Home automation
- don’t use Aqara hardware. Their Zigbee implementation is buggy and only works properly with their own Hub and doesn’t
repeat correctly. Even with their own hub it doesn’t work well because it doesn’t expose all functionality to Homekit,
which is how we’d be able to integrate it in Home Assistant.
- “WRT the door sensor, the MCCGQ11LM is 1.2 and is the only Aqara door sensor on the Amazon US site. MCCGQ14LM is the newer cosmetically identical zigbee 3.0 sensor, I ordered from AliExpress, but it may be more common in other regions”
- the Zigbee 3 sensors are meant to work more reliably, whereas Zigbee 1.2 is implemented in a non-standard way. But we haven’t yet confirmed that their Zigbee 3 implementation works better.
- three ways to use Zigbee in Home Assistant: ZHA, deCONZ, zigbee2mqtt.
- ZHA is integrated with HA, but some people say it’s inferior to zigbee2mqtt
- “I went from deconz to ZHA to Z2M and it is just faster and has a cleaner interface. Adding devices is super easy too.”
- “Switching to Zigbee2mqtt solved all my problems”
- ZHA is integrated with HA, but some people say it’s inferior to zigbee2mqtt
- Tint RGB bulbs are okay, but changing RGB is stuttery, and dimming can’t go as low as Philips. draws 2W more than Hue, but do get brighter.
- Sonoff USB zigbee dongle works better than conbee 2, though the newer Sonof variant (-E) might not be fully supported by z2m yet, at least not on the main branch.
- https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2021/433mhz-automation/
Smart light bulbs ¶
- Paul Hibbert, in a sponsored video, recommends Novostella over Hue, claiming it is cheaper and works just as well. Alas they’re not in the same category of device, because Novostella uses Wifi.
| Product | Protocol | Brightness | RGB saturation | White accuracy | Color temperature (K) | Power on state | Comparison to Hue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ikea Tradfri | Zigbee | No true RGB | |||||
| Tint | Zigbee | Can’t dim as low, changing settings isn’t as smooth | |||||
| Ledvance | Wifi | ||||||
| Yinsan WiFi | Wifi | ||||||
| Wifivostella | Wifi | ||||||
| Innr | |||||||
| Govee | Wifi | ||||||
| TECKIN | Wifi | ||||||
| Wyze | Wifi | ||||||
| Kasa | Wifi | ||||||
| Cree | Wifi | ||||||
| EcoSmart Zigbee | Zigbee | 800 lm / 4/5 | - | 5/5 | 2700-6500 | No | |
| Sengled Zigbee RGB | Zigbee | 800 lm / 4/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 | 2000-6500 | No | |
| Sengled Zigbee White | Zigbee | 1500 lm / 5/5 | - | 5/5 | 2700 / 5000 | No | |
| Nanoleaf Essentials | Thread | ||||||
| Inovelli ilumin | Z-Wave | 806 lm / 4/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 2700-6500 | Yes | |
| Philips Hue | Zigbee | 800 lm / 3/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 2000-6500 | Yes | |
| LIFX | Wifi | ||||||
| Novostella | Wifi | ||||||
| Yeelight | Wifi | ||||||
| Wiz | Wifi |
Scores based on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK0ZkzsVkKY
Shopping list ¶
- 4 philips hue rgbcw 1000 lm
- 4 nous a12z smart plugs (cable modem, washing machine, two spares)
- 3 white tint bulbs
- 1 grid powered light switch
- 2 battery powered light switches
- 2 thermometers (maybe RF?) for living room and office
- 2 thermometers (maybe RF?) for fridge and freezer
- 2 humidity sensors (maybe RF?)
- 2 window sensor (one for bathroom window, one spare)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4-8Y7jUCn0 suggests that Aqara is the best contact sensor, with far superior battery life and small size
- 1-3 thermostats
- 1 zigbee USB stick
- ceiling lamp
- oven lamp
- water leak detector