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SKILL BUILDER: Home Assistant
The automation is easy:
• Trigger: The sump pump AC current is sensed
for more than 1 minute.
• Action: Send email and text messages.
INDOOR AIR QUALITY MONITOR
We’ve seen a lot of wildfires across the USA, and
should be concerned about indoor air quality
whenever outdoor is impacted. Poor indoor air
quality might be addressed by improving HVAC
filtration and resolving leaky door and window
seals.
On social media I noticed a project that a Home
Assistant user had created. This hack adds MQTT
to an inexpensive Ikea “Vindriktning” air quality
sensor, which happens to have an unused serial
port which sends particulate concentration data.
Easy to connect this to an ESP8266 serial input
pin (Figure
G
) and use an Arduino sketch to send
the data to Home Assistant. Thanks to Sören Beye
for sharing his ESP8266 firmware at github.com/
Hypfer/esp8266-vindriktning-particle-sensor.
• Trigger: The particulate level rises to a specific
level.
• Action: Send a message, and tell the Nest
Thermostat to turn on the fan.
» Build Your Own IAQ Sensor: Last summer I
led a workshop at the Boulder Public Library
for community members to build IAQ sensors
and send them to a shared map. Here are the
instructions to build your own: bit.ly/aqboulder.
WHAT’S NEXT: MATTER
We asked ChatGPT for a paragraph about Matter
(csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter):
Matter is a new home automation standard that
aims to make it easier for smart home devices
from different manufacturers to work together
seamlessly. It was developed by the Connected
Home over IP working group [now known as
Connected Standards Alliance (CSA)], which is a
partnership between Amazon, Apple, Google, and
the Zigbee Alliance. Matter is based on Internet
Protocol (IP) and uses existing communication
standards such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee
to enable interoperability between devices. This
means that a wide variety of smart home devices,
including lights, thermostats, door locks, and
G
LET’S LINK THE LANDLORD
HOME ASSISTANT IS GREAT FOR
RENTAL HOMES By Michael Seltzer
A lot of home automation products get
installed into the home physically. This can
be a problem or even an impossibility for
people who don’t (yet) own their homes. So
how do renters realize their HA dreams?
I grew up in a connected home (thanks,
Dad). Next to my bed was an X10 controller
that allowed me to turn my lights on and
off without getting up. The unfortunate
side effect of this was that my parents
unknowingly would turn “all lights off”
including mine (maybe it was a hint that it
was time to go to bed).
Now I live with my girlfriend and our
1-year-old puppy, and an array of Wi-Fi
connected light bulbs, a robot vacuum,
and sensors of various types. Tying all this
together is Home Assistant, which enables
the automation of a motion-activated patio
light, a crucial necessity while potty training
and letting out a young puppy multiple times
a night.
Because I rent, all of this has to be easy
to move — no replacing wall switches,
for example. Home Assistant allows that
automation to be easily built in a world
where the motion sensor and the light
bulb it controls are not made by the same
manufacturer. And I can take it all with me
when I move out.
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