s often difficult tell which is which.

Just because it says Zigbee on the box, doesn’t mean it will work with HA (or sometimes at all). Do your research.

Lots of good stuff here:

The Home Assistant Cookbook - Index

Good luck! :laughing:

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5

That is fine. Most of my smart home devices are using zigbee. You will need a decent zigbee coordinator. As zigbee is a mesh network you will need as much you can stuff zibee routers. Usually that devices are one that are using neutral from power grid, but that doesnt have to be a case for every device ie some presence sensors are routers.

You can always go for aquara devices, they are highly regarded as quality and good devices but I only have few of them out of 100 zigbee devices I have.

I dont know about that. I dont have any Philips Hue device.

Home assistant is a hub on which you can connect a lot of various devices. But as I said look out for wifi because you have wifi devices in your home and you gonna make vlans for them.

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6

No, dont avoid Chinese products. All my smart home devices are Chinese products. And they are working more then fine, including esphome devices. There are bad, cheap, and good, expensive Chinese products. If it is cheap that it is bad. Country of origin doesnt matter.

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Nowadays most things are made in China anyway! :rofl:

8

Yeah that true. They did developed a huge it industry based on smart homes. And they are doing it more than fine.

9

Thank you all! Good informations for me to start with HA

10

Best in terms of… accuracy?.. privacy? … responsivness? … design?.. durabilty?

Best of the best? Simply doesn’t exist if you ask me…

Just take your mentioned phillips hue for example:

  • Best color accuracy on the market? Maybe…
  • In terms of privacy, ownership or ZigBee compatibility? Maybe not?

Indeed, this is a common problem with many low power protocols (in particular when battery powered) as they usually limit the reporting - or may even have bandwidth limitations for fast updates.

Depending what device you want to monitor (for example non resitive loads) it is usually best practice (for maximum accuracy) to have a very high update frequency of the power metering hardware (like 100ms for example) on the device and directly populate the energy sensor on the device. The update frequency to HA can be lower (like 1s for example) but the energy readings will still be very accurate.

Now the bad news for you: This devices are widley available, cheap and offer the best possible HA integration thanks to local push but require hands on (what you don’t like) - so you might not choose the “best” here? As an example www.athom.tech offers power meter plugs with espHome that can be easily tweaked to work like described.

Also you might find yourself in need buying lots of ZigBee devices to build a new and solid infrastructure like you are already used from your wifi

You also might use the (free) search function to find many useful information like the quality scale of a integration

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11

You do not need any proprietary hubs/bridges/gateways for devices that use standard Zigbee products made for home automation and lighting (including Philips Hue which mainly use Zigbee in their products), so for those you only buy the actual Zigbee, but be aware that with Zigbee compatibility can be a bit tricky if buying. Good to know is that almost the same also goes for standard Z-Wave devices.

To be able to add such devices to Home Assistant directly recommend that you start with the built-in ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration that is fully embedded in Home Assistant to get the best native user exerience from the beginning. And the same goes for the Z-Wave (ZWave JS) integration if want to also add the ability to use those devices too. Recommend that you at least skim through their documentation here:

and

Note that before you can install those you first need compatible USB radio adapters for each to act as dedicated “Zigbee Coordinator” and “Z-Wave Controller” radios respectively (plus buy some long USB extension cables for them too). Good thing is that those kinds of USB radio adapters are inexpensive and relatively easy to replace later if you ever want to upgrade to a newer/other model:

  • As a recommended Zigbee Coordinator USB radio I can personally recommend the Sonoff ZBDongle-P (based on CC2652P), however, you could also just get the official Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 (previously known as Home Assistant SkyConnect USB radio adapter, which is based on EFR32MG21.

  • As a Z-Wave Controller USB radio I can right now personally recommend the brand new Zooz Z-Wave Stick 800LR adapter even though it is not yet listed as recommended (because it also supports the latest cutting-edge Z-Wave 800 Long Range standard so is more future-proof).

I think the great thing about Zigbee and Z-Wave is maybe not only that they are standards (meaning you can in theory add any devices from any brand that follow those standard) but that they will each create a totally local and secure private network using mesh networking via low-power radios. So while they only have a single-point-of-entry to Home Assistant you just add loads of mains-powered Zigbee and Z-Wave devices to those networks and they will expand the network mesh to increase the range and coverage of the overall network, (though downside to this is that you must add many mains-powered Zigbee and Z-Wave devices or else you will get crappy range and coverage).

Otherwise the main difference when using the native ZHA integration in Home Assiant compared to using any proprietary or commercial hubs/bridges/gateways (like the Philips Hue Bridge) is that you do not get any pre-configured automations and special device customization that they simply added to their own brand of hub/bridge/gateway instead of to the firmware of the device itself, like example adaptive lightning functions and out-of-the-box button-mapping for their own brand of remotes (as the “smarts” for those are in the proprietary or commercial hub/bridge/gateway software an not on the device itself).

This means that if you want to achieve those features in Home Assistant then will need to either create your own automations that replicate the parts of those functions, or easier if available is to find existing Blueprints that others created and posted the Blueprint Exchange (blueprint community forum) where Blueprints are shared by the community. I find Blurprnts especially helpful when adding a Zigbee or Z-Wave remote/button.

A tip is you can faster become a more advanced user is if you can learn not only take advantage of existing Blueprints, but also to combine creating “helpers” such as groups (under “Devices & Services” in settings ), as well as scenes (under “Automations & Scenes” in settings), as beginning to simply create a bunch of groups and scenes that you can then activate via your own automation on on-demand via the dashboard and voice can be powerful way to think more the bigger picture instead of individual devices.

Even if you do not already have a Zigbee hub/bridge I highly recommend that you check out this community migration guide as it covers not only the basics but also how-to replicating some of features from Philips Hue Bridge when added the devices to the native ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration instead.

As already mentioned, also suggest checking out all the linked guides in this cookbook collection, and epecially the Zigbee and Z-Wave

PS: Here are some other brands and devices to look out for (noting they do not exclusively use Zigbee):

  • Aeotec
  • Aqara
  • Bosch Security Systems
  • Innr
  • Inovelli
  • IKEA Trådfri
  • Ledvance (OSRAM)
  • Leviton
  • Philips Hue (Signify)
  • Phoscon
  • Sonoff (ITead)
  • Leedarson
  • SmartThings (Samsung)
  • Third Reality
  • Tuya (Warning! Tuya devices do not follow the Zigbee standard so require custom device handlers. Also be aware Tuya manfufacture white label products that other companies rebrand as their own).
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12

This is a nice question but not one with a simple answer.
Using Zigbee is (I think) a smart idea. I have my home, office and workshop all set-up with HomeAssistant installations with Zigbee devices.

Zigbee does have a few issues though. It is a mesh network with one coordinator (your zigbee stick/dongle on your HA machine), routers and end-devices. Most of the times all mains powered devices act as routers and all battery powered devices as end-devices. For the mesh to work best, it needs a tightly coupled net - meaning that you need a good number of router devices spread over your home/office area.

My office and workshop are located in a building with a number of thick walls and metal walls and my home has a thick concrete ceiling between the first and second floor limiting zigbee traffic.
I started using Sonoff ZBMINI devices. These have a 3-wire mains connection (neutral, phase and a wire to the lamp) so I can use my standard workshop lighting. These devices are all mounted in the connection boxes in the brick walls so they have a limited range. In a few places I do not have a neutral wire in the connection box so I needed the ZBMINI-L2. That one does not need a neutral wire and connects in between the phase and the wire to the lamp like a regular switch. But … this is not a router, only and end-device …

At home I started using smart power plugs (some unknown Chinese brand) but meanwhile replaced a lot of the regular not-smart light bulbs with Ikea Tradfri ones. These work great and the only issue I have with those is that the lowest dimming setting of a 860 lm bulb is still fairly bright and Ikea does not seem to have low intensity bulbs with an E27 socket so I added some smaller E14 bulbs with an E27-E14 converter.

My original zigbee stick was a Conbee-II stick but I had lots of issues with the configuration so I replaced all of them with the Sonoff Dongle.

All of these devices are perfect. Not (too) expensive and very reliable.

I have a few Sonoff SNZB-02D temp/humidity devices (with display) and these work perfectly as well but I have had bad luck with some of the other Sonoff battery powered devices. Their PIR sensor gives a lot of false positive movements, the older temp/humidity sensor kept loosing the network (and re-adding them failed a lot of times), the door/window sensor had a battery lifetime of about 2 weeks.
The human presence sensor (SNZB-06P) is a radar style presence sensor that also detects when I just sit on a chair and don’t move. This one is powered using a USB cable (you need to provide your own USB power adapter) and this one works very nicely - since it is ‘mains’ powered, it also acts as a router.

My wall switches are a mix of Aqara double wall rocker switches and different Ikea remote control devices. The Aqara switch is a no brainer, very long battery lifetime (3 years for the one that I use every day to switch the main lights on and off) and HA supports single click, double click, click both at the same time (and maybe more) events. The older (round) Ikea remote has also loads of events you can trigger on but the newer ones are a bit of a gamble. Styrbar is a 4-button remote but I heard that newer firmware now only shows 2 buttons in HA (but this is the one that you get for almost free with a number of “starter kits” so I do have a few of them). With the older firmware (that is still in the devices I bought last week) still has all 4 buttons but only provides single click events. The Somrig 2-button remote does support double click events.

Philips Hue works great with HA too but they are very expensive and I think they do not provide that much more functionality above the Ikea bulbs - apart maybe for the RGB color lamps.

If money is not an issue but quality is, I’d go for the Sonoff stick and Aqara wall switches (work great and look the best). Get an Ikea started kit (contains a few bulbs and a remote) and start playing with those.

Add in a few RGB bulbs too for mood lighting. Try one from Ikea and one from Hue and see what you like best. I think the Hue ones provide a nicer “color glow” that the Ikea ones but they are much more expensive.
When you buy Ikea lamps, look at the symbol on the box: there is a 270 degree circle that tells you if the lamp is an RGB one (rainbow color pattern), a cool/warm white one (blue/yellow circle) or only cool or warm white (blue or yellow circle).

I also have a few smart power plugs (NEO Zigbee Smart Power Plug with Energy Meter). These are nice to have so you can quickly make a non-smart device smart. Even your washing machine - you would not want to power it off using a plug but measuring the power you can create an event when it is ready)

All this works with just HA and a Zigbee stick. No need to use any of the Aqara, Hue or Ikea hubs or apps.

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13

Personal preference but can add that I hate replacing batteries and therefore try to avoid battery-powered products whenever I can (which is something that I wish I knew before buying loads of them).

Note also that Zigbee lightbulbs (i.e. a screw-in lightbulb) are not generally recommended for multiple reasons, instead it is generally recommended to buy dumb dimmable LED lightbulbs and either install a smart switch to replace your dumb wall-switch or convert your existing switch using a smart switch-module, (also known as a smart dimmer if it is a dimmable switch), this type of smart switch / smart dimmer solution is also a cheaper solution since you can have a single smart wall).

If you live in North America then you likely get complete smart switches to replace all your dumb wall-switches, and if you live in Europe (or Asia) then you instead get a smart switch-module to convert your existing dumb wall-switch into a smart switch.

The primary reason why Zigbee lightbulbs are not recommended is by the way that if they are a “Zigbee Router Device” (i.e. also acting as Zigbee repeater/extender) then you should not power them off using a switch as they always need to be powered or else it will mess with the Zigbee network mesh. Only ways around that is to either specifically buy Zigbee lightbulbs that are not Zigbee Router (such as all the models from Sengled) or remove any switches to them and instead use a Zigbee remote/button to control them indirectly via automation.

That is, the general recommendation is only to use Zigbee lightbulbs where there is no switch, such as example for accent lighting that is fully automation or when buying a complete new smart lamp whitch comes with Zigbee out-of-the-box (such as many non-lightbulb products from Philips Hue).

Another personal preference but I prefer to build-in the smarts into the product if possible, which is also why I prefer to convert existing products if possible. My advice is also for anything with mains-power I recommend get one that has built-in energy meter (power-measurement) if possible, as it is better to have it and not need it now than to not have it and need it later (the enerty dashboard in Home Assistant also allow you to track individual devices so having it built into everything is nice).

  • Convert (or replace) cord-switches for lamps to make them all into smart switches.
  • Convert (or replace) wall-switches to make them all into smart switches.
  • Convert (or replace) power-outlets to make them all into smart power-outlets.
    • Smart plugs can be used but avoid in longterm if possible if not seen as a temporary solution.

Specific tip there is to get these kind of Zigbee rotary in-line cord dimmer switches (made by Tuya but sold under many different brand names) if you have standing-lights or floor-lights with dumb dimmable LED-light, so again not a Zigbee lightbulbs but instead a Zigbee switch, (downside to these is that they do not have built-in energy metering):

PS: Off-topic tip is to read this: 20 things I wished I knew when I started with Home Assistant:

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If money is not an issue then I highly recommend to go with Z-Wave instead of Zigbee in most cases.

Z-Wave devices generally cost 5-times as much if compared to less expensive Zigbee products but the quality is usually much higher (unless buy products directly from China). If you compare to Philips Hue prices then Z-Wave is usually not that much more expensive. The problem with Z-Wave is that there are not as wide assortment and variants as there are with Zigbee devices.

Personally I have a mix of Z-Wave and Zigbee devices, where I mostly use Z-Wave for anything that will be built-in the wall (like a wall-switch or a power-outlet) as well as security stuff and for energy-metering, so anything needs to be reliable. I mostly use Zigbee for lighting (as long as it does not need to be built-in).

Z-Wave have much greater range and better radio propagation (penetration of building material), however you still still need enough Z-Wave mains-powered devices to build out a mesh network for redundacy.

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15

This is very likely true if you are using ZHA. But Tuya devices are working perfectly fine with zigbee2mqtt.

Majority of my 100 zigbee devices are Tuya devices and they are working perfectly fine. Till now I have one switch that died, but I will have to cut down electricity to see what is going on. Probably is for replacement. Everything else is still standing for couple of years.
I’m not writting this for having a debate with you. I just think that you and people that are suggesting other not to buy Tuya devices or some Chinese devices should point out that those devices will probably not work with ZHA integration, but will probably work with Zigbee2Mqtt.

So if you are planing to use zigbee over ZHA then don’t go with Tuya devices as most likely they will not work or are not supported.

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16

Wow, thank you very much for your very long and detailed messages. I hadn’t expected that at all

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It is a fact is that both Zigbee2MQTT and the ZHA integration needs custom device handlers for all Tuya Zigbee devices to translate Tuya’s non-standard commands into standard Zigbee clusters and attributes, (Zigbee2MQTT call such translating device handlers for Zigbee-Herdsman Converters and ZHA call theirs ZHA-Quirks), so they both need custom workarounds coded for each and every Tuya device.

Fact is also that all Tuya devices can be made to work with both the ZHA integration and Zigbee2MQTT if enough effort is put into it. Zigbee2MQTT does at this point still have a larger community of contributers that help with the development of Zigbee-Herdsman Converters and thus often get support first for newer Tuya devices, but ZHA is slowly catching up and recently got a major change of how Quirks for ZHA is written to make them much easier to make.

Home Assistant’s ZHA integration and Zigbee2MQTT are however today slightly targeting different users. Where as ZHA is trying to be super easy to get started with and maintain with as little effort as possible, Zigbee2MQTT is targing advanced power-users as well as aiming to be compatible with all different home automation software solutions.

For the record, I have and use many simple Tuya devices just fine with the ZHA integration, (in fact I actually recommended a few Tuya rotary cord dimmers in my post above), but I would not personally recommend some more complex Tuya devices (such as example thermostats) regardless if using ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT.

For more detailed info on how Tuya devices work under the hold in ZHA follow the links in this guide → Zigbee Guide: How-to add/setup local custom ZHA Device Handlers (also known as ”quirks”) in the ZHA integration

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I knew that this will be discussion with you. Yes z2m is using a lot of converters to make some devices to work. Is this purely and only for tuya devices or there are other manufactures that need converter so that devices can work in ha, I dont know. And I’m to lazy to check this out.

My replay to your subject wasn’t because device converters than because “Don’t buy Tuya devices, they don’t work”. Yes they do work. I as end user don’t care if z2m or zha is using converter for devices to be supported. I’m just interesting will device work as expected and how much will I have to pay for it. And that is it.

My experience with tuya zigbee devices is … they just work, they are not disconnecting from the network, they don’t die suddenly for no obvious reason and those devices are quite reliable for the past few years.
Will someone buy tuya device or some other brand or just go with the most expensive product on the market is on every individual.