I have been trying to find an outdoors temperature zigbee sensor, preferably with onewire or similar probe outside. We could have temperatures as low as -30C in winter and I believe lithium batteries are not very good in such conditions. I have not found any suitable hardware solutions yet. Are there any?
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Did you end up finding something? I’m on the hunt now…
No, I did not. I tried one sensor with a lithium battery. It stops working in about -2-5 celsius (23F). It is now -25C outside.
Thanks for reply, I decided to do a small project, and I purchased a DS18B20 sensor which I can incorporate into ESPHome using any ESP8266 board. Should be ideal as the sensor will just be outside and the range is -55°C to +125°C.
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I’ve just ordered those parts. Can you direct me to a video of how to set it up with esphome?
I use a hue outdoor sensor and it works great in Colorado (-5f etc)
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@mikesn31
Have you figured this out, im in need of the same thing
@jeeftor
is there more than one hue outdoor sensor
when i look it up, all i find is a motion sensor with no mention of temperature
Yea does t advertise but does have temps
Thanks for the tip, i have ordered one and received it
Are you having any issues with temp accuracy?
I’m having issues and it cant be adjusted(offset) as its accurate at lower temps 15c(~60f)
But then greatly exagerates at higher temps 20c(68f) reads 25(77f) and 25(77f) reads 35(95f)
So no amount of offset will help as its off by more and more as the temp goes up
The only thing im noticing is that humidity is over 80%, perhaps its affected by humidity?
Have you experienced this?, if so, how have you addressed it?
I haven’t really had accuracy issues. My main issue is that the sun in Colorado will send that things way higher than air temp. I’d it’s in the shade it’s accurate
ok, then, that might be my issue
the sun hits it directly, im not sure i have a shadded area within zigbee range.
ill try to find a way to shade it to see if it helps
I just noticed the casing is very hot while the lense is not
I’m guessing that making it black was a very bad idea
the siding on the home is white with one dark brown strip, the white is cool and the brown is hot
I think i might need to paint the casing white
I actually have a sensor which shows the differences between air temp (open weather) and my hue which is south facing with zero shade. This is actually useful in my case because out here it can be freezing cold but in the sun you can get away with a teeshirt so its useful to actually see the difference.
I’ve jumped back between using the hue integration and raw-zigbee and I don’t recall which its hooked up to at the moment.
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And using a temp-gun I’ve also measured the unit itself and I believe its pretty damn close to the correct temp.
thanks for the update
im in the same situation and had not considered the benefit
for the moment i have moved it to the front of my house (north facing)
so far its closer to open weather but it has not been that hot in the last 2 days
my reason for wanting this instead of open weather is that open weather only updates 1x per hour sometimes resulting in large jumps up or down in temp
in turn this makes certain automations trigger later than wanted
i do however see a benifit to seeing both temps as you indicated
perhaps i could make a card like you did, plus an additional one that averages both for additional use
i have also considered making a chart to track at which points it is offset and by howmuch
this could allow to make an “adjusted sensor” which adds or subtracts certain amounts based on lux
I started this thread and now I have found a solution. I just bought two RuuviTag sensors. The other I put in my sauna, with temperatures up to 80C and the other outside where it is now -25C. Both work very well. The only shortcoming is that you need a bluetooth connection. I have an Asus dongle and it reaches easily at least 10 meters, through walls and a floor.
I also tried OWON THS317-ET, but when the temperature goes below -20C, it shows about +320C.
Just to get more details, does the RuuviTag sensor requires app, or directly works with HA through BLE or through ESPHome BT Proxy?
No app is required. Just HA and a bluetooth dongle.
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Perhaps should have added “in very cold weather” to the title.
There are some other threads about monitoring in refrigerators (and freezers) already on the forums as well. There the problems are not only temperature, but RF penetration of the metal box. But maybe you can find some useful idea(s)?
Much to my surprise, I found that a regular Aqara Zigbee temperature sensor worked well enough for me. However this was only in refrigerator, not freezer. So might not work for you, in extreme low temperatures.
Unfortunately for me the Aqara WSDCGQ11LM sensors die after about of week under 50F/10C. I have four of them at various installations and they consistently die.
Specification states the following, but alas this is not true for me. If temperature remains above 50F/10C, they work for very long time. I have a new site to deploy at high temp, will see how well they work on the other end of temp range.
Temperature Range and Precision
-20℃~+50°C, ±0.3℃ (-4℉~+122℉, ±0.5°F）
Humidity Range and Precision
0 – 100% RH (non-condensing), ±3%
Atmospheric Pressure Range and Precision
30 kPa – 110 kPa, ±0.12 kPa
I have purchased a RuuviTag, will see how long it lasts. So far it connected without an issue and it is chugging along at low temperatures. ( Thank you @smoltron )
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