A HomeKit temperature sensor will let you monitor the temperature inside your home. They are also useful as part of automations like closing blinds or turning on fans. HomeKit Temperature sensors will display the temperature of your room in the Home app on Apple Devices. You’ll also be able to ask Siri what the indoor temperature is.
The Best HomeKit Temperature Sensors
These are the best homekit temperature sensors available in Australia for 2023:
Eve Room – My Top Pick
I’ve been using the Eve Room Homekit temperature sensor for the last few years as part of my smart home setup. It has a built in air quality sensor which is great at letting you know when you should open a window or run the air purifier.
Here’s why I think it’s the best smart temperature sensor:
- e-Ink Display – The Eve Room will display the current temperature as well as other stats on it’s e-Ink display.
- Air Quality Sensor – The Eve Room contains an air quality sensor which accurately shows the air quality of a room.
- Humidity – Contains a Humidity sensor
- Thread Support – The Eve Room is the only smart temperature sensor in Australia that currently has Thread support. This is the latest mesh networking standard for smart devices.
- Rechargeable Battery – The Eve Room has a built in rechargeable battery that recharges via USB.
HomePod
The HomePod mini as well as the HomePod 2nd Generation contain a built in temperature and humidity sensor. These features were only just turned on by Apple in the 16.3 software update. If you own one of these devices you already have a HomeKit temperature sensor.
From my testing the sensor in the HomePod mini is as accurate as the Eve Room. Although Apple does state that it will be less accurate if music is played for an extended period of time.
I think the HomePod makes sense as a temperature sensor. It adds a useful feature to a device that many people already own. And the HomePod mini is cheaper than the Eve Room plus you get a smart speaker. The downside is you don’t get the air quality features or e-ink display that the Eve Room has.
Aqara Temperature Sensor
The Aqara Temperature sensor is a cheap sensor that works with the Aqara ecosystem. This smart temperature sensor does require an Aqara Hub to connect to HomeKit (or other smart home systems like Google Home or Alexa).
The Aqara Hub uses Zigbee which is one of the most reliable networking protocols for smart home devices.
If you already own other Aqara devices like the flood detector, smart blinds or cameras this is probably your best option. I would only buy the Aqara sensor if I was planning on buying a number of different Aqara smart home products.
Best Outdoor HomeKit Temperature Sensors
Eve Weather
The Eve Weather is similar to the Eve Room but is designed for outdoors. It has a temperature and humidity sensor as well as barometric pressure. The device analyses the barometric pressure over time and will give a 12-hour weather trend.
Netatmo Indoor/Outdoor Weather Station
If you’re after the most complete HomeKit temperature sensor then I recommend the Netatmo Weather Station.
The starter kit contains an indoor and an outdoor sensor. The indoor and outdoors sensors measures temperature, humidity, air quality and noise levels as well as barometric pressure.
Netatmo also sells a HomeKit Rain Gauge and an Anemometer (wind speed). So if you’re a weather geek or just looking to automate things like outdoor sprinklers the Netatmo system will give you the most complete data.
