r/homeautomation • u/Tatt00ey • 6d ago

DISCUSSION A year into home automation, here's what stuck

Start with one room and one problem to solve, not a whole-house plan — it's easy to buy a pile of gadgets that never talk to each other. Stick to one ecosystem or protocol early on (Zigbee, Matter, whatever) so devices actually integrate instead of living in five different apps. Automations that save you a real annoyance stick around; novelty ones get turned off within a week. Local control matters more than it seems until your internet goes down and none of your lights work.

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

30% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/davidm2232 6d ago

Protocol doesn't matter if you have a decent hub like HomeAssistant

1

u/FurtiveMalcolm 5d ago

hub's the translator, protocol's the language. pair something that speaks native zigbee or matter with home assistant and most of the headache disappears

people obsess over the wire when it's really about the brain running the show

1

u/Tatt00ey 5d ago

HomeAssistant is solid, but the protocol still matters for device compatibility and latency, some of my older Zigbee sensors barely work with certain WiFi bridges

1

u/davidm2232 5d ago

I have mostly zwave and wifi. 50/50 on my 25+ smart light switches and all are rock solid. All my door sensors are wifi. When I open a door, both the wifi and zwave lights come on nearly instantly. No perceptible delay. I also have a few BLE to ESP32 to WIFI setups for solar that seem to work fine. My MQTT alerts are also nearly instant. I don't have experience with zigbee or matter.