Temperature and Humidity sensor, which one which you recommend?

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Hi all,

Newbie here. Going to move to in a few weeks and I would like to have a few area monitored. I start reading about Smartthing. Specifically I want to know about the attic temperature and humidity and also the same for the basement, what sensor(s) is good for this purpose?

I found the Aeotec and Zooz multisensors on Amazon. But there are quite a lot of devices out there. Where else would you recommend to source the sensors?

May be there should be a list of supported devices by type and popularity?
Thanks
Will

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Welcome! ( i’ve moved this to projects so you can get individualized responses based on your own needs and preferences.)

First we’ll need to know whether you are in the US or the UK, as the device selection is different.

There’s no one “best” answer as different people have different needs and budget. For example, if you need really sensitive humidity sensing, such as for storing guitars or monitoring certain kinds of plants, then most of the available home automation devices just aren’t sensitive enough. But the Kumo wireless tag sensors from Cao gadgets are much more precise, so some community members get those. However, they require also using their own bridge device, so it can get expensive. Still, if you need that level of precision, it’s a good choice. These also have excellent weather proofing and long range.

http://wirelesstag.net/index.html

Many open/close sensors and some motion sensors have temperature readings built-in, and that can be a good multipurpose device, although the sensitivity may not be great, and you’ll only get reporting maybe every 15 minutes or so. But typically good enough for running HVAC equipment for Home comfort.

And of course the multi sensors like The Fibaro and the Aeotec multis have temperature and humidity readings, but again not always that sensitive. Still, this may save on your overall budget if you also need a motion sensor in the same area.

The Everspring ST814 is a good intermediate device. Not as precise as the wireless tags, but more precise than your typical multisensor. It also has its own display screen, which again can be useful when you are monitoring a specific microclimate, as you can see what’s going on when you’re in the area. And it usually costs less then the multi sensors which have built in motion detection as well. We have several community members using it for things like monitoring a wine cooler, a cheesecave, etc.

So it would help if we knew your particular requirements as far as using these devices. Is it just for general home comfort? Or is there something specific that you are monitoring? :sunglasses:

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As far as a ranking list, again, different things work for different people. But there is a good FAQ thread that discusses the different features in different device classes, and can help you understand what different features might be used for. :sunglasses:

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Thanks for the quick reply.

I’m in New York, US. I’m simply a new home owner who wants to know everything about the house.
I’m looking to monitor the humidity in the basement to

  • establish a baseline
  • determine how humid it gets, and
  • hopefully knowing that there many be minor wetness somewhere which may bring up the humidity

From the Attic,

  • I want to know how hot it gets and if the fan is effective enough to pull out hot/humid air.

I think 15 mins interval is good. I’ll start looking at the thread you provided.

Thanks
W

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Doesn’t sound like you would need the Cao wireless tags, then. The everspring is a decent device for both humidity and temperature, and cost less than the multi sensors that also have motion detectors. You could probably go 10 bucks cheaper for the attic sensor if you didn’t need humidity there and you just went with one of the Contact sensors that does temperature as well. I’ve never found humidity readings to be very useful in an attic – – there are just too many micro climate issues. But choice is good. :sunglasses:

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I use the everspring temp/humidity device in my two bedroom apartment, which is also in NY. One in each bedroom and one in the living room. I’ve been pretty happy with them.

I’ve found the temperature accuracy is decent; each one of mine tends to be a degree or two less than a reference thermometer I have, but they are consistently so. There is a community developed device handler that allows me to include a temperature offset so the temp reported to ST is more accurate than what is on the device’s screen.

Humidity is probably not as accurate. It should work if you need general “high” and low" humidity readings but might not be able to do better than that.

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Just adding a newer device, which @ritchierich recommended in another thread. This one is Zigbee. :sunglasses:

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The zooz 4in1 is also a popular choice for battery powered z wave device that provides temp and humidity, as well as motion and light.

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2020 update

Aqara now has a zigbee 3.0 temperature/humidity sensor which has become a very popular budget choice. Typically sells for around $20. Although the product description says it requires its own hub, it does not: it can be paired directly to a smartthings hub as long as it is a V2 or above.

If you need a zigbee repeater to work with it, the IKEA Tradfri free plug-in pocket socket is only $10 when bought directly from IKEA and works very well as a repeater for the Aqara devices.

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SONOFF SNZB-02 ZigBee Temperature Humidity Sensor

I have 3 of these and they work very well. 13.29 new on ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SONOFF-SNZB-02-ZigBee-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor-Smart-Security-Monitor-E2B9/393047752073?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200520130048%26meid%3Dd50d71b0960b4ab3a26ca892fdfda59a%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dco%26sd%3D124514245985%26itm%3D393047752073%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithDarwoV3BBEV2b%26brand%3DSonoff&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

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I have a few of these. Very reliable, fast reporting.

I also have some Aqara. Stay away from them. I have never kept them connected. It is currently sitting directly under my hub. IDE says it was direct connected as of the last time it was online. Has been offline for two weeks.

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Hi Troy,
Do they need a special device handler in IDE?

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I use SmartSense temp and humidity sensor DTH

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Okay, I have it. It was a native DH.
But it shows 0°, 0% and 0 battery :thinking:

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So I tried this way to reconnect it with different DH and it worked:

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Nope :sleepy: After few hours connection dropped…

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these! $13 shipped! 100’s sold! (dont know where they are getting all the old stock form though)

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I tried to reconnect it again, this time changing DH to SmartSense, and success!

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If you already have a SwitchBot hub, their new “meter“ device is a very inexpensive humidity and temperature meter with a nice display. The regular price is $19 and sometimes there’s a coupon for an extra dollar off. It can display in either Celsius or Fahrenheit. Has an official smartthings integration which works with the new V3 app. This is a Bluetooth device that connects to its own hub, which then connects cloud to cloud to smartthings. I have this and like it. :sunglasses:

I won mine in a drawing, and might not have bought one because while it works with Siri shortcuts, it doesn’t work with HomeKit. But it does work with Ifttt, smartthings, and Alexa so it has been useful for me.

US


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UK

It is small, but very easy to read. Built in magnet if you want to stick it on something metal.

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Here’s an automation triggering from the humidity.

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The SwitchBot meter only updates every 6 hours in Smartthings unless you write a refresh automation to make it update more often. I use webcore to do this.
I also got my for free for writting a SwitchBot Mini review on Amazon.

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I need to use WebCore to perform this refresh more frequently. I’m new to WebCore, reading up on it this morning. Do you mind sharing your code that you use to perform the data refresh for the SwitchBot meter?

Thanks