I’m looking to replace a few in-wall light switches for lights that are not easily replaced with smart bulbs. I currently use Home Assistant with z2m for all my smart lights and switches, so zigbee switches would be preferred. Does anyone have recommendations for smart in-wall switches?
Oh I didn’t thing about access points. With something like ZigBee, the switches add to the network range. But for WiFi, each switch will need to be in range of an access point. We have pretty decent coverage but the benefit of using ZigBee is other devices can take advantage of the extended network.
Others have talked about Zwave, I’m not sure which camp they sit in.
I have a bunch of z-wave, too. Z-wave and Zigbee, I think, only broadcast when needed. That’s why they’re much more battery friendly. If they’re plugged in, they do more listening and re-broadcasting to do what you’re talking about.
Wifi has, relatively, a ton more traffic. DHCP renewals, keep-alive messages, and basically always listening all the time to see if something is looking for it. That being said, these smart switches use very little data overall. Unifi shows them using about 700 bits per second, which is 0.0007 Mbps.