Z-Wave Plus

Z-Wave Plus is a new certification program led by the Z-Wave Alliance. It is designed to help consumers identify products that take advantage of the recently introduced 'Next Gen' Z-Wave hardware platform, also known as 500 Series or 5th Generation Z-Wave. Z-Wave Plus certified solutions feature a selected set of extended features and capabilities that enhance the end user experience and make Z-Wave installations even faster and easier to install and set up.

Some of the features provided by Z-Wave Plus include:

• 50% improvement in battery life
  
• 67% improvement in range
  
• 250% more bandwidth
  
• Three RF channels for improved noise immunity and higher bandwidth
  
• New Plug-n-Play Network-wide Inclusion feature
  
• Improved self-healing and fault tolerance with Explorer Frame feature
  
• Standardized method for Over the Air firmware updates (OTA)
  
• Improved product information capture for product certification database

Z-Wave Plus is fully backward compatible with the previous 300 and 400 Series Z-Wave chipset. Some of these new features though (such as improved range and bandwidth) won't be fully realised unless the entire Z-Wave network, or at least all routes between the controller and target device, are comprised of Z-Wave Plus devices. As more and more certified products emerge though, it will become easier to take advantage of this full feature set. 

RKM Smart home is working hard to bring you the latest products supporting this exciting new development in Z-Wave. To find out more, please subscribe to our mailing list.