Looking for recommendations on room presence devices.
I’m opening to anything, zigbee/wifi, mmWave or the traditional PIR.
Needs to setup nicely in HA.
Bluetooth proxies with Bermuda.
This seems relatively inexpensive, but the user would need to have their device on their person for this to work.
True. On the other hand, you should be able to tell who is in each room.
In terms of “room presence” there are two types to differentiate between: whether the room has anyone in it, and whether the room has specific person (or people) in it.
For the former, mmWave “human presence” sensor is definitely a better option than motion-sensing PIR, but many products incorporate both. There are lots of Zigbee options and a few open WiFi, including “everything presence one” sensor and Athom PS01, both of which run customizable firmware from Esphome. I have the Athom and quite like it — the lux sensor, coupled with occupancy, really comes in handy when deciding if lights should be on/off.
For the latter, a wearable like Apple Watch, coupled with BLE proxy esp32s scattered around the house, provide a rough determination whether someone is in (or near) a room. I’ve added the BLE proxy feature to a number of esphome stuff I already had, like plugs and fans, to provide decent house-wide coverage, but to be honest my automations don’t yet require that level of granularity.