January 15, 2025 - Reading time: 10 minutes

[Have you read part 1 of this guide? Click here to start from the beginning!]

In plain English, and to make ourselves understood, the Zigbee protocol is a mechanism for various devices to communicate with each other. It's like talking about WIFI or Bluetooth, since Zigbee is another one of many. It is not usually very well known in everyday life, since its use is mainly focused on home automation, security and industrial issues.

Personally, I like to use Zigbee devices in home automation issues, although there are devices that use other protocols, such as radio frequency, WIFI or even Bluetooth. Each protocol has its advantages and disadvantages, but in my opinion Zigbee is the ideal one for this field. If you are not going to have many devices in your system, WIFI is not a bad option either, but in my case I had problems with my router, which was choking with so many connections.

The disadvantage of Zigbee devices is that they need a hub, a device that acts as an antenna and listens to the different devices. The advantage is that it is not expensive at all, and it is very cost effective.

If you have never heard of Zigbee, now that you know it exists, you will see it everywhere. For example, if you take a look at Ikea home automation devices (such as push buttons, light bulbs...), you will see that as a requirement, they tell you that you need a small central unit for them to work. Indeed, we are talking about Zigbee, and that device is the hub. If you look at gadgets from Xiaomi, Philips... they all talk about a central unit to work: that's it, it's Zigbee.

The cool thing about all this is that although each brand requires its own hub, Zigbee is a standard and you can unite all those brands under your own hub. That is the magic of Home Assistant, that everything is united under the same umbrella and you do not depend on 40 apps on your mobile. I have motion sensors from Ikea, Xiaomi, Gledopto bulbs, plugs from other brands... and everything under my hub.

Also, Zigbee has something very interesting, and that is that there are devices that, in addition to performing their function, also work as repeaters. That means that if the antenna of your hub does not reach all the corners of your house, by placing some of these repeater devices in smart points you will be able to cover 100% of the space. Even so, there are devices with the sole purpose of repeating the signal, which in some cases, can be worth it. I have my server with the Zigbee antenna in the basement, which is a bit of a bunker, but a small repeater in the living room (ground floor) makes the Zigbee signal reach the rest of the house without problems.

I use the following Zigbee hub from the SONOFF brand, which is perfect for these tasks. It comes already programmed and ready to use.

Buy SONOFF Zigbee hub on Amazon

One thing to note about Zigbee devices, and which I consider a huge advantage over those that use WIFI, is that they do not connect to the Internet beyond updating their software, and that only in some cases. Most WIFI devices tend to use external servers and one is already distrustful in the times we live in...

Wall sockets: remote on/off and consumption meters

There's not much to explain. There are plugs that allow us to turn on and off anything remotely, or even check their consumption. I use them, for example, to turn on the pool purifier in summer, or to do the same with the Christmas tree in winter. I've also used it at work to make sure we don't leave dangerous appliances like irons on, monitoring their consumption.

Also, since you can create automations, a world of possibilities opens up. For example, I make my Christmas tree turn on when it gets dark, and it turns off at midnight. With the iron thing, I could easily make an automation that if at a certain time it detects that the consumption exceeds a threshold, it turns off that plug as an emergency measure and sends me a notification to my mobile.

Buy Zigbee plug on Amazon

Sensors of all kinds

A classic! One of the first things you buy when you get into home automation is motion and door opening sensors. While it is true that Home Assistant is not the most suitable tool for security issues (there is specialized software such as Blue Iris or iSpy), it can do the trick perfectly.

Let's start with door and window sensors. I use Aqara's, and they work very well. They are two pieces that are placed together on the door/window, and when separated, they report the opening, or vice versa. I have them all over the house.

Buy Aqara door sensor on Aliexpress

There are also motion sensors, and I have the Aqara ones. It is true that they work great for indoors, but for outdoors I have not yet found ones that convince me 100% (in fact, this sensor is not for outdoors). Also, if you have animals, they will activate them very often.

They are sensors that must be placed intelligently if you have pets, but if used well they are very useful. I have them especially at the entrances to my house, to monitor if there are unexpected movements. The most useful one is the one I have on the porch, at the entrance to my house: when I arrive home at night, it turns on the lights in the entrance hall so I can see well to open the lock.

Buy Aqara motion sensor on Aliexpress

También son útiles los sensores de temperatura y humedad, los cuales informan de... la temperatura y humedad, sí. Vienen bien si estás fuera de casa y quieres saber si hace demasiado frío, por ir encendiendo estufas, o para controlar la humedad en mi caso, ya que si sube demasiado, lanzo los deshumificadores que tengo instalados.

Buy Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor on Aliexpress

Light bulbs

Light bulbs, for example, although I don't use the ones I have with Zigbee much, I also have some. They are GU10 bulbs, and I can control the intensity and color. They are great for my (future) gaming basement, to control the environment and surprise visitors. I would recommend buying some (mine are from the Gledopto brand), but I can't find the exact model that I have right now...

Other gadgets

And it doesn't end here, there are a thousand home automation things that work through Zigbee. To give you one of them, for a few months now I have had an irrigation controller that works through Zigbee and it's wonderful. You connect it to the water tap, and it allows you to open and close it remotely, either manually or with an automation. I used it in the summer to water a rose bush while I was traveling.

It can also be used for other purposes, such as filling swimming pools or to control a nebulizer on a terrace (the tubes that release a very fine stream of water and are used to cool down in the summer). There are some with timers and things like that, but nothing like controlling everything through Home Assistant. A godsend.

The one I have is from Sonoff, and it works very well. In addition, it has had software updates in recent months, which is a sign that the manufacturer cares about its product.

Buy Sonoff irrigation control on Aliexpress

[PART 3: WIFI] Continue reading by clicking here