I am new to HA, but so far I plan on installing zigbee enabled thermostats (for Central AC) in my house. Right now this is what I have in mind:
Before I purchase it I want to know if I could probably make it visible and controllable on the Apple HomeKit App. Me personally I wouldnt mind keeping it on HA, but I think it would be easier for the rest of my family to do so and help with Siri automations.
I know there are HomeKit enabled thermostats that I can choose from, but this is honestly way cheaper and I dont need 10+ more devices sitting idle on my WiFi network.
If it is possible, what is best way about going about it, what integrations/addons to use, etc. I am a novice at HA but I can handle myself eith programming fairly well.
Thanks in advance!
Note: I am running HA on a RPi3 and have a Sonoff dongnle for zigbee
Once you setup the thermostat on homebridge via Zigbee2MQTT, it will show up as a thermostat in HA.
Then under integrations select “Add integration” > HomeKit. It will ask you what devices you would like to include and if you select more than one, they will show up as separate bridges.
Choose “Climate” and rename the hub if you wish. I delete the extra hash at the end and just make it HASS Bridge- Climate
Next, follow the instructions to add this new bridge to your HomeKit. Check your notifications in HA and there will be a Homekit code & QR code to scan into homekit app.
All the devices that are included in “climate” would show up in Homekit under the new bridge. Note that if there are a lot of devices in this bridge, this step could take a while (ex: smart lights or switches)
Does this make sense? I could provide pictures if I need to, but it is very simple and then your HA devices will show up in Homekit.