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?
I have Zigbee stuff. Here’s what I like about that: they bridge between each other (if they’re powered rather than battery operated) and that extends the range. The range can be great to begin with! They’re not on my network, adding confusion or load on the access points, plus they can’t phone home… all local. Then there’s smart switches, and I’m going to point out that without WiFi they can’t be controlled, but Zigbee? Sure, I can easily power cycle my router and access points with Zigbee smart plugs! In fact I have an automation to do that daily. Finally, if something is WiFi you can’t know in advance if it’s cloud based or not, and regardless of that it’s a potentially unsafe device that is connected to the internet. Low power, but botnets work with numbers rather than power.