I have been making my home smart ever since 2016 slowly and it is now inundated with smart products, fortunately I haven't really strayed too far from just a few manufacturers and my computer and technological skills are fairly high.
My home has an Alexa device pretty much in every single room from the first and Second gen Alexa's to Taps to Dots to Cubes (the Cubes were a waste of money and disappointing) I use a lot of TP-Link Kasa light switches and plugs for various things, I also have only about 4-5 Hue bulbs as I really don't like putting Hue bulbs in fixtures and outside. I prefer my fixtures to be controlled by smart switches instead of relying on keeping the switch turned on all the time and the bulbs controlled by a hub. I have a Nexx Garage door controller and two first gen Ring doorbells. I also have four wifi access points scattered through my home each one placed on it's own channel so as to prevent too much interference. I run both 2.4 and 5 GHz. I tie most things together using IFTTT. Two harmony hubs that control my living room and another in my master bedroom. I have CAT6 ran to every single room and around all of the eves of the house and a few old POE Foscam cameras that I would love to replace eventually.
So as you can see, my technical experience, I think, more than meets the needs of my buying a Hubitat.
Here are key points about the smart devices I have.
(1) Over ten TP-Link Kasa light switches mostly HS200 single pole with a few HS210's (3-way) thrown in. They control various room lights and ceiling fans.
(2) Several TP-Link Kasa smart plugs of various styles from the mini to the very first version. These are pretty reliable.
The most important TP-Link Kasa smart plug controls my water heater. I have it setup to a contactor that shuts my water heater on and off according to the schedule I've laid out in the Kasa app. (it's a pretty cool and cheap hack to get wifi water heater control and scheduling).
Needless to say, I've had no issues with any of the Kasa stuff and it all works pretty flawlessly for me. Other Kasa Smart Plugs work various fans, lights, heaters, Christmas lights during the Holidays, and similar appliances.
(2) Two Harmony hubs, one controlling my living room and another controlling my bedroom. The one in my bedroom is probably the one that does the most work as I use a IFTTT trigger to start my bedtime. I tell Alexa to trigger my bedtime and my TV, all my fans (yes, I sleep with three), my Window A/C unit, and my bedroom lights (Hue lights) all power on how I want to be and with another simple IFTTT trigger, they all shut off.
(3) My Nexx Garage is mostly used through mine and my wife's iPhones and iPads to open and close the garage and also to open and close it through Alexa.
(4) I have a few Eufy smart plugs that merely supplement the Kasa plugs.
(5) I have a couple of Wyze cams in the house and those are great. I really wished they'd make an outdoor POE model. I also don't mind using it's native app.
So, as you can see, I've gotten a lot done in 3 years. Now I want to fine tune a few things.
I wanted to place a few motion sensors around my garage and in a couple rooms to turn on lights conrolled by my TP-Link switches. I am also really wanting to start putting in some smart locks. I started leaning toward the SmartThings hub to integrate motion sensors, water leak sensors, and smart locks to my doors. But I just discovered this Hubitat and, based on my abilities in electronics, computers, and the like, I have no qualms diving into it. But I want to make sure it can do what I want it to.
First, I'd like to place a few motion sensors outside to trigger my Kasa switches to turn on lights, same goes for my office. I'd like a motion sensor to turn on my light during certain parts of the day, the office light is controlled by a Kasa HS200 as well as the driveway and all exterior and eve lights.
I also want to place a few water leak detectors around my sinks and, of course, get smart locks. All of this I know will require Z-Wave and the like. Plus, as my devices age, I could eventually replace them with Hubitat compatible devices and do away with all of my wifi controlled devices thereby easing the strain on my wifi network, which probably isn't too strained, but the less the better.
I also want to eventually replace every single POE camera outside with better more modern POE cams. That Ring Wired POE option is looking nice to me. But that is beside the point.
I don't necessarily want to move everything over to Hubitat, I'm just fine using the Kasa app and the Eufy app as needed and the IFTTT stuff really ties it all together perfectly so that pretty much anything I want to d with Alexa can be done after setting up some IFTTT triggers. But I want to make sure it would integrate just fine and do what I want it to do.
That's the jist of it and if I think of anything else I'll add to this post.
Thanks in advance!
