I am using (mainly) z-wave in our house based on HA (ZWAVE-JS) and the Aeotec USB Stick. I have 52 devices in total ranging from motion sensors, wall plugs, single / dual switches (mainly Fibaro, Aeotec) and a lock (Danalock).
Don’t get me wrong, I am really happy with it, but I have concerns, that it’s too complicated for non HA user (rest of the family) on the long run. Especially if something in HA fails.
My family is very used to using Alexa to switch all the z-wave devices and I would like to keep z-wave accessible even if there is no one anymore taking care of HA.
So, I am looking for a good (the best) external z-wave Hub to connect to HA.
So if HA fails for whatever reason, my family would still be able to use the main part of the “home automation” (without the HA logic of course).
Is this even possible / realistic?
Any recommendation is greatly appreciated.
So you ask on a home assisant forum how to use ZWave without home assistant? No there won’t be a lot of opinions about it.
Short version… If you want that then it means it’s its own self contained system and you wouldn’t necessarily need ha then but that system would the have its own complexity to deal with… you’d add another layer of communication between ha and whatever you install? So you’re not exactly getting rid of your stated problem toale it simpler and more robust.
Instead do what you can to ensure your system is as robust as possible so that it won’t go down and design with failure in mind. With ZWave that means Switches over soft buttons (so it works without network control) and use direct association between nodes when possible (so remote switching works without HA)
thank you for your feedback.
I don’t want to be blasphemic and as I mentioned - I am really happy with HA (much more than with openhab in th past - no offense OH community).
And I will use HA - unless I am gone.
I just had the experience that z-wave was the first (obvious) part of the system shutting down, when memory was running low.
(I solved this fo now with using OneDrive Backup only instead of local backups).
So, my idea was to keep the z-wave part isolated on a simple UI (Homee etc).
I would not create any logic there, but would focus on integrating Homee (or another z-wave compatible hub) into HA doing all the “real” work.
That’s very helpful.
I have most of the z-wave devices connected to swiches and will start with creating an overview what’s physically connected and what’s not (like motion / temperature sensors).
And I did not think about direct association yet - that’s a good point as well and I will look into this.
and as I mentioned - I am really happy with HA (much more than with openhab in th past - no offense OH community).