Splitting my Zigbee network in 2: advise wanted for a minimal effort "migration"

Configuration Zigbee
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1

I’ve started with Home Assistant and a Sky Connect on ZHA. I added and added stuff, so I came to a total of 140 devices (routers and battery sensors)! My Zigbee network became unstable but I couldn’t find out why (with so many routers).
Someone asked if I had a lot of metering plugs, and I did. I looked at the diagnostics and I my channel (20) is quite busy: 76 dB. Metering plugs do sens a lot of information and apparently congest the network.

I took the advise to split my Zigbee network. I ordered a SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus. The setup will be: Wifi channel 1, Zigbee Lights/sensors channel 20 and Zigbee metering channel 25. Both Zigbee networks are well placed inside my (three story) house.

But, the big question is: what is the best way to “migrate”… or multiple questions are:

  1. Will try to install the Sonoff with Z2M; what will I add to this coordinator? Metering plugs or lights and sensors? What will benefit more from Z2M?
  2. Want to keep Sky Connect on ZHA so I do not have to migrate devices. Good idea?
  3. Can I add them and rename them back to their old ID’s? (So I do not have to edit my dashboards and automations; that will be a massive thing)
  4. Any other advise, strategy or tips?
2

Splitting networks is fine, but people normally do it when they have some problem devices that won’t work with ZHA. A Skyconnect should be able to support 200+ devices. It can only connect directly to a limited number of them (I think 32) but most connections will be through routers, so that should not be a problem.

Bear in mind that two networks may well be less robust that one big one, since they will each have fewer routers.

On the channels, if you download diagnostics (overflow menu on the ZHA integration page) towards the end of the file you’ll get something like this:

    "energy_scan": {
      "11": 3.2311094587038967,
      "12": 4.15070068297423,
      "13": 75.96022321405563,
      "14": 89.93931580241996,
      "15": 89.93931580241996,
      "16": 80.38447947821754,
      "17": 5.317630506738386,
      "18": 4.69985354430736,
      "19": 0.9017765778954641,
      "20": 39.90320178295578,
      "21": 13.711043742539033,
      "22": 59.15797905332195,
      "23": 55.9836862725909,
      "24": 4.15070068297423,
      "25": 2.509919386096536,
      "26": 92.0598007161209
    }

It shows the percentage noise on each channel, including Zigbee and wi-fi. In this example, my Zigbee’s on 15.

This is how channels map onto each other:

Screenshot from 2025-11-10 01-30-15
Screenshot from 2025-11-10 01-30-15521×262 47.4 KB

3

My Zigbee channel is 20 right now. These are fresh diagnostics. I see yours is 89! Doesn’t that cause problems?

      "11": 12.244260188723507,
      "12": 62.257682586134884,
      "13": 36.830390267097734,
      "14": 28.30261646762903,
      "15": 36.830390267097734,
      "16": 23.33483723001185,
      "17": 36.830390267097734,
      "18": 33.860880820104335,
      "19": 19.00785284282869,
      "20": 68.14622793558128,
      "21": 17.086630587133605,
      "22": 31.01324838787301,
      "23": 36.830390267097734,
      "24": 25.74050169409602,
      "25": 7.659755505061292,
      "26": 33.860880820104335

I have indeed problems with sensors failing off the network and some that cannot be added again. Lights that have lag or cannot be switched at all.

I have a good router spreading for lights and sensors on one network and a good spreading for metering plugs.

4

Is there wifi that is not on 1,6,11?

5

Well, my Zigbee channel is a lot noisier than yours, but it seems quite solid (touch wood).

Have you tried a few more routers? The idea is to blanket the house with connections - even if you have them spread evenly, they may not be doing that.

6

This is just 2.4 GHz wi-fi, which many IoT devices insist on, unfortunately.

7

My wifi is on channel 1. I do not have much surrounding networks from neighbors.

My network has 141 devices. There are 45 end devices. And 95 routers around the house. Quick count. I have an old house without any (steel)concrete.
ChatGPT couldn’t get a count of the metering plugs.

{% set zigbee_devices = integration_entities('zha') %}
{% set metering_entities = zigbee_devices | select('search', 'power|energy|vermogen') | list %}
{{ metering_entities | count }}

Results in 49. But those aren’t all metering plugs.