SwitchBot
SwitchBot Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer (Outdoor Meter)
- Bluetooth
Verified September 2026
SwitchBot's Outdoor Meter is a battery sensor with no screen — pair it with the app or an HA dashboard for readings, since there's nothing to check on the unit itself. It runs roughly two years on its AAA batteries before a swap, and Bluetooth range is rated to 100m line-of-sight, though expect far less through walls (see the HA integration notes below). The IP65 shell handles rain and dust for genuine outdoor or greenhouse use, and it comes with a lanyard rather than a bracket, so you're hanging it, not screwing it to anything. At £15, still the easiest local-Bluetooth outdoor sensor for HA.
In Home Assistant
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | Sensor | Outdoor ambient temperature reading, delivered passively via BLE advertisement — no active poll needed but no guaranteed update cadence either. |
| Humidity | Sensor (%) | Relative humidity, broadcast alongside temperature in the same BLE advertisement packet. |
| Battery | Sensor (%) | Battery level from the AAA cells; only populates when the HA Bluetooth adapter is in active mode since it's carried in service-data, not the standard advertisement. |
| Signal strength | Sensor | RSSI of the last received advertisement — useful for judging whether the sensor is in range of the HA server or nearest Bluetooth proxy. |
The switchbot integration reads this sensor passively off its BLE advertisement broadcasts rather than polling an active connection, so readings arrive whenever the device transmits with no poll interval to configure. Community reports put reliable range at roughly 5-7 metres through a single wall before packets start dropping, tight for a garden or greenhouse — placing an ESPHome Bluetooth proxy near the outdoor unit, rather than relying on the HA server's own radio, is the fix most users land on. Battery percentage only rides in Bluetooth service-data broadcasts, so it needs the adapter running in active mode to populate — passive-mode setups will show temperature and humidity but a stale or unavailable battery entity.
Specs
- weight
- 20g (without batteries)
- battery
- AAA batteries (removable)
- display
- None — app/HA readout only, no onboard screen
- mounting
- Lanyard loop for hanging; no wall bracket included
- ip rating
- IP65 (dust-tight, water-resistant)
- dimensions
- 60 x 28 x 20 mm
- battery life
- Up to 2 years
- connectivity
- Bluetooth Low Energy
- bluetooth range
- Up to 100m (328ft) line-of-sight, no obstacles
- humidity accuracy
- ±1.8% RH
- sampling interval
- 4 seconds
- temperature accuracy
- ±0.2°C (±0.36°F)