Hubitat @ CES 2019

I’m not a fan of unnecessary Cloud dependencies in home automation tech. So when I started chatting with Hubitat about their home automation controller (HAC), and we started getting into the details I was thrilled to find out that their model is almost entirely Cloud free. Naturally there is a bit to handle connection brokering from locations outside the LAN (port forwarding & FQDNs are too complicated for most users), but even authentication is handled by your Hubitat via OAUTH. This wasn’t the only thing that impressed me with the kit. It has support for scenes at all levels, either via a rules generator, IFTTT, or if you want to write code to do more complex task that’s also an option. You can even use a real programming language (Groovy) to do it :).

The Elevation hub supports Z-Wave, Zigbee, Lutron, LAN, and many Cloud connected smart devices including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Hue, Sonos, and Ecobee. If that sounds appealing, it gets even better for DIY HA enthusiasts. “Open Developer Platform” is one of the key points on their PR sheet, add to that support for most SmartThings “drivers’, and platform updates that you choose when to install! It isn’t very often that when I start drawing architecture diagrams and really start talking tech that the representative is as into it as I am :).

There is a bit of a catch, well actually two. First, the hardware is not as tightly integrated as I’d like (it’s a Linux box + HA radio dongle) and the second is that for the next bit it retails for $99, but will shift up to $149 later this year.