this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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ZigBee and Zwave? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by gedaliyah@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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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?

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[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do you know roughly how much range they can get? I have wifi sensors out like 500 feet from my house that work OK, but in my research on Zigbee most people say like 100 feet or less?

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks, I've seen a few but they seem more expensive than the WiFi equivalents, I'll look into some more

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

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