Door and Window Sensor Automation Ideas - Using Contact Sensors in Home Automation
In this blog post I show you my favourite contact sensor automations that I use around my house.
Aqara and Sonoff contact sensors side by side
Aqara and Sonoff contact sensors side by side
Both these sensors are affordable and have been rock solid in my environment. The Sonoff sensor is slightly physically larger than the Aqara, and like most of their Home Automation devices, the Aqara door sensor feels like it has been built to a high quality.
For that reason I would recommend buying the Aqara contact sensor if you're looking to start out from scratch. Regardless of which sensor you choose, you will need to pair them directly with Home Assistant using a Zigbee Dongle.
Contact Sensors in Home Assistant
Both devices provide relatively similar information into Home Assistant as entities. These are:
Door Open/Closed
Battery Level & Voltage
Zigbee Link Quality
Sonoff and Aqara Contact Sensor Entities in Home Assistant
Sonoff and Aqara Contact Sensor Entities in Home Assistant
The Aqara also seems to provide a temperature reading of the device. I have not found it to be at all accurate, and do not recommend using this reading. If you want to measure the temperature, then use a dedicated Aqara Temperature Sensor.
Contact Sensor Automations
Here is a list of the automations that I use in my house that rely on Door and Window Contact Sensors. The links below will take you to detailed instructions for how to set up that automation in your own Home Assistant setup.