I see a lot of posts about people who like their Zigbee and Z-Wave products. As I’m setting up the hardware in my home, I’m using Wi-Fi products because I already have Wi-Fi. I don’t see much difference in price. What is the actual benefit of setting up a separate network for home devices? Is there a reason that I should consider setting up one of these networks?

  • realitista@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    6 hours ago

    I run Zwave and love it. Advantages:

    • better range and less interference in 900mhz band with meshing
    • better battery life. WiFi uses up to an order of magnitude more power. Battery in Zwave devices lasts for years, with new ones being even better in this regard
    • more secure as they cannot be hacked by hacking your internet or getting on your WiFi.
    • more feature rich. Zwave devices tend to be geared towards more pro use and tend to have just about every feature you can imagine
    • fully local. You can be 100% sure they aren’t sending your data off somewhere
    • Generally high quality. I’ve had quite good luck with pretty much all the Zwave devices I’ve bought. They last a long time and are reliable if your mesh is working properly (enough powered repeater nodes).