Building a domotic home with Zigbee

Hello everyone! Up to now I have lived in a fairly small apartment (two-roomed apartment) waiting to move one day to a larger one with more rooms. In this apartment of mine I have already started experimenting with a lot of automation with Home Assistant and I must say that I fell in love with home automation and the power that a simple tool like Home Assistant can have. The thing I appreciate most is the possibility to freely use the Zigbee protocol, thanks to ConBee and deConz. Being able to freely use Philips Zigbee sensors (which would need their own hub) and Xiaomi zigbee sensors (which would also need their own hub) together and being able to make them talk to each other without problems is something wonderful. All thanks to a simple USB (ConBee II) that can act as a universal hub! But here comes my question. Connecting devices with the Zigbee protocol to Home Assistant is basic, as long as they are close to the hub (in this case the ConBee II usb). But when I move into my new apartment, which has many more rooms and some certainly far from the hub, how will I always use the zigbee sensors? I learned that some zigbee sensors, such as IKEA ones, also work as signal repeaters and are therefore able to connect more distant devices. However, I wonder if this is the only working solution or if there are other methods to place zigbee sensors throughout the house and be able to connect them correctly to the hub, without the danger of disconnections. Honestly, going to buy IKEA sensors (which I might not need) just to use them as repeaters seems to me an unnecessary expense. Do you have any advice for me? Thanks a lot to everyone!!!

No battery powered devices work as routers, including IKEA sensors. You need mains powered devices for routers. Can be a bulb or a power outlet, or even a dedicated router.
If your sensor work without routers, no one can tell, you have to test it. Every house is different. It sure helps to put your coordinator as central as possible.

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