Z-Wave Plus™ is a new certification program designed to help consumers identify products that take advantage of the recently introduced 'Next Gen' Z-Wave hardware platform, also know 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. 
Z-Wave has led the market in interoperable smart devices for the home since the first Z-Wave product was certified in 2004. With the introduction of the Next-Gen, Z-Wave 500 series hardware platforms, Z-Wave saw its ecosystem bolstered with new capabilities, including increased range, extended battery life, Over The Air upgrading (OTA), additional RF channels and more -- all of which are fully backwards compatible with existing Z-Wave products.

For consumers, homeowners, integrators, and service providers, these enhancements offer tremendous benefits in terms of shorter and easier installations, richer device profiles, improved self-healing and longer battery life. With the new Z-Wave Plus certification program, the Z-Wave Alliance is introducing a series of packaging logos that will be located on every Z-Wave Plus certified product, informing the consumer this product incorporates the enhanced capabilities of the Next Gen, Z-Wave 500 series.

Features

• New lug-n-Play Network-wide Inclusion feature

• Standardized method for Over the Air firmware updates (OTA)

• Improved product information capture for product certification database

• Three F channels for improved noise immunity and higher bandwidth

• 250% more bandwidth

• 50% improvement in battery life

• 67% improvement in range