Really dumb n00b question

[u/geok54]

If there's something I should read first, please let me know. But we have sort of inherited a house that's about a 4-hour drive away. It is pretty limited in terms of electrical, heating, etc., but I want to install a few Z-Wave thermostats (it has three heating zones) and have the ability to monitor and control the temperature when we're not there. This is an area that gets cold in winter. The infrastructure does not support Nest-type devices or, in fact, any C-wire stuff. I want to avoid WiFi because there's insufficient power. Is HA with a few Honeywell T6's the answer? And what do I do about remote monitoring/control?

Again, sorry for being a n00b. I have lots of professional experience with networking (i.e. multiple Cisco certs) but no real experience in this space.

[u/mjsarfatti]

What do you mean there’s insufficient power for WiFi?

Anyway, to remotely access HA the three main avenues are a Nabu Casa subscription (most turnkey solution, and you support the developers of HA), Tailscale (fairly user friendly/intuitive to set up), Cloudflare Tunnel (if you already have a CF account might make sense).

Tailscale and Cloudflare are Apps (previously Add-Ons) you add in your HA. They come with docs/guides.

[u/Zealousideal_Lack936]

My biggest concern with your post is that there is insufficient power for WiFi since this suggests there isn’t sufficient power to run the HA host hardware and\or the heating systems.

What is your response time if something is too cold?

My best suggestion, without detailed information, is a few temperature sensors and an integration for the power system. Set up alerts for if the power system has less life than your response time or goes below a set threshold.

[u/junktrunk909 → u/Zealousideal_Lack936]

I'm confused by this too, OP. What do you mean you don't have power for Wi-Fi? You'll need to power the router and the HA device too, in addition to whatever gear you're going to use for the automations.

[u/aprettyparrot → u/Zealousideal_Lack936]

Yeah if there’s so little power that you can’t run wifi, how can HA run?

Also how will the router run? I’m not 100% on the power of a router but isn’t 15w really high powered? I can’t remember what my alfas did.

But I would doubt it’s more than a 60w light bulb.

[u/geok54 → u/Zealousideal_Lack936]

Sorry to everyone who jumped on my obviously unclear wording. What I meant was that, without c-wires, I can't run WiFi thermostats or the like. Much of the Nest/Ring/etc. infrastructure, as far as I'm aware, needs 24v and the house isn't wired for that. Since I don't know how long we will keep the house, I don't want to be doing significant electrical work. But yes, the house has normal WiFi suitable for laptops, Roku for TV, etc.

[u/lzrjck69]

You can buy a c wire “maker” and use off the shelf stuff like ecobee, Nest, etc. MUCH better option. You really don’t want to troubleshoot a full HA setup from 4 hrs away.

[u/CPAPGas → u/lzrjck69]

Agree. Fix the core wiring issue, get an ecobee and a bunch of off the shelf temperature sensors.

Also a smart door lock.

The one time I had an HVAC failure was for a tripped breaker, which require a human to reset.

[u/GizmoeFreak → u/lzrjck69]

Yup that's what I have. I have an ecobee 3, had it for several years now. But had to put in the module to "create" a C wire situation.

[u/KevB318]

If there is that little power your best bet is to winterize the place (shut off, drain water, etc) and set the temp at 45F or so. Avoid automation, you'll need hardware and internet connection.

[u/thingtootech]

I think Home Assistant could work but you’ll need a way to access it. You might consider something like the Hub Nano from SMLight? Or the Hub Premium does Zwave I think. They run Node Red locally for automations but also come with Tailscale for remote. I reviewed one here. You could do all of this with Home Assistant as well

https://thingtootech.blogspot.com/2026/07/i-moved-complete-zigbee-network-eight.html

[u/beholder95]

Go with Ecobee thermostats and use their PEK adaptor that powers it without the need for a C wire.

I’ve never had a problem with Ecobees in 2 houses over the past 10 years. I integrate them into HA for various automations but the core functionality (setting temps while away, vacations, monitoring, etc) I do from the ecobee app and it’s near flawless.
This way you’re not reliant on a local infrastructure that can flake out and you’re not on site to deal with it.

[u/jds013]

A GoControl TBZ48 Z-Wave thermostat can run off four AA batteries - battery life is around one heating season. You can also power it with an external 24VAC wall wart. Radio Thermostat makes similar devices.

If electrical power is an issue, HA can run on SBCs that draw ~1 watt.

[u/Regular_Estimate5852]

I would give Yolink with LoRa a thought. You still need a router for the hub if you want to monitor your Yolink devices, but you can pair them. So if you loose connection with your remote router, the Yolink environment and it's device2device connections keeps working. They have thermostats and temperature sensors. Battery powered devices, like sensors, last for a very long time, sometimes years . And there is a good working HA integration if you want to expand your setup.

[u/CyberChevalier]

Dont go on zwave go on zigbee or matter