This will hurt you...
Foxx Project z-wave devices (clone of Aeon labs)
door sensors.. average £5 - £11
water sensors average £5 - £11
Sockets.. average £5 -£15
Maplins were selling them off cheap so bought some via the internet and managed to visit a few stores and grab everything off the shelves that I could.
You might still find the devices somewhere though.
I have found them to be reliable
Andy
Xiaomi devices have been quite reliable for me.
Me too but obviously they are zigbee
(And I have 3 xbees running)
Andy
Just ordered a couple of these. Haven't got them yet so I cannot comment on them but I'm hoping they pair and work OK.
As far you have a reliable zwave mesh i find easy two have both types (zigbee and zwave).
If you're looking for cheap and reliable devices, don't care about the whole Zigbee or Z-Wave debate and don't want to invest in XBee, then consider IKEA Trådfri outlets and Xiaomi Aqara devices. It's a near perfect paring. They're compatible repeaters with everything Zigbee it seems, including Xiaomi, and you get a simple ON/OFF switch in the deal.
Just buy a few. They're no where near as powerful as XBee (which is a good investment if you're also interested in seeing a map of your Zigbee network and monitoring performance).
No sh** ouch indeed!
Assuming they're these thats what I meant by ugly. Then again for £5-11 it pays for a lot of ugly...
Those look great though I always get really twitchy about cheap Ebay stuff which is plugged into my electrics. They also have one extremely bad review (albeit the only review at all) on Amazon.
I use both Zigbee and ZWave in my system and I don't care which one I use as it's all the same to me. Am I wrong in thinking Gearbest are the only place to buy the Xiaomi stuff as I can't see them for sale in the UK anywhere else? They are definitely cheap but wonder if you'd have to pay VAT and import tax on them (or if they fall under the threshold if you buy singles.) Either way those Ikea plus are definitely a decent price.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions but keep the ideas coming. More info we have the better.
G
I'm in Canada, but Andy (@Cobra) can answer that. Ebay and AliExpress are the other places to buy, but I get both decent prices and 10 day shipping from Gearbest in Canada, so I keep buying from them. An Ebay seller took 25 days to deliver and I had a hard time trying to purchase from AliExpress. Their sellers wouldn't say they didn't deliver to Canada, but then two different sellers contact me after purchasing and ask me to cancel my order because they couldn't deliver to Canada. I gave up on other sellers and returned to just buying from Gearbest. I've been able to get all of the available Xiaomi devices from them. I just bought a vibration sensor for $10 US, that even though didn't come up when searching for Xiaomi Aqara, was still available.
I do know what you mean but I already have an Everspring Humidity/Temp sensor and an Everspring contact sensor. Both are good build quality and work well. (They are not plugged into my electrics though!!!!!!!)
Many moons ago I had some Sonoff in-line switches connected up. One of those stopped working but was getting hotter and hotter. Not sure if it would have caught fire or not but I removed all my other ones, so I do know you need to be careful.
I just order an extra few Xiaomi devices as I wanted to test the new vibration sensor and needed as well a another two motion sensors with Lux measurements.
I have over 50 devices that are Xiaomi on my ST setup.
Hope not to have an issue migrating everything to HE.
My hub is stuck at the airport for 5 days now.
Are you aware that the lux value does NOT update unless motion becomes active?
It's not a London Gatwick is it? 
Most of them have been reliable for me too
(Especially since I installed a couple of xbee devices)
I do find about 1 in 10 never seem to stay connected either on ST or Hubitat but as they are so cheap I just consider that as the luck of the draw 
I have bought some from gearbest but most of mine have come from ebay in the UK
Andy
That's exactly the behaviour I'm looking for.
The idea is if motion triggered and Lux changed and is below x lumens than turn on lights
Lol no. Stuck in Lisbon Portugal for 4 days now.
That's OK then. I know that some in the past have been disappionted that the lux value cannot be configured to update or report at regular intervals. Just wanted to make sure you are aware.
Hope your hub turns up soon. (via Gatwick. 
).
Might be able to find someone with a drone to drop it off.
Really?! For a tiny device that uses a tiny battery that lasts over a year?! That would not even would make sense from a product design point of view as the battery usage to have the device doing that would soon be empty.
That only with a long large battery capacity or powered sensor. Just my 2 cents though.
Couldn't agree more. The battery life is great and as has been said before, what they do for the price is brilliant. I have them everywhere.
Even in my gizmo draw because I cannot think of a reason to use them. YET!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I have a very fun setup with a couple of them.
If door sensor changes to open and move sensor detects movement turn hall lights if door cabinet sensor in hallway changez to open and vibration senses weight in shoe shelve than Google relays custom message welcome back Maria (my girlfriend) you look amazing today anything i can do for you? Else Google relay Custom message hey champ!
As you can see 4 Xiaomi sensors in less than a square.
If I would have a reliable presence sensor I would take it to another level.
My Everspring Z Wave Outlet has turned up.
Paired OK and now working OK.
Looks pretty well made.
So far no issues.
@Cobra - did you get the Foxx Water Sensors working with HE? I have a couple I want to move over from ST...
Download the Hubitat app
