Conclusion:

The Fibaro Home Center Lite Z-Wave smart home controller is a powerful device able to manage up to 230 Z-Wave devices with impressively fast local processing. The setup is quick and easy, and within minutes the unit is ready for you to start adding devices and configuring scenes. The interface may initially look intimidating to new users, as it did to me, but with a bit of use I understood the layout and was comfortable with using it efficiently. It is a very feature packed controller, so there are far more options than some of the common smart home controllers and that leads to a bit of a learning curve. But being so feature packed is definitely a good thing, as you can have more advanced control over how your devices are setup, used, and associated with other features of your smart home.

Local processing is one of the big pluses with the Fibaro Home Center Lite. I started out my smart home with a Wink hub, and I started losing enthusiasm over the whole process because of the lag I'd experience as my commands would travel from my phone, to my router, out on to the web to Wink's server, back to my router, over to the Wink hub and then to my device. 5-10 seconds to turn on a light was getting old. With the Fibaro HCL, my finger is just leaving my phone's screen and the requested command is already in action.

One of the advanced features is their Consumption panel, which lets you log detailed data about your climate conditions and energy consumption. This is a great feature, and very well done in the Fibaro Home Center Lite. Being able to see the historical and real time data, graphed in an easy to interpret manner, is very useful to me. To see how the temperatures in the house vary over the course of time is useful for managing my HVAC system and will definitely translate to improved efficiency and less money out of pocket for heating and cooling!



The main downside to me is that the Fibaro HCL controls Z-Wave devices only. If I was just starting out in developing my smart home ecosystem, I could probably make it all happen with Z-Wave devices, but I presently have a handful of Zigbee and WiFi devices that the likes of Wink and SmartThings are able to handle, as well as all of the Z-Wave devices I own. For those just getting going with home automation and who could stay focused on Z-Wave devices, the Fibaro HCL could be a great choice because it is so fast, powerful, and flexible.

An issue I ran in to was with both the phone and tablet apps. As mentioned previously, sometimes they just wouldn't connect to the HCL, whether I was connecting remotely over the Internet or from my local network. Considering that accessing the HCL from the same devices with a web browser always works, I would say it is something in the mobile apps themselves. So, when the mobile apps didn't work, I just have to switch to a browser and I am back in business.

The Fibaro Home Center Lite Z-Wave smart home controller can be picked up at The Smartest House for $279.95, which seems to be the going rate when searching online for a seller in the USA. Compared to some of the common home automation controllers like Wink or SmartThings (both available for less than $100), the Fibaro HCL has a much higher price tag. For those who want a completely local controller you have to step up to a higher class of device, but even then the price tag is high. A device like the VeraPlus sells for over $100 less, and it adds the ability to control Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth devices.

Pros:

» Simple setup
» Adding / removing devices is quick and easy
» Extremely fast triggering
» 100% local control:
   » Commands don't have to leave your house, travel the web, then return to your house
   » You can still access the device from anywhere if you forward ports on your router
   » None of your information is on the cloud
» Interface gives you plenty of power and flexibility to set things up just the way you want
» Able to set up scenes to tie your devices together and to your activity
» Able to log historical data for things like heating/cooling and energy consumption

Cons:

» Z-Wave only
» High price compared to alternatives
» Mobile apps would occasionally lose connection with device, even when browser could still find it

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