Kia ora,

I'm looking at purchasing (aka importing) a "simple" kit to get started on my Home Automation journey.

For a controller/hub, I'm looking at probably running Home Assistant on a RasPi with an appropriate shield - I'm guessing Zigbee may be my best bet, since Z-wave may be problematic due to local legal spectrum issues. Consider other appropriate stacks/standards in-scope (such as Sonoff).

I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere, but info is either dated or overwhelming/conflicting, so I'm really looking for a TL;RD here light on the snark, please.

Attributes I'm looking for include:

• complaint with local regulations, standards & practices
• *some* consideration has actually been given to security & privacy (i.e. patchable, etc)
• plays nice my wireless network(s)
• simple to install & use

   

  • some sort of fail-safe, ability to use without app. don't want my home to be dead if my network or internet is down.
• strong bias towards open source, open standards. don't really like the idea of "magic sauce" phoning home without my permission

   

  • offline use - if I drop the gear in a segregated network separate from my other stuff & close it off from outside, it should still be functional

Rather than running around & picking out bits (that'll come later), is there a semi-decent kit I can buy/import that I can use to get the ball rolling, to learn the ins&outs of this tech? (requesting links)

Chur in advance