I’m about to get started with home automation. First goal is the central heating system. It is a hydronic system, wall mounted radiators in every room and a gas boiler.
If you were starting from scratch today and wanted to buy the products that are easiest to use with Home Assistant and other free software solutions:
which TRV would you buy for the radiators, in particular, for compatibility with the software and for compatibility with the valve bodies?
which other products and brands would you choose, for example, temperature sensors, occupancy sensors, managed power outlets?
which network protocol would you prefer, or does it matter?
I use Energenie TRVs and they work well. They use a rare two way 433Mhz protocol, so you will need their hub, or use their two-way pimote and some custom code (which is what I do).
I use ELV Max for radiators and control the boiler using a simple relais and a separate Z-wave temperature sensor. Next time, I wouldn’t buy ELV Max again; noisy step motors and many connection issues. I also wouldn’t go for the Z-wave temperature sensor: when Z-wave fails, the house gets cold or the boiler just doesn’t stop heating.
Save yourself a lot of time and frustration by investing in reliable hardware.