[giobox]

Even better, get smart switches that don't use wifi or IP addresses. I'm personally of opinion my homes core features should not rely on needing IP addresses, working DHCP or DNS etc just to turn a light bulb on and off.

Home assistant works amazingly well with zigbee devices, and these are plentiful and cheap etc, and don't rely on working wifi/IP infrastructure. When I sell up, my zigbee switches will work just fine as plain-ole light switches even with all my Home Assistant infra ripped out, leaving no issues for next buyer.

You can add zigbee support to pretty much any Home Assistant setup with a 20 buck USB adapter, Home Assistant even make an official one:

https://www.home-assistant.io/connectzbt1/

The also sell Home Assistant servers with zigbee radios built in:

https://www.home-assistant.io/yellow/

The light switches are often cheaper than wifi equivalents too. Wifi bulbs should really only be considered by renters IMO - people who can't easily replace wall switches or similar.

[fmajid]

Except IP works far better than Zigbee's alleged mesh networking, and all the other home network technologies because somehow home automation is a special snowflake that can't use the same network technology everybody else uses.

[lolinder]

There are a few reasons why Wi-Fi is not my first choice:

* I don't trust any company to use my Wi-Fi and not attempt to access the broader internet. A Zigbee or Z-Wave device isn't going to be able to stealthily update itself in anti-user ways, nor is it going to be hijacked into serving as part of a Bitcoin botnet.

* There are way too many devices, which can cause issues if they're all using Wi-Fi at the same time. Smart homes take a router that would normally be dealing with 2-4 phones and 2-4 laptops and add N bulbs, M switches, P contact sensors, Q motion sensors, and assorted random sensors. Not a chance am I hooking that much up to my Wi-Fi.

Z-Wave LR has worked very well for me—no mesh to worry about, just a controller and devices. The only downside is that it's not as broadly supported as zigbee or Wi-Fi.

[XorNot]

Put your IoT on a separate wifi SSID and firewall it.

My devices can't reach the internet at all, but I have easy access to them the other way.

[lolinder]

It's easier and has better guarantees to just... not have them on a Wi-Fi at all.

[echoangle]

That's not an advantage of switches though. My smart bulbs are Zigbee, too.

[giobox]

The main drawback with keeping the switch "dumb" and only using smart bulbs is someone can turn off power to the bulb etc, which is why I and parent commenter focus on automating the switches. If someone turns wall switch off and its dumb, you can't turn the "smart" bulb on with home automation regardless of what tech is used inside it. Focusing on automating the switch generally has best returns on making most dependable system, as you will always be able to get the light back on. Again, I only recommend smart-bulb only if you are a renter or similar and can't mess with your switches.

Zigbee access to the bulb is great for stuff like changing whitebalance etc though. In my own home I have the bulbs and the switch on ZigBee so I can do this, but power on/off is solely preserve of the automated switch.

[edelans]

What zigbee switch do you recommend ? I was considering Sonoff zbmini.

[giobox]

I've had great results with the Aquara zigbee stuff - almost all of them work fine connecting to HomeAssistant via generic zigbee USB adapters, and can be found online pretty cheaply. I have >50 of their switches and sensors at the moment.

[ddeck]

Aqara is a bit of a mixed bag. A lot of their switches are not Zigbee certified and don't conform to the standard. Specifically, they won't bind directly with devices from other manufacturers.

This might not matter if you're pushing everything through a hub like HA, but if you want to connect directly with other devices and remotes then it likely won't work.