I'm actually just starting out to do HA for my new Apartment.. i've done soo much research on this topic in the last few months... here's a summary of my personal journey:
GOAL: setup my apartment w/ a complete HA system and more, plus be able to DEVELOP my own GUI for controlling things (using my PHP programming knowledge)
PROBLEM: Too many options out there, the darn thing is expensive, and I live in the Philippines... w/c limited my choices down to 30% or less of available HA devices, modules, solutions out there mainly due to POWER PROFILE (220v 50/60hz)
the 2 toughest Challenge I encountered were:
1) needed to decide on what standard to follow, and where to get them. X10,Zwave, zigbee,etc - it's just so confusing..all standards were enticing..
--> but i decided to go w/ Z-wave as it seems to offer much better compatibility across its devices, (zigbee is just a mess w/ their different HA profiles and all that) .. also zwave is able to do 2-way communication as a normal standard (vs 433 devices and such) , and it seems to have more available devices for it over Zigbee..
2) needed to find what devices/hardware to go with ... I was really attracted w/ Ninja Blocks, it's cheap, it's got great dev community, and it's so expandable. but it only deals w/ 433 devices, so left the Ninja Blocks band wagon. I then realized that i wanted to be able to do both Zigbee and Z-wave.. Mainly Z-wave for 99% of the stuffs, and Zigbee incase there are devices I REALLY REALLY want to integrate but are using zigbee (such as the Philips Hue bulbs) ..
All roads led me to 2 things:
1) ALMOND+ Router (w/c was my first choice as I have become an Almond Fan) .. but then the + is not available yet i had to research for other options.. and finally i found:
2) SmartThings hub... so for now im going to be using this.. but later go w/ Almond when it becomes ready and stable... as i love the all in one approach of Almond (router, ha system, plus touch screen!)
My setup would be simple..
instead of fidling w/ all the different switches and outlets, i decided to go w/ the "Z-WAVE inwall modules". these are microcontrollers you embed in existing switches and outlets .. This way it's cheaper (a bit) and I am not limited to a certain Z-wave switch design. i can use any switch i want.. and just have the module embedded!
Also i need not worry about how many switches or how many outlets i need to purchase.. i just need to count "all devices i want to control" and buy that many micro-controllers.. no surplus switches and lacking outlets scenario..
Then I just add a few sensors in the mix for security, magnetic door things, temps/humidity etc.. the works..
AS FOR THE AUTOMATED ENTRY talk here, w/ proximity sensor..
I really wanted this as well, but realized RFID Proximity setup is really expensive! and it's gona be a pain to integrate into HA
so my plan (w/c i think is a genius idea) is to use one of the Z-wave temp sensors or door sensors!!! lol
these sensors are polling data to the hub, and when it's out of range it stops doing so.. so all i have to do is figure out the RULE on WHAT TO DO IF and WHEN the sensor is polling data or not hehe
Anyway hope this info is of help to people
Regards