I am new to home assistant and I have the following concern:
I am currently running automations in order to keep temperature, relative humidity, and air exchange in my greenhouse.
My hardware consists of: 1 x Sonoff TH16 Hum.Temp. sensor/switch + 2 x Sonoff Smart Socket S26 connected to the following devices: An humidificator, an extraction fan, and a heater.
Today my internet went down for like 10 minutes and the system was stuck with the fan off, and both the heater and the humidificator on so it swiftly reached critically high temperatures and humidity almost burning my plants.
Is there a way to failsafe my automations so that if there is no internet connection, the devices are automatically shut down? Or my only option is to buy analogical failsafes like a thermostat?
Maybe mounting something like a LAN net that is independent could fix the issue? How can this be accomplished?
What kind of smart switches are used to control these devices? If they’re dependent on the cloud, you won’t be able to do anything when your local internet goes out. However, if they have a direct-access API (for example, the tuya-local integration can add local control for tuya-cloud devices), you should have no problem controlling them without WAN access.
If you flash them with esphome or tasmota, that will allow you to control them entirely locally. However, it means the sonoff app (I think it’s e we link or something) will no longer work, as it replaces the firmware running on the device itself. You’d need a serial-to-usb adapter (or arduino or something similar) to flash the firmware, but it’s straightforward.
I started with Tasmota years ago, but since the introduction of ESPHome, I’ve found it much better at handling logic and automations on the device itself, which means it works even if Home Assistant goes down. For example, I’ve used ESPHome in my window AC units to control the fan and compressor, and it uses the input from a DHT22 to control the temperature. The “generic thermostat” or “bang bang” controllers are great for setting a range (e.g. temperature for your thermostat, humidity for the fan) and keeping the sensor values within that range.
said the firefighter in me