I have dreams of an automated house, and so have been looking in to the various standards (Z-wave and Zigbee in particular).

Just how important is it going to be to pick the "right" (or even the wrong, but all the same) standard? I kind of had this idea starting out that everything would talk to everything else. However, while it would potentially be advantageous to control everything from a single point (e.g. openHAB), I'm not sure that opening up different apps to dim the lights or open the garage door is actually going to be all that difficult. And is likely to have a higher WAF in any event.

I appreciate that for the wireless stuff, individual devices can act as relays in a mesh network-style situation to increase range. And that I would need different controllers for different devices with different standards, but beyond that, is there anything I'm missing that would really point towards going with a single standard for everything?

If it helps, my dreams of automation include (this most certainly isn't going to happen all at once):

- mood lighting a la Philips Hue (which is Zigbee only)

- smart door locks I can lock/unlock remotely

- garage doors I can open/close remotely

- a smart alarm system I can monitor/deactivate remotely

- an oven I can start pre-heating remotely

- a central heating unit I can start/stop heating remotely