I’m setting up a large facility with Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi and I’m looking for recommendations on the best WiFi sensors to detect when doors or windows are opened. I have WiFi coverage throughout the space using repeaters, so the sensors need to be WiFi-compatible.
Ideally, I’d like sensors that either have a long battery life or are plug-in, as I do have power outlets available. The facility has 10 doors and is quite large and elongated, so I need something reliable.
Generally what you can do is get the wifi sensors that fit the budget then include battery eliminator cables as extras for the battery type that they use at the time else you would be best going the wired reed sensor solution.
WiFi on battery is a bad combo and you will never get good battery life on that.
WiFi is a heavy protocol, especially with the setting up of the connection, which a battery device needs to do all the time.
Either choose a device with another protocol, like Zigbee, Z-wave, Thread or maybe just plain RF, or make sure they are all wired.
I agree with other commenters that WiFi’s drawbacks include poor battery life, not to mention too many WiFi devices require needless cloud connectivity which is a nightmare for privacy and availability (many cloud services have shut down, leaving devices useless). That said, while I haven’t used it personally, the Shelly Door/Window 2 has WiFi with two CR123s claiming 18 months of battery life, and Shelly hardware typically runs cloud-free locally. If nearby power is available (and cost is not an issue) there are battery eliminators to use a usb power source instead.
Perhaps consider BLE sensors, of which several can be easily “relayed” (proxied) through a nearby WiFi device to overcome range limitations. The Shelly BLU door/window, by comparison, has a single CR2032 and claims five years battery life. You might also find substantially more options for BLE sensors than WiFi, and they are almost guaranteed to be fully local.