Leaving Zwave/Zigbee and going to wifi

Hi,

I’ve been running zigbee, zwave and also 433 side-by-side for a while. It’s great when it works, but I must say that it is rare to work 100%. It seems like there are always issues; devices dropping of the network - repairing and general fiddling. It’s seems to be constant trial-and-error.

For kicks I built the $15 dollar multisensor (Bruh) a good while back - using ESPhome - and I must say it has been 100% reliable. I’ve been running it for quite a while, and it “just works”. It is my cheapest sensor, and also my best one. It is much more responsive and I can poll for values much more frequently. Obviously, it not being battery-powered has a lot to do with that.

After yet another couple of days with zigbee/zwave issues, I am now thinking I will switch everything out to wifi/esphome. Sure, having things powered will be a pain, but the upsides are just too big. I am aware that there are “deep sleep” functionalities, that could potentially let one of these sensors run on battery, but I have not looked into that at all.

That’s all good for sensors, but to control lights - that’s a bit different. I’ve been looking and the shelly in-wall switches seem very attractive. A big plus is the WAF. (No more “please dont turn it off on the switch on the wall”). And, no more buying hue or tradfri…

I was wondering if anyone else has the same ideas… or any thoughts on the matter?

cheers

I share your experience (e.g. suddenly missing devices in my zwave network) and opinion.

I have shellys and esp wallplug with esphome. Much better. Unfortunately battery life is an issue. That is probably the reason no esp powered radiater thermostats are on the market.