Hi! I am running Umbrel on a Raspberry Pi 4 and I have “Home Assistant” installed in it, I oly have some smart lights connected to it. I would like to integrate a Thermostat with HA. But I am a bit overwhelmed with the different types of connections (Z-wave, Zigbee, Wifi, …)
Do you guys have any kind of recommendation, what connection is better? I would like to keep it local (or connecting remotely via Tailscale) but I would like to avoid any cloud or third-party server solution.
What thermostat hardware can I buy?
+1 for ZigBee - if cost is a factor you can get really cheap ZigBee devices from AliExpress and the like - $10 or less per temperature sensor. Z-wave requires certification for all devices supporting it, so they tend to be more expensive and more limited in variety.
Blakadder’s ZigBee Repository is a great resource for verifying device compatibility with your chosen ZigBee integration - ZHA or Zigbee2mqtt. This might depend on your coordinator choice, as some (such as the Home Assistant Gen 1 usb-drive ones) only support ZHA, for example.
For a coordinator, the Home Assistant brand ones are reportedly quite good, especially the second gen one. I personally use a SMLight SLZB-06, reasonably priced and supports power over Ethernet, so I have it wall mounted centrally. I also have my home assistant instance running in a separate building, so something that works over IP was a must.