this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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We've got an insulated house, heat it properly, ventilate it, but still see humidity levels of 70%+ in bed rooms. How to fix that? (self.newzealand)
submitted 1 year ago by sylverstream to c/newzealand
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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?

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[–] Dave 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Haha good point! What is the plan when that happens?

[–] sylverstream 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm avoiding plugs that require internet access, but it's a bit hard, especially in NZ. E.g. the TP Link smart plus don't work if the internet is down, and my standing desk is Tuya based which requires the cloud.

But, e.g. the TP Link plugs still have a button to turn them on manually in case the internet is down. The lights still work if you turn them off and back on at the wall. So everything can still work without internet.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ok cool, I'll be sure to think about that stuff before getting too far along, thanks for the suggestion.

Most of the lights in our house are built in LED downlights, so can't really switch them out for smart bulbs, it would need to be a smart switch

[–] sylverstream 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just to add, it IS very handy. I've just created a script that sets the heat pump to Dry & 2c lower than ambient temperature.

This way I will be able to create automations to e.g. run it on Dry every night for e.g. an hour, then back to heat, etc.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This sounds like a rabbit hole I'd like to get lost in. Except when I'm away and no one else can use anything because I stupidly started an update just before I needed to leave and it broke things and now nothing is working.

[–] sylverstream 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yep, try to do small things first instead of letting hell go loose if something doesn't work.

I've set up a tablet in the living room as "wall panel" where e.g. the kids can change the thermostat for their bedrooms, check the weather forecast, and it shows random photos from the NAS as a screensaver, which is just fun & nice.

[–] Dave 2 points 1 year ago

That's cool! I like that idea.

[–] innercitadel 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

What is something simple to start with if getting into HA? I already have a NAS.

[–] sylverstream 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I started with:

  1. Integrate my web cams using Frigate, showing up in HA and sending notifications when I'm not home. HA knows if I'm home.
  2. Added zigbee temp sensors and smart plugs to bed rooms to control electrical heaters as thermostat.
  3. Motion sensor and smart bulbs in the hall way. Of all the things I've done, this is the thing my SO keeps raving about.
  4. Control my rm mini 3 Ir blaster, for my heat pump, tv and sound bar. So eg thermostat for heat pump and universal remote for TV/audio

Next to do is put smart plugs in our electric blankets, make our dumb alarm smart and make the garage door smart.

You can run it dockerized to get started.

[–] innercitadel 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh cool. I'm going to try the temp sensors. Thank you!

[–] sylverstream 1 points 1 year ago

Enjoy. It's a rabbit hole, I've just spent hours googling for a Zigbee IR blaster that's compatible with ZHA, and there's none. Zigbee2MQTT has better compatibility but I don't want to convert my Zigbee network to Z2M at the moment.

[–] sylverstream 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah it's a big rabbit hole like I suggested. I am also looking at automating our "dumb" alarm, our garage door, our Nissan Leaf, etc. I'm no longer allowed to talk about it during dinner, so please take it slowly :)