Most of my switches are actually lights. A few of my lights are really fans.
I have only about handful of scripts, most automations are instances of very functional blueprints.
From an automation perspective, I rarely touch a switch/dimmer or use the HA UI.
Most of the helpers (Timer, Input Text, Input Boolean, and some of the sensors, are created by instantiating my blueprints and support the instance of the blueprint)
If I do, it’s usually to get NON STANDARD RESPONSES … or right after a power outage.
(i.e. I might ask my voice assistant to lower the ligths after it detected me running to the kitchen during a tv commercial)
(i.e. I might lower the level of lights in my bedroom to less than 10% to indicate that I want the lights to go out in a minute and ignore my motion as I get to the bed)
I have all my switched and dimmable lighting on a wired C-Bus system bridged to MQTT. 120 nodes. Whenever I add other devices WiFi, ZWave ZigBee Cloud etc I always expose them on MQTT too. I probably have 500+ sensors , devices etc linked like this. So I describe my ‘system’ as MQTT with intelligent clients like HA etc. I use several controllers.
In this way I only connect information from the devices the controller has an interest in via the MQTT broker. So one controller might handle lighting, another HVAC , another security and another AV. This works really well for me and can offload devices from controllers. Of course one controller could handle multiple aspects if preferred.
It still takes a lot of configuration but is a very flexible architecture allowing any device supported on any controller to be shared.
Determining just what is controlling what is the biggest issue in complex integrations as MQTT does’ t provide easy inspection and logging of client interactions
PS I am not a big fan of ZWave or ZigBee radio networks although of necessity they are in the mix. WiFi is my preference where practical
I have around 2000 entities and no idea how many devices. The house is almost fully automated, i.e. things happen without intervention as appropriate: lights turn on, blinds open and close, air conditioners heat and cool, that sort of thing.
There is manual override available at any time and voice control via Siri and Google Assistant.
All running on an ODROID N2+ along with a handful of addons. I use an USB3 SSD for storage, not MMC or SD.
You should never build a Home lightings system that cannot be toggled by switches.
I personally used Z-Wave contactors in the past but I now use Philips hue ecosystem with its bridge.
I replace physical switches with their remotes, lights bulbs are continuously powered, as a tenant it’s nice because I do not have to wire any neutral, I can easily but back switches.
My solution is reliable, I only have an issue with floor lamp since there’s no ZigBee remote I can put on the powercord, therefore guests tends to power off my floors lamps.
In the second house I have wireguard VPN in the router and in the third, the router does not have that feature, and I only use Sonoff devices in cloud mode.
