I read it’s something like typical $5 price difference and z-wave have to pass compatibility tests
I initially went with z-wave because
But I ended up with both, no problem, and will soon add Thread.
I strongly prefer local networks instead of WiFi so I know they’re not calling home, it’s cleaner separation, and allows battery devices
I also haven’t seen any problems with either my z-wave mesh or my Zigbee mesh, but it’s an interesting tell that several network troubleshooting features have been added to Home Assistant over the last year or two
While I don’t have a good real life answer since I haven’t done that, the newest z-wave devices have a long range mode for exactly this type of thing and at least on paper have well over this range. You might do so research on those and look for those devices specifically
But if your phone doesn’t have great signal across the entire house a lightswitch inside of a metal box in the wall is going to be worse.
I hesitated expecting exactly this, but so far it’s worked flawlessly.
My house is older construction with very dense walls, and yes all the switch boxes are metal. When I enter my house, cell coverage drops to one bar and might goto zero as I walk around the house (thank goodness for WiFi assist). WiFi disappears as I go through certain doorways so I need a mesh and mesh routers about 10-15’ apart can’t communicate with each other. Back when cordless phones were a thing, they would only cover a room, although interestingly 900MHz was the best cordless phone frequency and higher frequencies had worse range. My house is horrible for radio signals.
But both Zigbee and zWave have worked really well. It probably helps that my first priority was smart switches, which are one or more repeaters in every room and more likelihood of straight lines through doorways, but it just works. Much better than WiFi.
And with home assistant, it’s easy to have both
That’s a great idea, especially since I’m also trying to purge old stuff
Exploit it? The EU thinks they can exploit the chaos? What are they going to do, give us universal health care, a strong safety net, consumer protections, renewable energy and TRAINNNNNNSSSSSSS? (Please, oh please)
Could it be the sound system? Most people seem to prefer the convenience of Bluetooth, ubiquitous small speakers, and maybe that’s usually the limiting factor.
I stopped trying to keep up with a good sound system when my little ones decided to stuff matchbox cars into the port on my subwoofer. However I do a little set up from Bluetooth with AirTunes/Sonos, so I don’t know if the difference would be apparent. My car is by far my best sound system
I used to think this but the convenience won out. Now over holiday break, my teen discovered my crate of CDs that he doesn’t remember seeing in his lifetime!
And now I need to decide whether to buy a CD or DVD player to transfer to a more usable format - the last one I had was an old Xbox that is no longer with us
I care, because I’ve been using streaming media for quite a few years years and not kept up with any changes
Even the most evil people can have good moments and we can appreciate those without changing outlet overall opinion.
I’m still waiting for Trump’s good moment
I was going to make a crack about you inventing MacOSX, which is at least “Linux adjacent”, but I don’t know how to work without a command line on either Windows or Mac. Some functionality is just so much more inconvenient or even impossible through the GUI, even on those
Yeah, but then someone does the same with systemd, am I right?
/ducks and runs
Where is whatever government agency is in charge of truth in labeling, not ripping off the consumer …. At the very least they are deliberately hiding some of their fees under “taxes and fees” in the hope that some pole won’t realize how high it is for a tax. Taxes should be itemized so everything else is fees
Assuming that agency still exists. Why are these “free market” types always seem to not want the transparency and fairness that makes a free market work well?
FWIW my teen does. For him it’s a combination of things not available on campus and he’s always sent money as soon as he gets it. But he doesn’t have any expenses so …
If this were my decision, I’d put batteries as the top decision factor.
If your devices are battery powered, Zigbee/z-wave will last several times WiFi devices before you need to replace the battery. I would get frustrated with this very quickly.
If your devices are plugged in to a reliable source of power, then obviously this is not a factor. Or maybe phrase that the other way: if your devices are WiFi, future you will thank present you if you can find a way to plug them in