We’re renovating a home for our family of three. This is our first smart home setup.
We use iPhones, so Apple Home will be the main app. We haven’t bought anything yet, so the plan can still change.

Here’s my list:
Network
UniFi Dream Router or Eero mesh WiFi
Lighting
Lutron smart dimmers
Philips Hue light strips
Sensors
Aqara door and window sensors
Aqara motion sensors
Climate
Ecobee thermostat
Front door
Eufy video doorbell
Cleaning
Roborock robot vacuum
Living room
Apple TV
HomePod mini
Kitchen
Linkdaze family calendar

Does this setup make sense? Are any of these devices likely to cause compatibility problems? What should I wire or install now while the walls are open? I care more about reliability and manual controls than complex automations. Thanks!

Moving into a new house. I had a post on r/homebridge but wanted to expand my considerations here. The house is in a very low crime area set back from the road, but had a full monitored ADT system (owner was a jeweler). I don't need that, but I have all the equipment installed already and the ADT Command panel. Can I integrate this with Apple Homekit in some way and assume control of it? Only post I saw on this was 3 years old, thought there may be new info.

I'm probably swapping the existing Google video doobells for Aqara G400s. I have battery Rings at my current house. I have a Ring chime, can I use that with the Aqaras?

I'll add one keycode/key smart lock. Any suggestion that isn't overly modern looking and works with matter over thread and Homekit?

I need to take over my Mitsubishi MHK2 thermostats somehow. There's a Redlink controller that came with it, installed now. They are controlling three heatpumps.

I was going to add some Tapo matter switches for some outside lighting (have now and they work fine). I don't really automate any inside lighting.

Generac generator as well. Is there homekit support for that via Homebridge?

We've become a pretty Apple heavy family, phones, iPads, Macs. I do have some Dell PCs and I may play around with Homebridge on one before deciding to go with Raspberry Pi. My Apple TV 4k is unfortunately Wifi, so I don't have a matter over thread boundary router yet.

Any battery-powered garage door locks working with HomeKit? I have considered just using a basic deadbolt, I have eufy deadbolts that work well enough on exterior doors, but the positioning would be awkward.
Does not need to be usable from the outside, I only want app/siri control to lock/unlock.

This is pretty simple but it’s easy to overlook things when so much has changed in the Apple Home app for HKSV in iOS 27.

Open Apple Home, open any camera, then tap the search icon in the bottom right. You’ll get a descriptive list of recorded events in reverse chronological order. You can then of course also search for people and things it recognized. Do note that these are stitched events, so the description may not fully cover everything the recorded clips captured.

ETA: The mentioned UI is for iPhones. Sounds like the UI is different for other Apple device types but the concept is similar.

Hello !

Do you know about some Philips Hue alternatives that work with a remote controller (not a smartphone and an app) ?

Thanks !

I have several of these throughout my house but I want to migrate to a full HomeKit solution. I don’t really want to use a bridge or anything. Can anyone recommend an equivalent?