Hello everyone!
Right off the bat: I am new to Home Assistant. I want to learn it, but haven’t done a single bit with it before.
I currently have six smart home hubs, four ZigBee, two Z-Wave, in use and would like to:
- Consolidate them
- Untangle myself from the Cloud
This came to be from a combination of poor choices in life, missing knowledge of these things and cost.
The only Z-Wave devices I have are 10 radiator control valves (Danfoss units) and one thermostat (because I am the only one in the house that sometimes prefers the physical control). The Z-Wave Hubs are the most infuriating because they are slow as a star fish and one of them constantly loses the connection to the valves, even the one that is like a meter away from it with line of sight.
Everything else is either ZigBee (primarily lights and a few smart outlets) or is on my WiFi (or wired LAN when possible).
To get rid of the mess of hubs I have put Home Assistant in a Docker Container on my Synology NAS (because it is the only machine I have that I have dedicated to 24/7 operation) and am now at the point where I need to order the module(s) that lets HA talk to the devices without any hubs in between.
Which sticks are recommended to achieve that? If one stick can do Z-Wave AND Zigbee, I would definitely prefer that, but I can also live with two (on a USB hub). If they have external antennas that’s a plus.
In terms of devices that can act as repeaters, which ones are the simplest for both wireless standards? They don’t need to be able to do anything else, I just need a good way to get the signal through the brick and concrete. I know anything that is directly wall powered can do it, but in some spots where anything with the job of repeater is likely to live I don’t need any smart stuff.
I apologize for being such a noob on this, but I’m sick and tired of the mess of hubs and different apps and am only now getting to find a more centralized solution.
Thanks a lot!
UPDATE 1, on coordinators/sticks: I have now bought the HA Skyconnect for ZigBee and the Aeotec Z-Stick 7 for Z-Wave. The Zooz 800 isn’t readily available, but I also don’t plan to add any more or fancy Z-Wave devices than absolutely necessary.
I only use it because changing the radiator valves now would be very pricey.
The cheapest ZigBee valves I could find are around 30€ a pop and switching to DECT valves, for which I have HA compatible base stations with no cloud integration, would be worse.
UPDATE 2, on repeaters: For ZigBee I’ll just get the Ikea smart outlets because they are the cheapest and I don’t intend to switch ANYTHING with them, I just need them to get the ZigBee signal further than like a meter from the closet where the HA host will live.
For Z-Wave I will try to track down a cheap smart outlet because for Z-Wave I don’t have the luxury of a directly mains-powered device anywhere in the house.
I am now desperately waiting for the sticks, the notifications from the Z-Wave Hubs are getting more annoying by the message.
I thank everyone that has sent suggestions and tips!