PuzzlingDad

The one area that I'm not seeing mentioned is outside. Think about landscape lighting (front and back), sprinkler control, wiring for a driveway sensor, mailbox sensor, gate sensor, etc.

You may also want to think about wiring for the holidays, especially if you ever plan to do a light show and want addressable LEDs, permanent tracks along the eaves, projector(s), power/wiring for a mega tree and other props, etc.

Short of removing the controller altogether or replacing it with one that remembers its own/off state after a power cycle, I'm not sure there's much you can do. Are there any settings mentioned for the controller?

I used to have a similar automation for putting the garbage cans out the night before and bringing them back in the next evening. I was even planning to add sensors to the cans to verify if they had been moved or not.

Then I switched to a pair of recurring alarms on my phone and found it was easier to deal with. If I decided one day to put them out or bring them in earlier, I just swiped down and dismissed the alarm.

You have a bunch of Wi-Fi devices which talk to the "cloud". The Samsung App lets you set up a cloud account which can run various routines over the internet. So a sensor might trigger a routine on the Samsung servers that then talk to a device's cloud server telling it to contact device in your house and turn on.

As you can see, that's a lot of communication over the internet. If you want faster response times and less dependence on an always-on internet connection, you can get a local hub that talks locally over a Z-Wave or ZigBee mesh of devices.

The Samsung Station can support ZigBee (but not Z-Wave) and Matter devices. So if you were planning to change devices you might find a benefit to having a local hub.

Currently it seems like you don't need it, but you could start building a network of local devices running ZigBee or Matter. You can still have your existing Wi-Fi devices but have any new devices working locally instead.

In the case of ZigBee (or Z-Wave), devices have the ability to talk to each other and to the controller. But they don't directly have the ability to talk outside the mesh, even if something like the hub has Internet access.

A couple options:

Install smart 3-way switches (or dimmers) using ZigBee, Z-Wave or Matter protocols instead of the dumb "analog" switches. You'll need a smart hub that acts as the centralized controller. The switches still handle on/off at the wall (or dimming if you want that as well), but you can use voice control or routines to adjust them.

Add smart relays behind the switches. I believe Zooz has some smart relays that use Z-Wave. Again you'd want a hub that can talk Z-Wave. There are Wi-Fi versions like Sonoff or Shelley, but you said you want to avoid that.

Can you explain the picture? What's controlled by the left switch and the right switch? I'm not seeing an incoming neutral so I'm thinking these might just be switch legs. That would also explain the symptoms you are seeing.

In theory you should be able to control a switched 15A outlet. A couple things could be an issue.

Perhaps the white wire is not an actual neutral but part of the switched hot. Can you confirm it is a neutral?

Second given this is to an outdoor outlet it might be GFCI rated which may not work. Have you contacted Eaton for support?

Sounds like someone misses X10 smart home devices. You can still install it today but the protocol from the 1970s is rather dated.

There are limitations with signals over power lines including some problems communication across circuits in a breaker panel, or signal leaking out to neighbors through the main power grid. These can be remedied but there are probably reasons why X10 isn't in high demand these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_(industry_standard)

Even broccoli is getting expensive these days. :)

I believe red is Z-Wave and blue is ZigBee. They are they separate protocols.

Any reds add to the strength of the Z-Wave mesh and any blues add to the strength of the ZigBee network.

So if you want both to be stronger, then add a mixture of each in strategic locations so you can get to the farthest devices from your hub.

Our house is exclusively smart dimmers and a few smart switches, no bulbs.

You can do bulbs if you must have colors or lamps but they have the drawbacks that they then require app, voice or remotes and if turned off at the switch they lose their smarts. To workaround that so family members and guests (and yourself) can always interact with them manually or programmatically, you can get smart switches that have a smart bulb mode.

I would always opt for switches/dimmers over bulbs unless you have a specific use case requiring bulbs.

I would avoid any switches/dimmers that require cloud accounts and instead always try for local control. To that end, consider Z-Wave or ZigBee (or Matter), where you can have local control.

As for specific questions about Home Assistant, if ask in their subreddit.