Z-Wave/Zigbee still relevant?

[ottawahacker (Erik)]

@chris

Hue lights are just ZigBee bulbs - there are dozens of alternative ZigBee bulbs - they are all broadly the same, supporting the same application layer so will communicate with any ZigBee system (including Hue gateways).

I just did a search of homedepot, lowes and amazon and sadly beside few rare silvania bulb, couldn’t find any affordable alternative to Hue lights. Only strong alternative seem to be the ikea lightbulbs, very affordable and can be hacked to work on hue bridge. Some of the other Zigbee bulbs were on clearance which did worry me a bit.

@mpuff

I can speak from experience and spending hours/days trying to solve network problems.

Yes just doesn’t seem to make sense that a router has to handle each lightbulb separately.

@Bruce_Osborne

Unfortunately all smart home Wi-Fi devices decided to use the cheaper more interference prone 2.4 GHz band. For instance your microwave oven likely wreaks havoc. If they would use the 5 GHz 802.11a or newer standard they would hsve less range but a more reliable connection.

But my understanding is that Zigbee is also 2.4 Ghz… so same issue?

So from all your replies - no one mentioned Z-wave, so I guess dead standard.
Anyway, if I get a good deal on a hue bridge, I will invest and try to get some ikea + hue lights.

Thanks!

Erik.