URGENT MUTUAL AID
Hey y'all, I am starting to have health issues from the mold that keeps forming in the apartment because of extreme humidity, and I'm worried it will start affecting the baby too. #Seattle #humidity is awful and we really need help getting it under control. Plus @nullagent doesn't want to be cleaning windows with bleach every other day 
My micro PV (‘balkonsolar’) produced 800kWh in 2024
One year ago I bough a small PV (2x400W panels and 600W grid tied micro inverter XIAMEN E-star Energy HERF-800) for 750€ and mounted it on my balcony facing East-South.
I’m using Aqara smart power plug (SP-EUC01) to measure electricity production and Home Assistant to monitor it and balace consumption.
I also bough a wifi module for the inverter but I don’t really use it. I’m checking the cloud based app/webpage only every 6 months only to compare measurements with Aqara smart plug and Home Assistant. The numbers are pretty much the same.
Before I bought it (Nov. 2023) I wanted to know how much electricity it can produce.
Calculation before I bought it (Nov. 2023)
I used this tool [PVGIS] to calculate the electricity production. I’ve entered location, azimuth (direction/facing of panels) and slope (the angle of the panels). The calculation returned me from 555kWh to 615kWh (it depends on azimuth and slope). This means ROI 7.1 – 6.4 years (if kWh=0.19€).
As it showed, the calculation was on the pessimistic side.
Real data after a year
It seems 2024 was a good year – PV produced a bit more than ~800kWh of electricity.
Home Assistant production chart:
E-star web app chart:
I’ve sent back to grid ~70kWh. This means:
Key takeawaays:
Nevertheless, I’m dissatisfied with:
Tags: #homeassistant #PV #Aqara #balkonsolar #herf
If you’re reading this on fediverse or RSS feed and the layout (embedded pics) is off or missing, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/my-micro-pv-balkonsolar-produced-800kwh-in-2024/
Flashing Xiaomi BLE sensors and integrating it in Home Assistant
So I bough another 5 Xiaomi Mi BLE sensors (in Nov. 2024) model LYWSD03MMC. I wanted to flash them OTA (over-the-air) with custom firmware as previous 7 sensor (bougth in 2022-23).
But why would I want to flash it with custom firmware? To connect it to my Home Assistant, of course. Stock firmware connects only to Xiaomi phone app.
But not so fast.
After I bought the sensors, I found out that OTA using the web flasher currently doesn’t work. Xiaomi updated the sensor’s firmware (2.1…), closed the loop hole and it can not be ‘activated’ and then flashed over-the-air anymore [see the debate on GitHub].
But smart people of internetz found the way to flash it via serial connection, usb2ttl adapter and some wires. Only the first flashing should be done with serial adapter.
The process
I downloaded this firmware: ATC_Thermometer.bin (rel. 79)
I dissasembled the device (T5 driver):
I connected DuPont wires to the USB2TTL adapter, the wires with crocodile clips to DuPont wires via some pins. I didn’t match the colours of the wires so I had to check 10 times which wire goes where. Amateur forever.
Moreover, I bought 3 slightly different usb2ttl adapters in a pack (in 2023) and only one (dark blue one, HW-597) worked for this specific flashing.
Then I connected:
USB2TTL adapter | Xiaomi sensor
GND –> battery middle connector (-),
+3V –> battery side connector (+),
Tx –> P14 (just held the white wire to the P14 dot while flashing, no soldering needed).
I used this serial flasher (works in Chrome, not in FireFox). All settings default.
After flashing (30 secs), I disconnect the cables, assembled the device and put the battery in.
When assembling the back side, you have to press it hard on 3 sides to hear ‘clicks’ on each side. Otherwise the board will not have a good contact with LCD display.
I observed the MAC address rotating at the startup and wrote it down:
MAC: A4:C1:38:XX:YY:ZZ
The first 3 numbers are always the same for all LYWs… sensors.
Opened the OTA Telink flasher. Clicked ‘connect’. A new window with BLE devices shows up. Select the correct device.
Then I configured it with the following settings:
Then I went to Home Assistant ESPHome add-in and opened the yaml of my BLE proxy. Added the following code for each sensor:
...sensor:...- platform: atc_mithermometer mac_address: "A4:C1:38:XX:YY:ZZ" temperature: name: "ATC 11 (ROOM NAME) Temperature" humidity: name: "ATC 11 (ROOM NAME) Humidity" battery_level: name: "ATC 11 (ROOM NAME) Battery-Level" battery_voltage: name: "ATC 11 (ROOM NAME) Battery-Voltage" signal_strength: name: "ATC 11 (ROOM NAME) Signal" ...Saved, installed new firmware to my ESP32 BLE proxy.
Checked the ESP32 logs to see if it receives BLE data from new sensor:
All good!
Then I opened ESPHome integration in Home Assistant to check if new entities appeared. They have.
Looks like my ESP32 (Wroom, 2 core) can handle 11 Xiaomi BLE sensors + 1 BLE hand band (almost) without problems.
It outputs a yellow warning “… tracker tool a long time for an operation – 80ms“, but it isn’t noticable from HA perspective.
Integration to Home Assistant
No additional work here to be done. ESPHome integration adds the new entities from ESP32 BLE tracker automagically.
I’ve put one of my sensors to the attic, because I was always curious what’s the temperature there in winter and sommer. Moreover, I was interested in the difference of outside temperature and attic temperature.
The blue line is the attic temp., yellow and red are the outside temps:
What’s interesting is a phase shift of temperatures. Attic temp. follows outside temp. with small delay (2-3 hrs).
On average, attic temp is only 2-5C higher than outside temp. It’s not surprising, because there is 30cm of insulation on the attic floor.
Calculating difference of 2 temperatures
How did I calculated the difference of temperatures?
I’ve created a new helper, template sensor and entered the following code in template options/state template field:
{{ (states('sensor.atc_11_podstresje_temperature') | float(2) - states('sensor.toplotna_outside_temperature') | float(2)) | round (1) }}TL;DR
Tags: #homeassistant #xiaomi #ble #esphome #esp32 #temperature #humidity
If you’re reading this on fediverse or RSS feed and the layout (embedded pics) is off or missing, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/flashing-xiaomi-ble-sensors-and-integarting-it-in-home-assistant/
My new #Meaco DD8L Junior dehumidifier is 
. It took 5 litres of water from the air.
This breaks the cycle: wipe condensation off the boat windows, dry the rag (adds humidity to the air), which then condenses on the windows.
This appliance generates a tiny bit of heat—good in winter when I'll be running it to combat damp.
The electric meter says it used £1.25 in 24 hours. That's less than I spend on briquettes, logs and kindling.
It was a summer of unrelenting #humidity & #heat too #extreme for the human body….In June, ≥1,300 pilgrims visiting the Muslim holy city of #Mecca died amid temperatures of 50°C (122°F).…125 people were reported dead in #Mexico during a July streak of exceedingly hot nights that researchers say was made 200X as likely because of #ClimateChange. In the #Arctic archipelago of #Svalbard, one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, Aug #temperatures soared >2.5°C (4.5°F) above the record.
Really interesting report on #research being conducted at #USyd around #ClimateChange and the body's ability to adapt to #heat and #humidity - the long-held wet bulb limit of 35C may actually be much lower in many circumstances
Report by #TyneLogan
78 % relative #humidity indoors at 19 °C, both rising. Dew point: 15.1 °C.
Them books don't like that at all.
air humid and flat
the sweltering summer heat
languid afternoon...
#dailyhaikuprompt - languid
#mastoprompt - flat
12/
The comment [6] notes how the recent "studies clearly refute any notion of humanity thriving on a planet with many degrees of warming, and collectively are a wakeup call that heat extremes are rapidly becoming more dangerous, due to the combined effect of higher #temperatures and #humidity [...]"
"The likely symptoms of increasingly intolerable heat during peak events will be human migration away from the most vulnerable regions toward cooler ones but also mortality of those who stay put"
Blog: Bathroom dehumidifying using two sensors and a floating humidity threshold.
Link to the original blog post with a nice text/pictures layout.
The problem:
The bathroom fan is running too long if it’s raining outside.
A year ago I automated the dehumidifying of the bathroom using an extraction fan, Sonoff mini switch, Xiaomi Mi BLE thermometer/humidity sensor and HomeAssistant.
It works great, except in humid and rainy weather. In such cases, the fan runs too long, because it can not reach the manually set humidity threshold.
The solution:
A moving humidity threshold using a second humidity sensor.
HW parts:
SW:
The process:
1. I resolved how to connect Sonoff ZBMINI to the fan. The fan has 4 connectors: 1. ground, 2. neutral, 3. Phase 1 (power), 4. Phase 2 (a signal to turn it on). Until I connected the Sonoff switch, I used a physical switch to turn the fan on.
I connected the Sonoff switch in parallel to the physical switch. This way I can still use the physical switch to turn the fan on (in case Home Assistant is not working).
The schematics/doodles:
The fan enclosure (without Sonoff):
The Sonoff switch is so small it nicely fits the fan enclosure:
3. I connected Sonoff to my Zigbee network. I had some issues with the range because the bathroom is 10m away from the Zigbee router. Then I added some zigbee smart plugs (routers) nearby to strengthen the mesh.
4. Then I set up Xiaomi Mi BLE sensors (one in the bathroom, one in the hallway) and ESP32 BLE proxy. Will skip the steps here, maybe this will be another blog post. Nevertheless, any humidity sensor connected to Home Assistant would work.
Home Assistant
5. I’ve set up a generic hygrostat entity:
The code for it (it should be defined manually in configuration.yaml):
generic_hygrostat: - name: Kopalnica unique_id: kopalnica_dehumidifier01 humidifier: switch.kopalnica_stikalo_vent target_sensor: sensor.atc_kopalnica1_humidity min_humidity: 30 max_humidity: 80 target_humidity: 65 dry_tolerance: 2 wet_tolerance: 2 device_class: "dehumidifier" min_cycle_duration: seconds: 5 keep_alive: minutes: 3 initial_state: true away_humidity: 65 away_fixed: True sensor_stale_duration: 00:15:006. I’ve added the automation for setting a floating humidity threshold:
The automation works like this: It has 2 triggers. The 1st trigger fires if the state of the humidity sensor located in the hallway changes. The 2nd trigger (which is probably not needed) fires every 30 minutes (just to be sure).
Then the target humidity in generic hygrostat (HA) is set to: hallway humidity + 8%.
Why 8% difference? Don’t know, I set it using trial-and-error and it works ok.
The code for target humidity needs to be added manually to the automation yaml:
"{{ float(states('sensor.atc_hodnik1_humidity')) + float(8) }}"Traces
Here’s the example of automation in action. The left trigger (humidity sensor state change) fired:
The result:
The result: a comparison of the fixed vs. floating humidity threshold can be observed on the chart below.
If the generic hygrostat entity in HA is set to a fixed value (e. g. 60%), the fan runs unnecessarily long and it can’t reach the target humidity, see red (1) on the chart below.
If the target humidity adjusts according to the general humidity in the house, it runs less time (2).
The chart below shows the switch from the fixed humidity threshold to floating threshold (21 May around 18:00). See the blue horizontal line (threshold) and purple line (current bathroom humidity). Light blue vertical bars represent when the fan is running:
Conclusions/Key takeaways
Disclaimer
The links to the products are not affiliate links and I don’t receive any compensation for linking.
The code and the ideas are mostly from HomeAssistant and ESPHome community forums.
Hashtags: #esphome #esp32 #homeassistant #diy #humidity #bathroom
https://blog.rozman.info/bathroom-dehumidifying-using-a-moving-humidity-threshold/
The Midwest US could be a hotspot for deadly ‘moist heat stress’ as global temperatures climb
Large parts of the world, including China and the Midwest US, are on track to become too hot for humans to handle as accelerating global temperatures expose billions to heat and humidity so extreme their bodies will no longer be able to cope, according to a new study.
By Rachel Ramirez, CNN
Published Oct 9, 2023
"At 3 degrees — which the study authors say is the most likely level of warming by 2100 if no action is taken — there is a sharp increase in people exposed to life-threatening heat and humidity. 'It’s really incredibly disturbing,' Huber told CNN.
"Humid #heatwaves will affect swaths of the world not used to such #extreme conditions.
"The #Midwest US will become a 'moist heat stress hotspot' at 3 degrees of warming, according to the report. The Midwest is susceptible to this kind of heat stress in part because its climate walks the line between dry and humid, Huber explained, allowing the region’s heat to push into the danger zone on very humid days.
"Another factor that makes the region vulnerable is its agriculture and the phenomenon called 'corn sweat,' Huber said.
"'The plants that we eat are sweating through evapotranspiration, and that may be adding to the humidity above what would normally be there,' he said.
"So-called 'hot hours' — times where heat and #humidity are especially life-threatening — will be concentrated in the #Missouri and #MississippiRiver valleys but also elsewhere in US including the #GulfOfMexico coast and the #AtlanticSeaboard according to the study.
"At 4 degrees of warming, the study’s worst-case scenario, researchers found that 1.5 billion people around the world would face a month of moist heat stress each year, and roughly 2.7 billion people will experience at least a week of these extreme conditions.
"Parts of #Yemen could experience heat and humidity that exceeds human tolerance for more than 300 days a year, making it virtually uninhabitable."
In the end its the #humidity that might kill us...
the #climatecrisis for humanity has many elements, but the rise of humid heat may in the end be the most invasive problem... with very clear implications for #energy use to try and cool us down - a(nother) vicious cycle in the challenge of #climatechange?
"In #Japan, unrelenting #Heatwaves combined with suffocating #humidity are weighing particularly heavily on the nation’s 36 million people age 65 and over, who are at much greater risk of severe illness and death."
#ClimateChange
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2023/07/30/climate-change/climate-change-heat-waves-aging-society/
‘It was an accident’: the scientists who have turned #humid air into #renewable power
In May, a team at the #UMass Amherst published a paper declaring they had successfully generated a small but continuous #electric current from #humidity in the air. It’s a claim that will probably raise a few eyebrows, and when the team made the discovery that inspired this new research in 2018, it did.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/02/it-was-an-accident-the-scientists-who-have-turned-humid-air-into-renewable-power
‘Extreme threat’: Large swathe of southern US at dangerous ‘wet bulb temperature’
by Jeremy Tanner - 06/29/23
"Readings of a key indicator of heat exposure danger have reached the highest possible threat level in multiple southern states, as well as in a few states in the #Midwest.
"When it comes to the 'wet bulb temperature,' nearly all of #Louisiana, #Mississippi, and #Arkansas are under 'extreme threat.' The wet bulb temperature measures multiple stressors on the human body in direct sunlight, not in the shade, as the #HeatIndex does.
"When it’s hot, humans sweat to cool off, but if the humidity is also high enough there’s a point at which sweat loses its cooling effect.
"The upper limit that humans could withstand was thought to be 95 F at 100% humidity, according to a 2010 study. New research out of Penn State University’s Noll Laboratory found that the critical limit is in fact even lower – 88 F at 100% humidity."
#ExtremeWeather #WetBulb #ExtremeHeat #Humidity #Climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe #USA #SouthernUSA
"Part of the problem stems from misunderstanding the #diversity of the disabled population and the range of their #needs. Many default to the image of someone in a #wheelchair when they hear the term. [But] those with #asthma — which affects about 26 million people in the US — are particularly vulnerable to #AirQuality emergencies. Conditions like #MultipleSclerosis and #CerebralPalsy worsen significantly in high heat and #humidity."
#disability #DisasterReadiness
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-06-22/in-climate-disasters-people-with-disabilities-are-getting-left-behind
so TIL that the #weather service has a page for US #WetBulbTemperature
This measurement will prolly become really important, soon.
#WetBulb Globe Temp (#WBGT) measures #heat stress in direct sunlight & takes into account: temp, #humidity, wind speed, sun angle & cloud cover.
so it's way better IMO than heat index, which is taken in shade.
human survivability limit is estimated to be wetbulb 95F. It's wetbulb 91 in south texas right now
Halp!! 35C / 95F
Great day for drying my washing on the clothes line, except then I'm absolutely soaked in sweat.
#Sydney #WesternSydney #Summer #Humidity #weather #weatherreport
As a typhoon brought rains
this week,
on a footpath.
