2026 is flying by, with January already behind us.If you haven't yet managed to fulfill your New Year's resolution to do more with Home Assistant, there are still plenty of projects to get your teeth into.Build your own bed presence sensor A bed presence sensor doesn't immediately sound like a device that might be particularly necessary.
Does your smart home really need to know when you're in bed? However, these sensors can be surprisingly useful.You can use them to run your bedtime routine once the bed presence sensor detects that everyone is in bed, and by the same token, use them to run your morning routine once everyone is up.You can use them to turn on dim lighting on your route to the bathroom if they detect that someone gets up in the middle of the night, or even to dim the lights and play your special playlist if two people are in bed during the daytime.
You can buy dedicated bed presence sensors, such as the Bed Presence for ESPHome sensor from Elevated Sensors, or the Withings Sleep Analyzer.However, if you're looking for a fun project, you might also consider building your own.There are different methods you can use to build a bed presence sensor; one method is to use load sensors under the feet of the bed.
This effectively turns your bed into a giant set of scales, and by comparing the load on each leg and calibrating accordingly, you can not only tell if people are in bed, but also how many people.Related Stop overlooking the biggest smart home device you own The clue is in the name.Posts By Adam Davidson Connect Home Assistant to a thermal printer We live in an increasingly digital world, but sometimes you can't beat something you can get your hands on.
Home Assistant has multiple ways to provide output, but almost all of them are digital, such as smartphone notifications or smart speaker announcements.You may already own a thermal printer or are thinking of buying one.Like all good Home Assistant users, you've probably been wondering if you can integrate it into your smart home.
The good news is that someone else has already been thinking the same and has written a custom component to connect network and USB thermal printers that support ESC/POS to Home Assistant.Being able to print directly from Home Assistant has a number of potential uses.For example, you could print off a to-do list for yourself or your kids, with a QR code to scan to mark all the tasks as completed.
You could do the same with a shopping list that you can take with you when you're buying groceries.You could use it to automatically print a recipe to make dinner, or for fun things, such as randomly deciding which member of the family has to wash the dishes.Some thermal printer paper contains potentially harmful chemicals such as BPA and BPS that could be absorbed through the skin when you handle the paper.
Make sure you look for paper that is labeled as "phenol-free" as these products don't contain any BPA or BPS.Get creative with presence sensors Presence sensors, such as an mmWave sensor, are a level above motion sensors in terms of how useful they can be.While a motion sensor can tell when there's motion in a room, it can't tell if you're entering, leaving, or even sitting perfectly still.
Some presence sensors can not only detect when someone is in a room, but they can even tell where in the room people are.The most obvious use is to turn on your lights when you enter the room and ensure that they don't turn off again while you're sitting still watching TV, which can happen with motion sensors.There are plenty of more creative uses you can put them to, however.
You can set up zones for many presence sensors that will determine when someone is within that zone.I use this in my living room to great effect by having a zone set up for the sofa, and another for the armchair in the opposite corner of the room.When anyone sits in "the reading chair," the lamp above that chair automatically turns on, independently of the main room lighting.
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With the zone for my sofa, I have an automation that triggers when someone is detected as having left that zone.If the TV is on, the automation will pause whatever is currently playing on the TV and resume it again once that person is detected as having returned to the sofa.It means no more scrabbling for the remote if you need to get a drink or answer the door.
There are plenty of other ways you can use presence sensors in your home, such as turning on dim lights in the hallway if the occupancy in a bedroom turns false during the night, telling you to get up and move around if you've been sitting in your home office chair too long, or sending your smart vacuum to a different room if the current room it's cleaning becomes occupied.One of the best things about Home Assistant is that you can add almost anything you want to it.You may already own a thermal printer without wondering whether you could hook it up to your smart home.
There are plenty of other devices in your home that you may be able to use with Home Assistant, including dumb devices as well as smart ones.
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