15€ water sensor as smart prevention against water damage with Home Assistant

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Water damage can cause real chaos in your home. It often comes unexpectedly and can result in expensive repairs. But you can take action now and protect your house or apartment with a smart solution that is not only effective but also surprisingly affordable: a €15 water sensor integrated into your Home Assistant system.

Benefit from instant notification

As soon as the water sensor detects moisture, it sends an immediate notification to your smartphone. This allows you to react quickly, even if you are not at home. You can turn off the tap, close the main water pipe or ask neighbors and friends to check on things before a small leak turns into major damage.

Automate your reactions

With Home Assistant, you can go one step further. You can set up automated processes that become active when water is detected. For example, you can automatically turn off smart taps or a smart main water valve, flash lights to attract your attention or even send an alarm message to your security company.

Monitor continuously and keep your home safe

The beauty of this solution lies in its simplicity and efficiency. For just €15 and a little time to set it up, you get a powerful tool that monitors your home around the clock and protects it from potential water damage.

For detailed instructions and an explanation of all configuration options, I recommend the YouTube video linked below. In this video, every single setting is explained in detail so that you receive comprehensive instructions for the exact setup. You can find any code from the video in this article so that you can use it directly without having to type it in.

Requirements: Start with the simple installation

First of all, get yourself a Water sensor like the Aqara SJCGQ11LM for around €15. These sensors are small, unobtrusive and easy to place in places where water damage is likely, such as near washing machines, dishwashers, water pipes or in the bathroom. Installation is very simple: you place the sensor, connect it to your Wi-Fi or preferred Zigbee system and then integrate it into your existing Home Assistant system.

Zigbee coordinatorSince the water sensor communicates via Zigbee, a Zigbee coordinator is required to convert the sensor's signal into a format that can be processed by Home Assistant. Examples of coordinators are USB sticks such as the Phoscon ConBee III, SONOFF Zigbee 3.0, Home Assistant SkyConnect or others.

Home Assistant installationYou must have already installed and configured Home Assistant. This includes access to the Home Assistant interface via a network.

Zigbee2MQTTFor those who wish to integrate the water sensor directly into Home Assistant without the use of proprietary gateways, the installation and configuration of Zigbee2MQTT is required. This requires additional steps, such as the configuration of Zigbee2MQTT.

MQTT brokerFor advanced integrations, as in the case of Zigbee2MQTT, an MQTT broker is required. Eclipse Mosquitto, for example, can be used for this. This is also available as a Docker container.

What is Home Assistant?

Home Assistant is an open source platform for home automation that aims to connect and centrally control all devices in the home. It is designed to provide a unified user interface and simple, flexible control for a variety of smart home devices from different ecosystems. Here are some points in favor of Home Assistant:

1. CompatibilityHome Assistant supports thousands of devices and services from various manufacturers, including lighting, air conditioning, heating, cameras, weather sensors, voice assistants and more.
2. Local controlUnlike many commercial smart home platforms that rely on cloud services, Home Assistant runs locally on your network. This means increased privacy and reliability, as your smart home devices work even without an active internet connection.
3. Automation and scenesOne of the main features of Home Assistant is the ability to create complex automations and scenarios. For example, you can have lights switch on automatically when it gets dark or turn on the heating when the temperature falls below a certain level.
4. Simple user interfaceHome Assistant offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to monitor and control devices. This interface is fully customizable.
5. Integration with voice assistantsHome Assistant can be integrated with voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to enable voice-controlled control of your smart home devices.
6. Open source and community-drivenSince Home Assistant is open source, it is supported by an active community that is constantly developing new integrations and improving existing ones.
7. Data protection and securityAs a locally running platform, Home Assistant has the advantage that the data remains within its own network. This protects privacy and increases security compared to cloud-based solutions.

In summary, Home Assistant is a powerful and flexible solution for those who want to design their own smart home and control their devices centrally, regardless of the manufacturer or ecosystem.

What is Zigbee?

Zigbee is an open, global standard for wireless technologies that has been specially developed to enable a wide range of devices to communicate with each other in low-power networks. This technology aims to enable simple and secure communication between devices at close range, with a focus on energy efficiency and reliability. Zigbee is often used in smart home and IoT environments to connect a wide range of devices such as light switches, sensors, thermostats and security systems. One of the biggest advantages of Zigbee is its ability to form mesh networks, which means that each device can communicate with other devices to relay the signal. This increases the range and reliability of the entire network, as communication is not dependent on a central hub, but is achieved by networking many individual devices.

What is Zigbee2MQTT?

Zigbee2MQTT acts as a bridge between your Zigbee network and your home automation system by converting Zigbee device communication into MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) messages. MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol designed specifically for small sensors and mobile devices and is ideal for IoT applications. Zigbee2MQTT makes it possible to integrate Zigbee devices into Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Domoticz or any other home automation system that supports MQTT.

The main strength of Zigbee2MQTT lies in its flexibility and the ability to connect devices across manufacturers. Many smart home devices use proprietary protocols that make them difficult to integrate into a centralized home automation system. With Zigbee2MQTT, you can integrate a wide range of Zigbee devices from different manufacturers into your system without having to rely on specific gateways or bridges. As a result, Zigbee2MQTT opens up a world of new possibilities for DIY enthusiasts and home automation enthusiasts who want to customize their smart home environment.

Automation in Home Assistant

alias: Monitor - Water leak
description: >-
  Water leak monitoring. Test does not work with state_attr in Title
  and/or message. Tested 07.08.2023
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.wassersensor_kuche_water_leak
    to: "on"
condition: []
action:
  - service: notify.smartphones
    data:
      title: |
        💦 Water leak! 💦
      message: ⚠️ Water is leaking in the kitchen! ⚠️
      data:
        notification_icon: mdi:alert
        channel: Emergency
        priority: high
        ttl: 0
        color: red
        push:
          sound:
            name: default
            critical: 1
            volume: 1
  - service: script.nachricht_uber_alexa
    data:
      message: Attention, water is leaking in the kitchen!
      target:
        - media_player.saschas_echo_dot_kuche
        - media_player.saschas_echo_dot_living_room
        - media_player.saschas_echo_show
        - media_player.saschas_fire
  - alias: TTS warning (Android)
    service: notify.mobile_app_sm_g990b
    data:
      message: TTS
      data:
        ttl: 0
        priority: high
        media_stream: alarm_stream_max
        tts_text: Water leak! Water is leaking in the kitchen!
mode: parallel

This Home Assistant automation called "Monitor - Water Leak" is designed to alert you immediately in the event of a water leak in the kitchen. The automation is triggered as soon as the status of the water sensor specified in the configuration (binary_sensor.wassersensor_kuche_water_leak) changes to "on", which means that water has been detected.

There are no conditions (condition: []) for this automation, which means that the actions are carried out immediately after triggering, without additional checks.

The actions include:

1. Send notifications to smartphonesA high priority notification is sent to the "smartphones" group. The title and message of the notification explicitly indicate a water leak in the kitchen, with corresponding emojis for additional attention. Additional parameters such as an emergency channel, priority setting, color and an alarm sound are set to increase the urgency of the notification.
2. Output message via Alexa devices: A script script.message_uber_alexa is called up, which issues a spoken warning via various Alexa devices in Sascha's household, including Echo Dot in the kitchen and living room, Echo Show and Fire. This provides an audible alarm in the house.
3. Text-to-speech (TTS) warning to an Android device: A TTS notification is sent to a specific Android device (notify.mobile_app_sm_g990b) is sent. The message contains a TTS text that is read out loud to draw attention to the water leak. The notification is sent with high priority and uses the maximum alert tone to ensure it is not missed. There are also options to play a loud sound for iPhones running iOS.

The automation is set so that all actions are executed in parallel (mode: parallel), which means that all notifications and alerts are sent simultaneously to ensure an immediate response.

It is a comprehensive warning system for water leaks that combines visual, audible and spoken notifications to ensure that the user is informed immediately and can act accordingly.

YouTube video implementation

Conclusion

Water damage can be a nightmare, but with an affordable water sensor for as little as €15 and Home Assistant, you can take control of the situation. Not only are you adding an extra layer of security to your home, but you're also potentially saving thousands of euros in repair costs. It's an investment that pays off and shows how smart technology can make our lives easier and safer. Smoke detectors are also commonplace these days, so protect your home from unexpected water damage.

Interested, but lack time or knowledge?

No problem. Contact me and we will discuss your requirements. No matter if business or private.