There is much more to smart homes than lightbulbs and switches you can toggle on or off with your phone and choosin the best homekit motion sensor can help you automate your everyday tasks. In this article we outline the best homekit motion sensors and share our ideas for using them.
Why use a motion sensor?
One of the great things about Apple’s Home app is the ability to setup automations between devices from a whole variety of brands, allowing you to group lights and devices based on time of day, your location and a few other factors. When you use an iPad or Apple TV as your HomeHub these work reliably whether you are home or away.
This is where smart motion sensors come in. These little devices pick up movement and can be used to trigger things like lights or smart plugs when you enter or leave a room, allowing your lights to turn on or off when they detect (or fail to detect) motion. We’ve also used automations to trigger things like bathroom fans at Mark’s Tech Blogs HQ.
There are however, relatively few Homekit Motion Sensors out there. So let us share the top picks.
Eve Motion – Motion Sensor
The HomeKit motion sensor from Eve is a battery powered motion sensor that weights just 86 grams and connects via bluetooth allowing you to use one of these without a Hub. The Eve Motion sensor retails at £39.
Eve’s motion sensor allows you to be notified when motion is detected and then, of course, be able to set up automations via the Apple home app. It has a good coverage area of 120 degrees and can operate from -18 degress celcius to 55 degrees celcius. It’s also IPX3 water resistant making it resistant to fall or spraying water allowing for outdoor use.
All of these factors mean that when it comes to choosing the best homekit motion sensor the even option is packed with features and suitable for pretty much all settings (indoor or out). Its white design also means it will look inconspicuous pretty much anywhere.
Hue Indoor Motion Sensor
Our next pick is the Philips Hue Indoor Motion Sensor coming in at a slightly lower cost than the Eve at £35. Much like the Eve Motion the Philips Hue motion sensor is a small white design powered by batteries. This motion sensor (as you’d expect) works incredibly well out of the box with the Philips Hue range but thanks to it’s HomeKit compatibility you can also use it with a whole variety of other smart home products. Whilst we’re not talking about it in this article it’s also compatible with Amazon Echo, Google Home, Nest and Samsung Smartthings.
This motion sensor is only suitable for indoor use but also has a thermometer built in allowing you to also monitor the temperature of the room it’s in however, unlike the Eve it doesn’t offer any water resistance.
Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor
Combing the best of the two motion sensors outlined above is our third choice, the Philips Hue Outdoor Motion sensor. Whilst this is probably the least good looking option, and most expensive (coming in at £41) we think it’s actually the best choice given the huge range of services (including Apple’s Home) that it works with and the reliability and performance we’ve seen from Philip’s Hue products in the past.
The Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor requires you to have the Hue Bridge but is easy to install and battery powered allowing for wireless installation. It has an IP54 rating (higher than the Eve’s rating) making it able to withstand heavy rainfall and other weather conditions. Of course, once it’s installed you can then use it to turn on a whole variety of devices once motion is triggered.
Should you pick up a Homekit motion sensor?
If you’re looking to automate multiple devices around your house or devices from several companies then using HomeKit and motion sensors to do this is the ideal way. It allows you to control everything from Apple’s simple, well-thought out app and gives you full control over your automations.
Any of the devices we’ve mentioned in this article would do a great job but we have to favour the Hue products as we always have a great experience with Hue products and the sheer number of positive reviews on Amazon for their products tell us that we’re not alone!
