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Best coverage for Z-Wave

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    Best coverage for Z-Wave

    I've been using Homeseer for many years now and love it.

    My house is small (1 floor, 1200 sq ft) and a single Aeotec Z-Stick was more than enough for coverage.

    I'm moving to my new house that is quite a bit larger (3 floors, ~6000 sq ft).

    What do I need to do to ensure the entire house is adequately covered?

    #2
    Following...growing into a similar situation of floors and size.

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      #3
      I would think you'll need multiple, strategically located z-nets as well as a bunch of powered z-wave devices throughout the house to create a reliable mesh. I have 1 smartstick and 1 z-net serving about 3000sf on the 1st floor, and a second z-net in the attic serving 1600 on the 2nd floor. Coverage is generally good with the exception of a far corner of my garage. 100% of my light/fan switches are z-wave, along with several other powered devices serving as repeaters. Worth noting that I have plaster walls with steel lathe which makes coverage a bit more of a challenge.
      -Wade

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        #4
        We are about 3200sf with 2/3rd of it being on the ground floor. House is wide with a ground floor game room on one side and a garage on the other. We had one ORIGINAL Z-Net in a closet in the middle of the 2nd floor and lots of z-wave switches throughout. When we hit 100 devices (including door sensors and motion detectors) we started having some issues with a few devices not firing. Bought a current generation Z-Net to replace the original and the problem resolved.

        I think the key to this will be the shape/design of the home.
        .

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          #5
          I have a 3800 square two story house that is spread out. I was using one Znet in the middle lower level which worked BUT as I started adding Zwave devices and got to 100 I started missing commands so I added another which cleared up the misses. When I got to 180 devices I started missing commands again so I added another, fixed the problems. Now I run three Znets placed strategically in the house with about 60 devices per Znet, no misses. One issue I though I had until I thought more about was that I didn't have ethernet in all areas and the Znet I have didn't have the wireless dongle so I just put a wireless access point (I now use the Rock Port 1200) that have a ethernet port and connect the Znets that way (two of the three). Works flawlessly and I know that access points are going to have better range than any USB WIFI dongle. Of course you need to set up your router to assign s static to each Znet which you should anyway.

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            #6
            7000 sf house here with three levels. There is a detached garage about 100 ft from main house. To get things to work correctly I have three Z-Nets situated around the house with good coverage. Had to put an additional one in the detached garage. Mine are all connected via wifi. DHCP is best for wifi Z-Net.

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              #7
              Are you guys all using your multiple znets as separate ID networks?

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                #8
                Each has a separate HomeID interface number. Looks Like This:

                Click image for larger version

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Tomgru View Post
                  Are you guys all using your multiple znets as separate ID networks?
                  I did mine under one ID network. There's pros and cons to either way.

                  Click image for larger version

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                    #10
                    You're right there are pros and cons either way. I also a a Hubitat hub in all three locations that handle all of my Zigbee and TP Link devices so there is a lot going on with "Positive Waves Man" LOL

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Bigstevep View Post
                      You're right there are pros and cons either way. I also a a Hubitat hub in all three locations that handle all of my Zigbee and TP Link devices so there is a lot going on with "Positive Waves Man" LOL
                      Zigbee and wifi and zwave???? Yikes. Maybe you need one of these:

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                        #12
                        HaHaHa! I got so many waves going on here planes refuse to fly over my house! LMAO

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