Apple HomeKit-enabled temperature and humidity sensors are great for keeping tabs on your home’s climate. However, sensors only provide data points, so you’ll want to link them to your HomeKit Scenes or accessories through automation to unleash their true potential.
With HomeKit automation, your sensors can automatically turn on your home’s air conditioning, humidifier, fans, and more once they go above or below your comfort thresholds. We’ll show you how to create temperature and humidity automation in the Home app, so you’re able to tailor your home’s climate to meet your needs.
What You’ll Need to Create HomeKit Temperature and Humidity Automation
To start with temperature and humidity automation, you’ll first need a HomeKit-enabled sensor. There are many options available from vendors such as Eve, Aqara, and ecobee—but it doesn’t matter which vendor you use—it just needs to support HomeKit.
In addition, you’ll need another HomeKit-enabled accessory that acts based on your automation’s thresholds. As with sensors, any HomeKit fan, thermostat, smart plug, heater, or humidifier will do—as long as it appears in Apple’s Home app.
You’ll also need anApple Home Hub—such as a HomePod or Apple TV— to tie everything together. A Home Hub acts as the command center for Apple smart homes, enabling remote out-of-home controls and the ability toput your devices to good use through automation.
If you are just starting your smart home journey, the second-generation HomePod and HomePod mini are an excellent choice for your Home Hub. Not only do the HomePods provide all the benefits of a Home Hub, but they also feature temperature and humidity sensors onboard.
And finally, you’ll need to ensure that everything is up-to-date to prevent compatibility issues. This includesupdating your Apple TVor HomePod, your iPhone, and yourHomeKit accessories through the Home appor via the vendor’s app.
How to aCreate Temperature and Humidity Automation
Screenshot/Photo by Christopher Close – No attribution required
Now that you have the proper hardware, you are ready to create your automation in the Apple Home app. The process is the same for temperature and humidity, and it only takes a few taps to choose your accessories and set the appropriate thresholds.
While the above steps allow you to create a simple temperature or humidity option, you may want to customize it further to suit your needs. When building your automation, you can use theTimeorPeopleoptions to choose when it is active, so it will only run if someone is home or only during certain times.
You can also create an opposite automation that turns off your accessories once the climate in your home reaches a certain point. For example, if you set your humidifier to turn on once humidity drops to 30%, you’ll want to build an automation that turns it off at 50%, so it doesn’t run indefinitely.
Customize Your Home’s Climate With Apple HomeKit
With temperature and humidity automation in the Home app, you can now customize your home’s climate with just a few taps. Whether it’s turning on a ceiling fan automatically when it gets too warm or keeping up with humidity levels in the winter, you can do it all with the Apple Home app and the right accessories.
