Go to your browser settings and to the Search section. There will be somewhere in there to add a new search engine. Add in ‘https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%25s’ then set it as your default.

You should be able to do the same if you’re using a search widget directly from your launcher as well.

Definitely Zigbee or Z-wave instead of wifi. Once you start to build out more devices you will be glad to not have gone down the wifi route.

I went with Zigbee and have Sonoff SNZB-02 temperature and humidity sensors in each room that have been absolutely flawless since the day I installed them, and they last about two years on a single battery!

I would obviously recommend them but I don’t have any experience of other thermostats or of Z-wave.

I did also install smart Zigbee TRVs on each radiator but I don’t rely on the internal thermostats of them as they don’t accurately represents the overall room temperature.