Greetings. I bought my Hubitat a while ago but only recently started toying with it. I've used mostly closed end systems like ring, nest, etc till now. Given my wife and I just purchased a new home I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a more in-depth setup. I've got a few questions which will probably just lead to more questions.
With regard to multizone hvac. I have 3 zones of heat, 1 main for AC, and I will have a separate dual zone mini-split in addition down the road. I also have 3 areas that have individual baseboard heat but they will be largely irrelevant once the mini-split goes in. Is there a way to link them all together with a smart thermostat so each can be controlled from anywhere?
Do you turn on mesh for all devices that can do it?
Any suggestions on color bulbs for use with Hub? I have Hue which I plan to retire. Had a customer service incident with them and I don’t plan to purchase anything else from them.
Lastly, I have a 2nd gen Kevo door lock. Kevo seems to have been discontinues and none of the systems I’m finding have touch capability like Kevo does. Anyone have any suggestions here or am I out of luck with current options?
Thank you!
-Marc
Me too. Putting my lighting onto Hue was the single best thing I've done in my set up. It's totally bullet proof for me, and considerably improved my mesh for HE.
I have tried a couple of Schlage locks, the main difference is Schlage doesn't allow you to poll the stored lock codes while Kwikset does. However you can get around this limitation by using the Lock Code Manager app which stores the codes separately. For me it's nice to be able to pull the codes directly, and you can set a parameter to encrypt the codes if security is a concern.
The Kwikset rekey function is nice to easily rekey locks without pulling them apart or taking them to a locksmith. Also you can swap out the radio modules for z-wave/zigbee, although not all motor control boards are fully compatible with all radio modules. For this reason Kwikset doesn't sell the modules directly, but you can find them on Amazon and/or Ebay. I bought an early 913 series lock several years ago and didn't realize it was just an electronic lock without the connected radio module, then bought and added a z-wave module separately.
FWIW, here are the details on the motor boards/radio modules I found.
Here is what I found regarding the motor control board. When you remove the battery pack and look inside - it looks like this:
This one doesn't have a radio module installed - silver cap is on the right side. These don't work with the z-wave radio module. They will include as a generic 'device', but are non-responsive even after changing to a generic z-wave lock. I've tried many variations and versions to get these to work on HE with no success. I think older version Z-Wave radio modules MAY work (not Z-WAVE + blue radio modules), I don't recall exactly.
Also, the Kwikset now pairs with the Schlage lock driver, but you can change it to the generic z-wave driver once it's in your network and it works fine. I don't use the Schlage lock driver due to the lock code limitations noted above.
If adding bulbs, i have been using Sengled bulbs with zero issues. I read that they do not act as repeaters, and hence are stable. Just make sure you're ZigBee mesh is good.
For HVAC, really look at manufacturer with smart thermostats. I made the mistake of getting a new Bryant system whose smart thermostat was garbage at the time, and I would lose features/functionality (I.e. Variable fan) by switching to nest/google home thermostat.
Venting a bit, but as a nest user in the house prior to this, kicked myself at spending that much money on something and not looking at smart functionality more.
Yep. Part of the reason I wouldn't even consider Nest is that Google killed the API for the dev program. I'd hopped to incorporate that for Nest Protect which I use in my mothers place to keep an eye on things. I'd preferred to use Nest & Hubitat. I'm thinking Honeywell or Ecobee so far.
I've not been unimpressed by Signify (which bought out a bunch of Philips lighting products).
Philips had some great products and good support. Had.
Unfortunately, that seems to be common these days. A major manufacturer develops some cool stuff. They sell it initially--but when competition grows, they spin it off to some 3rd party and things go downhill quickly.
I suspect that large companies like selling "business" products because businesses often justify a purchase by "how much it saves them" while consumers look more at "how much it costs". Thus, business products seem to often be far more lucrative. So, consumer products end up being thrown out the door.
Yep, that was basically my experience to a T. Same problem with Kevo though the service is good. They killed off the line which I used because it was the only one my 82 year old mother was able to operate. She can't remember codes and fumbles keys.
What is happening at 2.3.0 for bulbs?
