I think @erktrek gave a comprehensive response. It depends so much on the type of device.
That being said, I would recommend keeping no more than 60-70 z-wave devices on any one hub. And no more than 10-15% of them should be power reporting devices that frequently report back to the hub.
Oh and can you give me an example of what you mean by a power reporting device? I assume you mean a type of device that’s reporting frequently? Many reports per minute? Like reporting the current draw of a smart plug?
So I currently have 5 zwave smart plugs plus a heavy duty switch. These devices would be putting a much more significant load on the hub than let’s say a motion sensor. Hmmm, hadn’t considered this. Makes sense tho
I've configured it to report power levels based on the % increase. Here's what it looks like when the TV is on (red rectangle) or the TV is off (blue rectangle).
I just bought a C-7 hub to use with my current C-5 hub. I was going to use the hub backup feature to transfer everything to the C-7 and then move some of my old zwave devices (specifically battery powered sensors) back to the C-5 so they don’t slow down the network. Does this seem like a decent idea?? Any recommendations for the execution before I do everything?
Yeah I'm with @aaiyar on that one. If you're going to break things up you should be doing lets say zigbee and z-wave on one, with wifi and cloud integrations on the other. Or wifi on one and zigbee on the other. Without any mains devices to repeat you will have a really bad mesh to go your route. I'd also say battery devices don't really slow the hub down as they don't route, they are edge devices.
I have my Z-Wave devices on a C7 and Zigbee devices on the C5 since it is my understanding the Zigbee radios are the same on both hubs. Splitting up Z-Wave does not make sense unless you plan on using the hubs by location i.e. hubs placed in different areas of your location.
By location is a good way of implementing a multi-hub setup as you can increase range and reliability / resiliency of your system while reducing individual hub overhead. It will depend on your location's layout, construction and general environment (interference) and availability of wired ethernet - wireless generally not recommended, see MoCA or Powerline adapters as a way to extend ethernet without doing a run.
I appreciate the replies. I forgot to mention I was also going to put my old zwave devices on the old hub that seem to cause some issues for me. I hear what you’re saying with the battery devices except when the batteries go I am having issues with it interrupting things. I also have the issue where sometimes the zwave takes a long time to turn everything off say in my downstairs. If I turn off 1 light, no problem - it works instantly. If I do all lights, it takes 20 seconds and not everything shuts off. I have roughly 35 devices in my 2500 sq ft home. Many of them (say 10) are older Leviton devices, 3 door sensors, and 1 siren (from my old Wink setup). The siren batteries are the ones that seem to mess things up for me when they go dead.
Personally, I didn't retire my C-4 when I got the C-7. I had observed that my C-4 would become slow and nearly unresponsive at times, and that some of my network-based integrations were taking up a lot of the hub's CPU. So now my C-7 handles the devices and the bulk of the automation, while the C-4 segregates all the network-only "devices" and the automations that primarily concern them.
I wrote Filtered Device Mirror to help further reduce the load on the C-7 from network devices on the C-4.
Hey that looks interesting! Would also work with services using Maker API as well. Bookmarked - Thanks!
I used to use my C4s by location (one on second floor/one in basement) and had a C5 for testing. A C4 died on me but the C7's had just come out so shifted to a C7 for Z-Wave, repurposed the C5 for Zigbee and because I had a spare C5 on hand I used that one for my network/cloud stuff - mainly Lutron and Alexa. The old C4 I donated to a local arts center.
You could easily have ghosts on your C5 without knowing it which could be affecting your mesh. (You would need a stick paired as a secondary controller to see). I would say move all of your z-wave stuff to the C7, make sure there are no ghosts and see how your mesh plays out then before trying to segregate anything. Your older leviton stuff may be z-wave and not z-wave plus so you will need to install z-wave poller as well. I'd encourage you to change out to z-wave plus to boost your overall mesh speed.
Thanks for the advice. I’m certain the Leviton is not zwave plus. I’ll give it a shot and see what happens! Can I see the ghosting you’re referring to with the C-7?
Yes... Ghosts are caused my incomplete pairings. Any time you have a bad pairing (or it doesn't pair) STOP. Check your z-wave details page for a ghost (it will have nothing in the routing column) Remove that, factory reset the device and attempt pairing again. Non - plus devices may need to be paired close to the hub because they won't pair through repeaters
Agree with @rlithgow1 about just leaving them but if you wanted to put them back on the C5 it's just a matter of copying the config and then using Hub Mesh to share the devices as needed for rules etc. or did I miss something?