Going old-school

The initial wave of smart home hardware relied on X10. X10 is split between RF (radio frequency) and powerline transmissions, with the latter more regularly used; it uses four-bit codes to communicate.

X10 has its own advantages, primary of which is reliability. Where a Zigbee device may fall off of the mesh network now and then, an X10 device is very unlikely to get lost. Many still swear by X10, and it has not been abandoned; a variety of modern controllers have been released in recent years, including many which can link your phone to your X10 devices.

Given that X10 first arrived in 1975, there’s a raft of old kit out there being disposed of for peanuts – it still works, if you’re looking for basic automation.