Network design for 24 outbuildings? (Best protocol, etc)

Each sensor should have an FCC label on it to indicate the frequency, plus usually A third-party logo to say whether it is Z wave or zigbee or Bluetooth or whatever. (Zwave and zigbee operate on very different frequencies.) very few devices other than hubs use more than one protocol, and I don’t know of any sensors that do.

The items in the starter kit are all zigbee, using the zigbee home automation profile, (ZHA 1.2), which is what smartthings uses. That has a range of around 40 feet per hop, although as mentioned you could get up to 30 hops depending on the replacement. (we should also note here that usually battery operated devices do not repeat for other devices, as that uses too much battery life. Only the mains powered Devices typically repeat.)

Another word about profiles:

The “zigbee pro” profile is commonly used for outdoor sensornets and can get much longer range, even a couple of kilometers, but may require licensing depending on where you live.

And more about mesh and range: