I’ve done a couple iterations of this over the last two years, and I’ve ended up using home assistant to calculate the absolute humidity as in the summer it gets really humid outside too, and there is no sense in venting if the outside absolute humidity is already the same as inside (regardless of the difference in relative humidity). I also started with sending myself push notifications to do manual intervention. And ended up buying a dumb bathroom extraction fan with heat recovery (couple hundred euros) and making it smart with a Shelly relay to do this intervention for me in the bathroom. Also temperature is important as when it drops you can get condensation which is the thing that causes mold most of the time.
That is some solid work! Calculating the absolute humidity is really important to know whether to equalise or not, so amazing work integrating that into home assistant! I do really need to give HA a proper go 👀
If you do end up giving HA a proper go on a raspberry PI, make sure you get an “endurance” SD card. Regular SD cards are not made for running in PIs and will fail every 3-6 months. Just an FYI, I think HA is really great but that detail did annoy me for the first 2 years of running HA before I moved to an old Mac mini I had lying around
Somewhat related, somewhat not, but I love my ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium with its built-in air quality monitor. I had my garage floor epoxied and my thermostat didn’t like the air afterwards for several days-AT ALL. She sent me notifications-even telling me to open windows-quite often until it finally cured.
Stu I watch all your videos and I really love them thank you. Every time I listen to you, I think you sound like Jeremy Clarkson which is a compliment as I like his voice , but surely I am not the only one who thinks this 😎
Good video 😊 love the tvoc e-ink display and other sensors you mentioned not all aqara ones. To maintain 60% to 65% humidity run a dehumidifier a couple times a day has definitely helped asthma. All linked into Home Assistant.
I have a Philips air purifier in the main room of the house and the Philips air purifier (with coap) integration in home assistant monitoring the air quality. It works pretty well. For humidity, I use a Sonoff Zigbee humidity sensor and Evohome for heat control, again connected to HASS with the relevant integrations. All three together takes care of the environmental stuff, I just clean the filters when called too.
A year? Try maybe 45 days. I have two of those. They eat through the batteries. I went through tgevotiginal batteries and one extra set. They now sit on the shelf dead. One is blank the other is eternally showing it's last reading.
Great vid. I am looking forward to the new Aqara HUB to be able to control more items directly when it finally comes out. I have been running a similar system but using the Aqara temp and Humidity sensor. I also have several Fans I have using Smart Plugs which come on when to hot or if not at home. Want to keep my Pets cool as well when Im out, plus using Fans to really circulate the air in Winter which keeps it moving preventing furry corners. Aircon is on the list this year to also reduce the temp for the Pets and also to dehumidify the air if the sensors show it to be to high. Would really like a piece of smart tech which knows its really sunny and together with the temp reading then knows to lower my external shutters to help reduce the heat build up. Just the temp would mean they go down on overcast hot days which does not offer a benefit.
Me too! As soon as i can get my hands on one... review incoming! Hopefully be able to expose some of the better routines from aqara to other devices (facial recognition being a big one)!
Interesting. I’ve been thinking more and more about air quality recently, especially because we have two log burners in our house and kids who seem to suffer from pollen, as we live in a rural area as well. I must admit I’ve always slightly sceptical about cheap air quality monitors. I had looked into the Aqara one, as I have lots of their kit already, however I have heard on various forums and Amazon reviews that they have issues with reliability and connectivity. However, I might just have to give one ago having watched this video. You have also reminded me that something I have been looking for over the years but never find is a window actuator that can open a window slightly and close it automatically and integrated into my smart home routines and automations. As you say this is a very quick easy and cost-effective way to reduce heat and humidity levels etc. Something like a larger SwitchBot bot. Does such a thing exist?
Yeah you're right - i think the accuracy for any small environment sensor is probably not going to be 100% correct... its like smart watches... You can wear 4 smart watches on the same hand and they'll all give you different heart rate readings, steps made etc... Fact is, without big clunky scientific machinery you just wont be able to get 100% accuracy. Way i see it though, its i'd rather have a rough idea about my heart rate throughout the day rather than none at all... And its the same with my environment - i'd rather get a rough idea of the fluctuations than not! Also not sure about the window openers - i think i said that to switchbot when i met the guys at IFA last year! There may be something out there... but i haven't explored any further!
For a dehumidifier i'm actually using a really old one with full analogue control 😂. Got a smart plug on this so that it comes on when needed. I should probably look to get a new one at some point!
I’ve done a couple iterations of this over the last two years, and I’ve ended up using home assistant to calculate the absolute humidity as in the summer it gets really humid outside too, and there is no sense in venting if the outside absolute humidity is already the same as inside (regardless of the difference in relative humidity).
I also started with sending myself push notifications to do manual intervention. And ended up buying a dumb bathroom extraction fan with heat recovery (couple hundred euros) and making it smart with a Shelly relay to do this intervention for me in the bathroom.
Also temperature is important as when it drops you can get condensation which is the thing that causes mold most of the time.
That is some solid work! Calculating the absolute humidity is really important to know whether to equalise or not, so amazing work integrating that into home assistant! I do really need to give HA a proper go 👀
If you do end up giving HA a proper go on a raspberry PI, make sure you get an “endurance” SD card. Regular SD cards are not made for running in PIs and will fail every 3-6 months.
Just an FYI, I think HA is really great but that detail did annoy me for the first 2 years of running HA before I moved to an old Mac mini I had lying around
Somewhat related, somewhat not, but I love my ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium with its built-in air quality monitor. I had my garage floor epoxied and my thermostat didn’t like the air afterwards for several days-AT ALL. She sent me notifications-even telling me to open windows-quite often until it finally cured.
Yeah its amazing how much chemicals these things give off!
Stu I watch all your videos and I really love them thank you. Every time I listen to you, I think you sound like Jeremy Clarkson which is a compliment as I like his voice , but surely I am not the only one who thinks this 😎
Good video 😊 love the tvoc e-ink display and other sensors you mentioned not all aqara ones. To maintain 60% to 65% humidity run a dehumidifier a couple times a day has definitely helped asthma. All linked into Home Assistant.
I have a Philips air purifier in the main room of the house and the Philips air purifier (with coap) integration in home assistant monitoring the air quality. It works pretty well. For humidity, I use a Sonoff Zigbee humidity sensor and Evohome for heat control, again connected to HASS with the relevant integrations. All three together takes care of the environmental stuff, I just clean the filters when called too.
A year? Try maybe 45 days. I have two of those. They eat through the batteries. I went through tgevotiginal batteries and one extra set. They now sit on the shelf dead. One is blank the other is eternally showing it's last reading.
I’ve only just built all of mine together! Will report back!
Great vid. I am looking forward to the new Aqara HUB to be able to control more items directly when it finally comes out. I have been running a similar system but using the Aqara temp and Humidity sensor. I also have several Fans I have using Smart Plugs which come on when to hot or if not at home. Want to keep my Pets cool as well when Im out, plus using Fans to really circulate the air in Winter which keeps it moving preventing furry corners. Aircon is on the list this year to also reduce the temp for the Pets and also to dehumidify the air if the sensors show it to be to high. Would really like a piece of smart tech which knows its really sunny and together with the temp reading then knows to lower my external shutters to help reduce the heat build up. Just the temp would mean they go down on overcast hot days which does not offer a benefit.
Me too! As soon as i can get my hands on one... review incoming! Hopefully be able to expose some of the better routines from aqara to other devices (facial recognition being a big one)!
Interesting. I’ve been thinking more and more about air quality recently, especially because we have two log burners in our house and kids who seem to suffer from pollen, as we live in a rural area as well. I must admit I’ve always slightly sceptical about cheap air quality monitors. I had looked into the Aqara one, as I have lots of their kit already, however I have heard on various forums and Amazon reviews that they have issues with reliability and connectivity. However, I might just have to give one ago having watched this video. You have also reminded me that something I have been looking for over the years but never find is a window actuator that can open a window slightly and close it automatically and integrated into my smart home routines and automations. As you say this is a very quick easy and cost-effective way to reduce heat and humidity levels etc. Something like a larger SwitchBot bot. Does such a thing exist?
Yeah you're right - i think the accuracy for any small environment sensor is probably not going to be 100% correct... its like smart watches... You can wear 4 smart watches on the same hand and they'll all give you different heart rate readings, steps made etc... Fact is, without big clunky scientific machinery you just wont be able to get 100% accuracy. Way i see it though, its i'd rather have a rough idea about my heart rate throughout the day rather than none at all... And its the same with my environment - i'd rather get a rough idea of the fluctuations than not!
Also not sure about the window openers - i think i said that to switchbot when i met the guys at IFA last year! There may be something out there... but i haven't explored any further!
I just have a Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde HP09. It does everything well.
Mostly… but not humidity, still got to keep an eye on that!
Hey stu, what "Smart De Humidifier" do you have and recommend?
For a dehumidifier i'm actually using a really old one with full analogue control 😂. Got a smart plug on this so that it comes on when needed. I should probably look to get a new one at some point!
Good vid, it has gotten me looking deeper
It might give you nightmares if you do 😂
You triggered an Alexa routine from IFTTT? HOW???
mkzense.com/alexa-actions
More suprise drops....does this man ever sleep.....
Winner Winner - Chicken Dinner! 🍗👑
It would appear not. 👁👄👁
2nd for the bulbs, pse Aqara..
I like 68F, 20c
Solid temperature.... although a tad too warm for me 👀 🦎
Hi Stu, nice video!! I'm Lynn, please get back to me when you have time. 🥰
this is definately click ba
But it’s true 👀
(was being tongue in cheek. i'd died before i could finish the comment :) )
I know I know… I’m just not the master at bating. 👀👀😂
**Paul Hibbert has entered the chat**
He's always lurking 👀