I’m a software developer from Czech Republic and I’m trying to build a home monitoring setup for my grandparents. I’ve been looking for existing solutions here in Czechia, but couldnt really find anything that combines everything I’m looking for.
The idea is to monitor falls, movement around the apartment, unusual inactivity, breathing (if possible), smoke and air quality. Ideally without cameras or requiring them to wear anything.
I’d like to use Home Assistant to connect the devices and then build my own backend to collect data, analyze daily routines and send alerts to family members when something unusual happens.
I did some initial research with ChatGPT and came up with this hardware list:
Milesight VS373 – fall detection and breathing
Aqara FP2 – presence and movement monitoring
Aqara Motion P2 – basic motion detection
Shelly Plus Smoke – smoke detection
AirGradient ONE – air quality
Home Assistant Green + ZBT-2 – connecting everything together
But I’m pretty new to the IoT hardware side, so I’m not sure if this combination actually makes sense. Has anyone built something similar, or used any of these devices for elderly monitoring?
I haven’t built this for elderly care, but one warning from a 24 GHz Tuya presence sensor in our nursery. With the room empty and the ceiling light on, it never showed the room as empty in the 27 minutes I logged, and it switched to motion 32 times. Each of the three times I turned the light off from HA, the reading went to none within 20 to 23 seconds, and I still don’t know why.
Nice project. A few thoughts on the air-quality and smoke side, since that’s the part I know best (electronics engineer, I work on CO2/air-quality sensing):
Air quality: The AirGradient ONE is a reasonable pick for HA. It has a real NDIR CO2 sensor and a laser PM sensor, and it works locally. For elderly residents, I’d rank CO2 as the most useful signal. It tells you when the room needs airing, especially the bedroom overnight. Many older people keep windows shut and the heating up, and CO2 regularly climbs past 1500–2000 ppm by morning. One thing to watch: make sure any CO2 sensor you buy is NDIR. Some cheap “CO2” sensors just estimate it from VOC readings, and those numbers are close to meaningless.
Smoke and CO: I’d treat these as life-safety devices first and smart-home devices second. Use certified standalone alarms that sound loudly on their own, even if HA, Wi-Fi or your backend is down. Get the HA notification as a bonus on top, not as the primary alert. If there’s any combustion appliance in the flat (gas boiler, gas stove, fireplace), add a certified CO alarm too. An air-quality monitor is not a substitute for one.
Architecture: Since family will rely on the alerts, plan for failure. Watchdog the hub’s power and internet, alert when a sensor goes silent (dead battery or dropped link), and have the alerts reach you through a path that doesn’t depend on the same box. A UPS on the router and HA Green is cheap insurance.
Allow them some agency. I have floor-level buttons at fall points (bathroom, stairs) which can be used to summon help.
For monitoring I have a “dead man’s switch”: if the house appears to be occupied but no room-to-room movement has been detected for 24 hours an alert is sent.
Beware of monitoring things just because you can. Smoke and CO certainly, but general air quality? (Especially if they smoke…)
What do your grandparents think about all this? They might prefer a daily visit.
supernotify would let you easily integrate voice assistants, and the chime integration will let you add anything switchable (or with a rest api or script) into your notifications. Combined with the priority support, you could make critical alerts very noticeable using sound and light, and integrate SMS or telegram.
There’s not a pre-built recipe for this, but happy to collaborate on one.
