So I have my Hubitat in the house and it works great, no issues.
I have been looking to extend my smart home setup out to my pool area, i have some string lights attached to my fence on both sides and I want to be able to control them via my hub.
My pool lights are probably too far away to run from my current indoor hub, but I am willing to try it first and go from there.
My deck is 24 feet in length, and the first set of lights is just past that on my pool fence, so maybe 26 feet total from my sliding glass door, next to the door inside I have a Homeseer WD-100+ Zwave smart switch,
i know this will work as an extender, so i think i can reach the first set of lights, the second set are another 50-60 feet away to my pool house where they plug in.
Do you think the extended zwave network will reach that far, I do have 1GB network into my pool house, so if need be i could put a hub in there and i could use a WiFi switch since i also have an access point out there for my nest cam and my Volumio music system.
Also, need a suggestion for an outdoor Zwave outlet.
I have some zwave devices around my pool as well (zwave temp sensor in the skimmer) and some lights along my back fence. They were having issues communicating with my hub (located in the basement corner) for obvious reasons.
I added an outdoor plug which not only controls the lights back there but also help with the zwave mesh. It solved my distance problem.
Since then I've also added a few homeseer floodlight motion detectors nd a GE switch on my pool pump, all of which help significantly with the mesh.
I like to add to my mesh by adding products that I will actually use with my HA setup instead of just dropping in random routers or hubs. It has been very stable.
My home has steel siding which makes it a veritable Faraday cage. It took a couple of well-placed devices to get to the outdoors but I now have a fast and solid mesh that extends to my outbuildings. The furthest is about 75 feet from the house. I recently paired a non plus Zwave contact sensor sitting on my living room sofa. I walked out to my rear gate and attached it to the gate. The contact sensor and was immediately active.
Like @gavincampbell I like to use useful devices rather than a dedicated repeater.
