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any recommendations for a cheap, simple, but "smart" relay+thermometer like this that can be added to a apple home/zigbee network in plug-and-play fashion[0]? i also have a dumb heater that would be nice to be automated. the existing dumb thermometer/switch is too close to the heat, making that thermostat unreliable, and i can't move it without tearing up walls.

[0]: without having to run home assistant if possible

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There "Blakadder's Smarthome Shenanigans" website is a good reference to identify if a Zigbee device might work with your system. If a device is compatible with many, it is almost certain it is also compatible with your solution.

https://zigbee.blakadder.com/index.html

i went down the rabbit hole a bit and there doesn't seem to be a homekit-enabled millivolt (not low voltage, which is 24V apparently) thermostat available. however, i did find this little project: https://zekesnider.com/using-an-ecobee-thermostat-with-a-mil... it seems you could patch any low-voltage thermostat to support millivolt in the same way (with a 24V transformer and a relay switch), but the ecobee3 lite has homekit support built-in.

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