Zigbee - making bathroom extractor fan smart.

elsmandino

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I installed a bathroom extractor fan, with a built-in humidistat, but am regretting it, now - for some reason, I just cannot set it correctly.

Anyway, it occurred to me that as I have a HomeAssistant server, I should just buy a dumb fan (no timers, pull cords, or anything).

Is it simply the case of just attaching a Zigbee relay between the power cable and the fan and, if so, any models that anyone can recommend?

One quick thing to point out - my current fan is connected to the permanent live in my bathroom, so it works completely independently of the light switch.
 
Most of these extractors can be set to run slow in the background but to speed up when humidity rises or the light turns on - surely that is all you ever need / what SMART control or setup would give you better than that?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, depending on the setting, my fan either does not come on at all or comes on and stays on for hours on end.

Having had a look at various forums, quite a lot of people appear to agree that they do not actually work very well practice (i.e. extractor fans with humidistats).

I was hoping that if I had control over what external sensor to buy (and also where to put it), I could hopefully get it working as intended.

I was also thinking of using a reed switch on the bathroom window - if it wasn't too cold/wet outside, and I wanted to open the window instead, I could then tell the extractor to go off if the window were opened.
 
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I agree the 'humidity' sensors in these things are unreliable at best, that is why I changed all of mine for 'constantly running in the background with a boost when triggered by light or humidity or...' - yes I could save a few pennies if it was switched off sometimes but would that cover the cost and setup and maintenance of the additional components?
 
I agree the 'humidity' sensors in these things are unreliable at best, that is why I changed all of mine for 'constantly running in the background with a boost when triggered by light or humidity or...' - yes I could save a few pennies if it was switched off sometimes but would that cover the cost and setup and maintenance of the additional components?
which extractor did you use?
 
I have my bathroom extractors triggered by zigbee humidity sensors. I am using homeseer as my hub and it is a little convoluted but works well. I got an electrician to wire in shelly 1's to the extractor fans and they are triggered by some aqara humidity sensors.
 
i went for sonoff basic for the fan ,
and a multisensor 6 for humidity /pir ,think it also does temp, uv ,and luminescence?
not the cheapest but can be mains powered by usb ,so polling can be i think 5 secs ,
did try a sonoff humidity sensor ,reacted to a rise but bloody slow to come down again ,
linked to a scene controlling the lights heated mirror (basic again ) and blind ,did have a playlist play as well in the ceiling speakers via a dot on a 3.5 mm
 
@elsmandino

did you ever set this up?
at the moment we just have a fan that is linked to the light, so can only be on if the light is also on.
i'd like this on it's own live feed and then be controlled by an Aqara humidity sensor (or similar) to turn it on and off as required.

my tado TRVs have humidity sensors so can already track humidity levels in the rooms with radiators using home assistant.

i agree that auto humidistat fans are not great, i fitted one on my previous property and found that it ran at high speed more often than it should so eventually but it back into manual mode.
 
I have my bathroom extractors triggered by zigbee humidity sensors. I am using homeseer as my hub and it is a little convoluted but works well. I got an electrician to wire in shelly 1's to the extractor fans and they are triggered by some aqara humidity sensors.

this sound like a good setup.
so all you really did at the fan side was add Shelly 1 controllers to either kill or live the power based on a trigger? are they zigbee?
 
this sound like a good setup.
so all you really did at the fan side was add Shelly 1 controllers to either kill or live the power based on a trigger? are they zigbee?
Sorry I missed the notification for this. Yes shelly 1s connected to inline extractor fans in the loft. The trigger for this is some aqara humidity sensors.

In the winter when it is humid outside, the fans do continue to get triggered- I should put some extra conditions in to correct this but I got lazy. The only thing I did do was to set the threshold higher in the evening so they aren't running overnight
 

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