As I start down the path of moving from isy to polisy and replacing some of my insteon switches, I was leaning toward Zwave until I discovered the Kasa Node server.  Since the kasa are all wifi enabled (I have a couple and so far they work great) would Kasa be a better way to go, eliminating  the Zwave RF coverage issues?

 

ahh one issue I forgot, the Kasa switches are all white.  anyone have experience changing out the paddle color?

Edited April 27, 20223 yr by jkraus

@jkraus 

1 hour ago, jkraus said:

would Kasa be a better way to go, eliminating  the Zwave RF coverage issues?

There have been limited debates in the past with which is better. It comes down to personal preference and personal ability to support which route you take.  

z-wave = talk to each other for local relay

kaza = wifi connections

Basically, any wifi connected devices can ultimately overpower your home router. Many consumer grade routers aren't designed to handle ip routing for a large number of devices. Sure, they can operate well at 10-20 devices, but some people are pushing 50+ or 100+ devices and if all that went to an underpowered router it will ultimately cause more issues. It also puts you back into a "cloud based" system. 

z-wave (as I understand it...I don't personally use any) is independent and communicates directly with the controller and then each powered device acts as a signal relay. So as long as you build out your network your coverage should be acceptable. If you don't have many devices and you have only limited devices at far ends of your house then you will need repeaters to build a stronger z-wave mesh communication network.  Z-wave is local based and, thus, would operate without internet dependency. 

 

1 hour ago, jkraus said:

anyone have experience changing out the paddle color?

no, don't have any experience with that.

 

5 minutes ago, Geddy said:It also puts you back into a "cloud based" system. 

@Geddyis it really cloud based? Kasa doesn’t require an internet connection just your local WiFi network. Right?

5 minutes ago, vbphil said:

Kasa doesn’t require an internet connection just your local WiFi network.

I only have 1 Kasa device currently (bulb). It's more cloud than z-wave or Insteon. From my experience if the phone isn't on wifi it's using cell data to talk to the Kasa cloud to figure out the device status. So I figure the device is always telling the Kasa cloud what its status is. Either way, I try to stay away from wi-fi based systems. Personal choice. 

2nd thing...I've had countless issues with Kasa quality. More than anything Insteon based. So just another reason there's only one in use in my house. If I had the money to buy one hue bulb I'd get rid of the Kasa device completely, but it's currently working and I don't want to spend the money for a single hue bulb to replace a working device. If Kasa doesn't replace it should it fail then it will be replaced with a Hue bulb. Again, this is just personal experience with limited devices from Kasa. 

Quickly found this though:   https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/2707/   ("How to make Kasa smart devices controlled local only")

My initial word of caution still holds true even if you're not going to "use" the cloud "feature". It relies on local wifi, and sometimes routers cannot handle the larger device count. So you run the risk of other devices holding the fate of your automation process in its hands. 

 

 

2 hours ago, jkraus said:

As I start down the path of moving from isy to polisy and replacing some of my insteon switches, I was leaning toward Zwave until I discovered the Kasa Node server.  Since the kasa are all wifi enabled (I have a couple and so far they work great) would Kasa be a better way to go, eliminating  the Zwave RF coverage issues?

 

ahh one issue I forgot, the Kasa switches are all white.  anyone have experience changing out the paddle color?

From my experience, if you invest in building a strong mesh throughout your home, zwave doesn't have RF coverage issues. 

As Geddy stated earlier, depending on your wifi you can potentially have issues as you expand. If that's what you want to use, I'd say go for it

Keep in mind about Kasa that is mentioned in NS Readme that the connection to Kasa by the NS could break at anytime. It isn’t really supported by Kasa. 
 

This Node server relies on a mostly undocumented and unofficially supported local API which of course TP-Link could break at any time, and has in the past, but luckily others figure it out.