We built a house 7 years ago and it’s insulated and has double glazing. I’ve installed Home Assistant with temp sensors in the bed rooms and seeing 70%+ humidity levels. Temperature is always above 16c

We ventilate it, but still it’s 70% in the bedrooms. WHO recommends 40-60%, so we’re a bit worried.

Living room is around 55% during the day when we have the heat pump set at 21c.

As it’s pretty humid outside I think it’s almost impossible to get it lower, but are there any other tips? I don’t want to run dehumidifiers. Would an HRV like system help?

  • Dave@lemmy.nzM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yeah I had the same issue wirh photos. I have a plan to eventually upgrade the main board from my Framework laptop and turn the old one into a server to deal with photo/video stuff.

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Check power usage. I also used an old Intel Desktop PC, but found it used about $150 / year power. Rough estimate, but if you leave something running 24/7 it’s good to keep the power usage low.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s a laptop so should have lower power usage than a desktop anyway. But I kinda expect anything doing photos/videos will use a bit of power. I might have to see if I can get a power usage measurer that’s compatible with Home Assistant!

        • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          The smart plugs I linked before have power measurement built-in. It’s Zigbee, so locally only.

          Most of the ones sold in NZ are all WiFi based, which is annoying as they depend on the cloud. Philips Hue is I think the only proper local solution, but bring your wallet if you want to go down that route.

          • Dave@lemmy.nzM
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            When you say Zigbee is local only, I presume if you have remote access to Home Assistant then you can use this to control them? But they don’t rely on a cloud server. That sounds ideal.

            • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Oh, for remote control to HA, I use Tailscale. So I can connect to HA from my phone anywhere by turning Tailscale on. And, I get e.g. notifications for motion sensors. Very convenient.

            • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yes, Zigbee is a protocol for a mesh network. Mains powered devices like smart bulbs and smart plugs are routers as well to extend the coverage. Temp sensors are end devices only (and not a router). You also have Zwave but I think Zigbee is more popular.

              Downside is that not all Zigbee devices follow the Zigbee standard, it’s a bit of a mess sometimes.

              So… there’s a new kid, Matter and Thread. It’s very new, so not a lot of devices, but the SkyConnect dongle is Matter/Thread ready. It will come first to HASS, and afterwards to dockerized (another advantage for HASS).

              The benefits are that it’s indeed local only (i.e. your local network) and the batteries in end devices like temp sensors will last much longer than the wifi equivalent.

              I didn’t know about all of this 6 weeks ago, hope it makes sense.

              • Dave@lemmy.nzM
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                You’re making sense! I can’t want to dive in and get started, but will probably take a month for anything to arrive from ali express.

                • sylverstream@lemmy.nzOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Glad it makes sense! Delivery times seem to have improved. It still sometimes takes a month, the Zigbee smart plugs arrived within 10 days. For the SkyConnect I ordered at Seeedstudio and paid extra for quick delivery, it was here within 5 days. Any questions just DM me.