6 weird Home Assistant sensors that make any home feel futuristic

Published Aug 26, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT Tim has been covering technology for almost 20 years, in that time spanning a broad range of topics from security to product reviews. He is especially focused on the Apple ecosystem, productivity, and consumer advice. Over the years Tim has written thousands of articles, reviews, and round-ups in addition to producing video content and original photography. A graduate of journalism, he found his footing as a freelancer with a laptop and loves how he is able to work from practically anywhere. Now a Senior Editor for iPhone, Mac, and Smart Home at How-To Geek, Tim still loves to write. He can also be found crafting round-ups and productivity posts for the Zapier blog. Earlier in his career Tim spent nearly a decade as a writer and eventually Apple section editor for MakeUseOf. Tim currently lives in Brisbane, Australia. Outside of work he loves to hike and work out, play video games, and spend quality time with his wonderful partner and two cats Inka and Roger. The most useful smart home sensors perform routine tasks like measuring temperature and humidity or detecting sudden movements. But there are a lot of weirder sensors that you might not have thought of that can make your home feel futuristic. They’re not necessarily flashy or immediately noticeable, but they’re worth considering. Power sensors that measure energy production and use Perfect if you have solar, a battery system, or both The Shelly EM is a current transformer (CT) clamp sensor that measures how much energy your solar panels are producing as well as how much energy your household is currently using. With this information to hand, you can set about automating your home for maximum efficiency. This could be as simple as a notification that warns you when you’re using more power than you’re producing (or a signal light that changes color). But it arguably works much better as a set of rules that manages power load based on energy production. For example, if you have an electric vehicle (EV), you can restrict it to charging only during hours when peak production is being achieved. You can get a lot more granular with these rules. Many EVs can also be integrated into Home Assistant, so you can set up conditional rules that always charge the battery when it’s below a certain threshold and then top it up when you’re producing more power. You can apply the same logic to other big-ticket energy consumers in your home: HVAC, clothes dryers, battery storage systems, and so on. Bed presence sensor Still maybe the weirdest sensor of them all Credit: Elevated Sensors The bed presence sensor might be the weirdest sensor you never knew you needed. There are several of these sensors available, like the ESPHome Bed Presence from Elevated Sensors, the Button Pressure Sensor from GoveeLife, and SlumberTek from ASC. They start at about $50 and top out at $100, and offer a simple means of detecting presence based on weight. Alternatively, you can build your own using an ESP32, pressure sensor, and ESPHome. With your sensor set up, you can tell which side of the bed is occupied, for how long, what time the person gets up, when they nap, and so on. You can use this information to trigger automations like turning on a dim bathroom light in the middle of the night or starting a coffee machine in the morning. You could also build automations that wake you up (or even encourage you to get to bed on time). Bed Presence for ESPHome Dimensions (interior) 2.7" x 1.5" x 0.4" Color Black Detect bed presence with this sensor and trigger automations in Home Assistant. Ambient light sensors Stop relying on the time of day to trigger events Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek I have an automation that turns on the lights in my living room 15 minutes before sunset. It works well since Home Assistant is able to use my location to accurately track the sun’s position, and my offset makes sure I’m not sitting in the dark for too long. But when we get big storms that turn day into night in a matter of minutes, I need to turn the lights on manually. By adding an ambient light sensor to your smart home, you can trigger your lights based on what’s happening outside rather than the time of day. You can buy dedicated units (like this one) or build your own. Some infrared motion sensors can even detect luminance levels. Combined mmWave and infrared presence sensors Fast and reliable presence detection Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek Controlling lights and heating using your voice or smartphone feels neat in the beginning, but eventually you’ll grow tired of trading a standard light switch or thermostat for just another manual control. Presence detection is the answer, and arguably the most futuristic-feeling option is a combined infrared and mmWave sensor. Infrared sensors are good at detecting sudden changes in heat signature, but they’re slow to detect ongoing presence. mmWave sensors have the opposite problem, offering excellent ongoing detection and slow reactions. The best of both worlds is a sensor like the Everything Presence Pro ($94), which combines infrared with static and tracking mmWave frequencies for unparalleled presence detection. It appears as a single sensor in Home Assistant, so you don’t need to account for the various technologies in your automations. Lightning sensor to detect incoming storms Get advanced warning of incoming weather systems Credit: Ronald Verhage/Shutterstock.com The EcoWitt WH57 is a wireless outdoor lightning detection sensor that can detect lightning from a distance of 25 miles (40 km). Not only is this cool, but it can also give you advanced warning of any storms that are approaching before you spot the flash or hear the crack. Use this to your advantage to get the laundry in before the rain comes, make sure your pets are safely locked up inside, and finish up whatever it is you’re working on outside before those first few drops of rain arrive. EcoWitt WH57 Outdoor Wireless Lightning Detection Sensor Temperature Range 32~122F Monitors Detects lightning bolts and storms within 25 miles The EcoWitt WH57 is an out door lightning detection sensor that works with EcoWitt's existing gateways and can sense lightning strikes as far as 25 miles (40 km) away. Use it with Home Assistant via the EcoWitt integration to track and set up automations based on local weather conditions. Regular sensors and data used in weird and wonderful ways Feeling creative? Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek Repurposing standard sensors can open up a world of possibilities. For example, did you know that contact sensors work with just about any type of magnet? You can hide magnets in recesses to unlock cleaner aesthetics and reap the full benefits of a contact sensor. Another favorite Home Assistant sensor hack involves using a smart BBQ sensor probe to detect overfire in a wood-burning stove. Beyond this, some of the best “sensors” are built using software with Home Assistant’s helpers. For example, you can combine sensor states to create a sensor that tells you whether you should hang laundry outside, track whether the trash has been taken out, read a meter using AI, measure the level of a water tank, and more. You can use microphones to track noises like dogs barking or noisy neighbors, scrape web pages to build “sensors” that give you information about school closures or traffic problems, or even add your local public transport timetable to your Home Assistant dashboard. The weirdest sensors are always going to be the ones you build yourself. The best place to get started building sensors is with an ESP32 and the ESPHome framework.