We’ll be doing a major renovation of our first floor. The contractor will be doing all the work.
I am new (2 months) to home assistant, but love it, and want to add smarthome elements to the remodel.
Question 1: What is the best electrical outlet (smart plug) that works with HA (hass.io in particular)? I’m interested in quality, reliability, look, and safety. And I’m not looking to flash custom software. Is there a good out of the box solution for a standard (or even GFI) outlet for the USA?
Question 2: Regarding lighting, what is the gold standard? Is it Philips Hue (that would need a hub)? I would think with HA, controlling each switch / circuit may be better than individual smart bulbs? Am I wrong? What is the most professional looking, safe, and reliable wall / lighting switches that don’t involve flashing custom firmware (again, for the USA) that are easily configurable with home assistant? There will be different zones of canned lights (each with its own circuit / light switch), a chandelier over a dining table, and a group of pendent lights over a kitchen island. If you could start from scratch (which is what we’ll be doing), how would you configure these lighting needs? Is it true that there are no wifi-enabled dimmers for groups of lights / if you want to dim a canned light you’d need to use indivdual wifi-enabled bulbs instead?
Thanks for your advice!