HomeKit Weekly: Making the case for putting an Aqara temperature and humidity sensor in every room

HomeKit has changed how I interact with many of the rooms in my house. While lighting and cameras tend to have the spotlight for most people as they can easily see the impact, environment monitoring is an equally important factor for me. The Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor is a low-cost, simple, yet useful device that can enhance your HomeKit setup significantly. Here’s why you might want to install one in every room.

HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.

Temperature and humidity levels can vary greatly from one room to another. The master bedroom might need a more comfortable temperature than the living room, while the basement could require better humidity control if damp. With a sensor in each room, you can monitor these differences in real-time and automate responses through HomeKit. For instance, a HomeKit-enabled fan or humidifier can turn on automatically when conditions out of your comfort zone (pun intended).

A good example is rooms at the end of your HVAC run. Especially with an air conditioner, the rooms at the beginning of the run will be cooler than the ones at the end. My oldest son’s room is at the end of the run in our house, so it’s the warmest in the summer. I love tracking the differences between his room and the other rooms upstairs, so I know how to adjust the thermostat.

Automations unlocked

Because these sensors are so small and low-cost, putting them in every room is feasible for most people. They’re also small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Getting the most out of HomeKit requires a healthy addiction to automation, and adding temperature and humidity sensors into the mix creates more intelligent routines. An incredibly useful example here is having your ceiling fan turn on automatically when the temperature in a specific room rises above a threshold or your shades close when the sun heats up a room in the afternoon.

What’s needed to make it work?

Part of the way Aqara makes these devices so small and low-powered is that they run over Zigbee. If you don’t have an Aqara hub already, you’ll need to add one before you can use these. I’ve linked to the M3 hub, but any existing Aqara hubs work great.

I am just always of the mindset to get the most powerful one possible so it’ll last longer.

Wrap up

The Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor can track three key environmental factors:

1. Temperature
2. Humidity
3. Atmospheric Pressure

Aqara’s sensors are small, affordable, and integrate great with HomeKit.. If you’re looking to elevate your HomeKit setup, a full-home whole house of temperature and humidity sensors is a great place to start.

You can buy them on Amazon in 3-pack.