The sensors of temperature and humidity Apple HomePod They are able to tell us how hot our room is, they can also record the humidity. In this article, we are going to take a detailed look at how to use the sensors on HomePod and analyze its data.
Thanks to the latest iOS update, the Apple HomePod Mini smart speaker can analyze the temperature and humidity in our home. No additional hardware or software configuration is required.
Use Apple HomePod’s temperature and humidity sensors
Thanks to the new temperature and humidity sensor in Apple HomePod, it is possible to check the temperature of the room where we have the smart speaker. All we have to do is ask Siri: “Hey Siri, what is the temperature here?” and the voice assistant will answer us with the current temperature. The same is true for humidity control.
Additionally, we can use the Home app on our iPad or iPhone to view current readings. Next, we are going to see how to visualize the temperature or humidity of our home. This is something that also works when we are away from home.
- We open the Start application on our iPhone, iPad or Mac.
- Click Weather at the top of the shortcuts.
- Here we will have to look for Temperature or Humidity.
Now we are going to see a list that allows us to see our HomePod and the temperature or humidity reading. In case of having more than one, we can see all of them in this list. We will press the HomePod and we will see the sensor configuration. We will find different options, including sensor automations.
We can also see the readings by opening the Home app and going to the room where our HomePod is located. The current temperature and humidity read by HomePod is at the top of the app. If we have several temperature and humidity sensors in a room, the reading will show the range between sensors.
In order to obtain details of a sensor, we will have to press again on the temperature or humidity shortcut to open a screen where we can see the individual reading of each device.
How to set up automations
With Apple’s Home app, it’s possible to put HomePod’s sensors to work by creating automations that make other smart home devices respond to temperature or humidity depending on whether it falls or rises to a certain point.
This is ideal for automatically turning on a smart fan when the bedroom temperature rises, turning on the air conditioner, a humidifier when the humidity drops below a comfortable level, even turning off smart lights at any time. Something that we really liked is when we have smart blinds, it is possible to configure them so that they go down when the temperature rises in the room.
On the other hand, the company commented These sensors are optimized for temperatures between 59 degrees Fahrenheit and 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of about 30 to 70 percent. This precision cannot be guaranteed in case the speaker is playing music for a long time at a high volume (for obvious reasons) so it is something that we should consider when automating the configurations.
We start by opening the application and clicking on the plus button in the upper right corner. Here we are going to have to choose Add automation and we are going to select “A sensor detects something”.
We will choose the temperature or humidity sensor that we are going to use. This will be labeled HomePod Sensor with a thermometer or a humidity icon next to it, depending on which one we choose and press Next.
We will choose what will activate the automation in case the humidity or temperature rises or falls above a certain point. We also have to choose a time when this will happen. We can choose at any time of the day, during the afternoon or night. It is even possible to choose specific hours.
Yet another option that we have is for the automation to happen when someone is home; and prevent it from happening when no one is around. Then we will have to choose what action we want to happen. It can be a single device action like turning on a fan or we can choose different actions to happen at the same time.
We will press Next and we will have to give it a descriptive name, something that we recommend, especially if we are going to configure several automations. If we want to test the automation, we can click on the notice.
It is also possible to choose that the action is automatically deactivated after a specific period of time. The maximum is four hours. Once we finish, we will click on Done.
We will always have the possibility to edit, deactivate or activate any automation in the Automation tab of the Home application at any time.
