The best Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors for Home Assistant
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Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has similar properties to Zigbee: It uses the same 2.4 GHz radio frequencies and consumes very little power. In this article, I will be listing the best Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors for Home Assistant. One benefit is that many Home Assistant hosts, such as the Raspberry Pi, are capable of reading Bluetooth and BLE, without the need of an external hub. However, one downside that makes it less suited to smart home peripherals is its lack of meshing.
The lack of meshing means that your Bluetooth Low Energy sensors will have to be placed in reach of the host. And yet, there are plenty of Bluetooth Low Energy sensors that can integrate with Home Assistant available. The devices featured in this list of the best Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors for Home Assistant, aren't intended to be used in this way. They are meant to be used with a smartphone app. However, due to the nature of Bluetooth Low Energy, the data can also be read by a Raspberry Pi, ESP32, or any other Bluetooth enabled device.
As good as this component is, there is one issue with using your Home Assistant to gather data from Bluetooth Low Energy temperature and humidity sensors: range. Your Home Assistant integration won't be spread across multiple Raspberry Pis, strategically spread across your home. Luckily, there are two alternatives.
Integrating Bluetooth Low Energy sensors using room-assistant
If you are interested in using room-assistant for this function, I am assuming that you have already set up at least one Raspberry Pi for this purpose. I don't recommend using room-assistant for just this function, as it is more complicated to use and pricier than the next option.
Integrating Bluetooth Low Energy sensors using ESPHome and ESP32
The third and cheapest way of integrating Bluetooth Low Energy temperature and humidity sensors with Home Assistant is by using one or multiple ESP32s running ESPHome. Depending on where you purchase an ESP32 board from, it can be had for as little as ~US$3. This makes it easy to pick up a few and spread them around your home.
Dual-core (Tensilica LX6), clocked at up to 240 MHz.
The current version of ESPHome supports Bluetooth sensors from Inkbird, Ruuvitag, and Xiaomi. The advantages of this setup are that you don't need to install any custom components, and extending the range is as easy as buying and setting up a new ESP32 board.
For this setup, there is no soldering necessary, and you can simply power the ESP32 board using an old phone charger. An added advantage of using ESPHome is, that you can add several sensors to the board at any time, extending its functionality.
Xiaomi produces a number of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensors. Due to their price, look, and compatibility with both Home Assistant and ESPHome, they easily top the list of the best Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors for Home Assistant. They come in all kind of shapes and sizes. Many have the added bonus of having a screen which will display the current temperature and humidity. A few of them even use e-paper displays, which I very much like the look off. By using an e-paper display, the time, temperature, and humidity is legible even when the sun is out.
If you’re looking for a temperature and humidity sensor which has a screen and connects to Home Assistant, Xiaomi's Bluetooth Low Energy devices are the way to go. Because ESP32 boards are dirt cheap, you won’t have to pay too much extra to get these seamlessly integrated with Home Assistant.
Xiaomi Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors
Below is a selection of the many products produced by Xiaomi and its sub-brands. These are what I consider to be the best Bluetooth temperature and humidity sensors for Home Assistant. Please take note of the compatibility when deciding on a purchase.
Xiaomi LYWSD02
Compatibility: ESPHome, HA Custom Component, room-assistant
Liam Alexander Colmanis an experienced Home Assistant user who has been utilizing the platform for a variety of projects over an extended period. His journey began with a Raspberry Pi, which quickly grew to three Raspberry Pis and eventually a full-fledged server. Liam's current operating system of choice is Unraid, with Home Assistant comfortably running in a Docker container. With a deep understanding of the intricacies of Home Assistant, Liam has an impressive setup, consisting of various Zigbee devices, and seamless integrations with existing products such as his Android TV box. For those interested in learning more about Liam's experience with Home Assistant, he shares his insights on how he first started using the platform and his subsequent journey.
And if you update the Xiaomi firmware using https://github.com/pvvx/ATC_MiThermometer, you get an even better firmware with lower power consumption
Thanks for this — I had no idea it existed. I just got myself a LYWSD03MMC and might have to try it out🤓