Real time out door temps with Home Assistant and a $19 Acurite Digital thermometer.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I don't know why but I always wanted to be able to see the temp outside and have it update in real time. First I just ordered a Yolink Wifi outdoor smart thermometer. But it was bad really bad, it only updated the temp once every 1 hour or if the temp changed 3 degrees. So that was worthless.

Then I turned my attention to running home assistance. After some research online, I found out that I could buy one of those $19 AcuRite outdoor temp things from Walmart, you know the ones that come with the outdoor sensor and then the little temps that display the temps.

These little guys

AcuRite Wireless Digital Thermometer

Then bought a Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set , You can use this with home assistance to receive the data those little digital thermometers output. They put out a 433mhz signal.

In home assistance I installed the Mosquitto Broker, rtl_433 and rtl_433 MQTT Auto Discovery add-on.

Those used the usb adapter to find the receivers and get the temps.

Then I went on eBay and got a Intel NUC DC3217IYE Intel Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz 4GB RAM 120GB SSD for $37.

I used that to install Home Assistant.

Everything worked. What's nice about those AcuRite Wireless Receivers, is that the 2 AAA batteries last forever and it updates the temps in real time.

It also ties each temp in HA to a sensor Entity that you can access via other apps.

So I added home assistant support to my caller ID companion app. Then I added the sensor data for the outdoor, indoor and basement (yes I have 3 receivers)

It also maps the temps.

Here is my call ID companion app with the home assistant support and the temps

In the morning in real time you can watch the temp go up 45.6, 45.7, 45.8

[tsupersonic]

Curious why you need to know the weather precisely in your yard? Why not just use a website or app? Just a fun project or is there a use case?

[+Warwagon MVC]

  On 30/03/2025 at 01:50, tsupersonic said:

Curious why you need to know the weather precisely in your yard? Why not just use a website or app? Just a fun project or is there a use case?

Expand  

Just fun. Plus my heat pump doesn’t run very well below 10°. So at 10° I turn on the emergency heat. So that’s one use case.

I made another app which uses that outdoor temp sends me an email when it gets below 11°. And also when it warms back up 11°.

[dwd999]

Thanks for this! With summer coming up in Las Vegas I like to check the afternoon temps before I go out. But since my heat pump is on the west side of the house and in the sun after noon, the temps on its thermostat are never accurate. One of these sensors on my shaded patio will give me much better readings!

[+Warwagon MVC]

  On 30/03/2025 at 20:16, dwd999 said:

Thanks for this! With summer coming up in Las Vegas I like to check the afternoon temps before I go out. But since my heat pump is on the west side of the house and in the sun after noon, the temps on its thermostat are never accurate. One of these sensors on my shaded patio will give me much better readings!

Expand  

Yep, sensor in the shade are key.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I actually have 2 of those USB receivers 1 for the 433 mhz and another for the 915 mhz frequency. I could have it automatically switch frequencies from just 1 but I got 2.

Most water meters and electric meters run off the 915mhz. So I can pull my electric usage and water usage. While I haven't gotten the measurements units correct, so the measurements units in the charts below are not correct. I just go by the graph.

Here is my water usage charge for the day ...each little notch is usually a toilet flush

Here is both the energy and water for for the month LIke i said the units are off. I just like looking at the graph to see if I see a big spike in water or energy usage on a day. Mar 25th, 26th ,27th and 28th it got really nice out and the heat pump didn't have to run. Then it went from 86F outside to 36F ..so you can see the energy usage went back up as the heat pump ran again.

Per the water chart, on the 29th we ran the dishwasher and did 3 loads of cloths.

If we pull up that day, you can see that around 6pm I ran the dish washer and once that was done I started laundry

 

[+BudMan MVC]

I will have to look into water, but for electric I just bought a $40 emporia vue that plugs in and just email the the electric company give them code on your unit and they pair with your smart meter.

I have solar is why you see neg numbers... I have sent to the grid 268Kwh more than I have pulled this last month.  It's pretty slick - and was online a few minutes after just plugging it in, I was surprised with how fast they responded after sending the email with my info. Days that are positive "blue" are days the solar didn't cover my consumption.

https://shop.emporiaenergy.com/products/utility-connect

Must simpler way to get electric if you don't like to tinker

Real time is cool, etc.  Can see instantly when say you turn on the TV, etc.  Pretty impressed with it for $40 that is for sure. 

Just plugged it into a wall socket in my laundry room, near the smart meter outside.

I will have to look into how to get the data off the smart water meter   Clearly you do not have the scale setup for water if your using much hehehe 5K gals on march 1st

 

 

 

[+Warwagon MVC]

  On 31/03/2025 at 02:56, BudMan said:

I will have to look into how to get the data off the smart water meter   Clearly you do not have the scale setup for water if your using much hehehe 5K gals on march 1s

 

Expand  

That's neat. I wonder if it will work with mine or if mine is a smart one. All I know is that it out puts 915 mhz. I don't think my eletric meter updates in real time.

Yes, my scale setup is not correct at all.

[+BudMan MVC]

They replaced our electric meters many years ago - you can actually view your daily consumption online on the power companies website, but it normally behind by a day or so.  I know our water meters are smart as well, and was not that long ago updated.. Have to look into a way to tap into that, without having to put in one of those inline meters.

[+Dick Montage Subscriber²]

  On 30/03/2025 at 01:50, tsupersonic said:

Curious why you need to know the weather precisely in your yard? Why not just use a website or app? Just a fun project or is there a use case?

Expand  

Because this is the type of thing that makes a decent problem solver - to a point.  I do it too - a casual thought that then becomes "a problem I wish to solve" and then a "project I wish to undertake".

Sometimes you take a step back and look at what cost it will be - financial/time?  But if it's something you're into (Home Automation) then yay, enjoy

[+Warwagon MVC]

  On 30/03/2025 at 01:50, tsupersonic said:

Curious why you need to know the weather precisely in your yard? Why not just use a website or app? Just a fun project or is there a use case?

Expand  

This morning, we had snow flurries. I asked Google what the temperature was. It said 36F. The weather site said 36F, but my outdoor temperature said it was 32.4 and dropping. I checked with my Sh*ty yolink one outside that updates once an hour, and it was reading 33.5F.