Ask a smart-home owner what happens to their lights when the internet goes down and you will learn a lot about how the system was built. In a well-designed house the answer is "nothing, they work." In most houses assembled from app-store gadgets the answer is a shrug and a trip to the wall switch, if there still is one.
Cloud-dependent versus local
A cloud-dependent device sends every command to the manufacturer's servers and back. You tap the app, the request goes to a data centre in another country, and the bulb turns on half a second later. If the internet is down, the servers are down, or the company decides to retire the product, the bulb is just a bulb. This has happened repeatedly: hubs bricked by a firmware update, whole product lines shut down with a few months' notice, subscriptions introduced for features that used to be free.
A local-control device talks to a controller inside your house. The internet is only involved if you are away and want to check in. Commands are instant, the system keeps working through outages, and nobody can turn it off from a boardroom.
What we use and why
Lutron for lighting and shades. Lutron's systems (Caséta for most homes, RA3 for larger ones) run on their own radio, do not depend on Wi-Fi, and have been stable for decades. The keypads feel like real switches because they are.
Home Assistant as the brain. It runs on a small box in the rack and ties everything together: Lutron, the thermostat, the locks, the cameras, the garage door, the audio. It is open source, so it does not depend on any one company, and it supports more devices than any commercial hub.
UniFi underneath. The network, cameras and door access. Everything above relies on the network being solid, so that comes first.
Devices chosen for local APIs. Thermostats, locks and sensors that can be controlled locally (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, or a local network API) rather than only through a vendor cloud. Plenty of mainstream brands qualify; plenty do not, and we will tell you which.
What this looks like day to day
Wall keypads that do what they say. Scenes like "arriving", "movie" and "bedtime" that run instantly. A house that keeps behaving when the cable company has an outage. And in five years, when a manufacturer decides your gadget is end-of-life, the rest of the house does not care.
Existing gadgets
Most houses we visit already have a drawer of devices. Some can be brought onto a local system; some cannot. We audit what is there, keep what is worth keeping, and are honest about what should be replaced. Nobody enjoys hearing that the expensive hub is the problem, but it is better than another year of six apps.
Cabling, networks, cameras, access control, smart homes, hosting and software for homes and small business across Southwestern Ontario. Twenty-plus years in the trade, and we still answer the phone.