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Adding an airborne particulate mater sensor to WS3 Weather Station

A while back, I posted a small bit of code that could decode the data from the ubiquitous WS3 Weather Station and make it accessible to the amazing HomeAssistant via the wonderful ESPHome project. Since then, my weather station has been dutifully collecting data that’s been invaluable for augmenting automation that deals with indoor climate. As the numerous wild fires in California rage on, the air quality has gone from bad to dangerous.

RSS and Home Assistant: early warning for grid blackouts

California, like most of the West Coast, is currently in the middle of a prolonged and serious heat-wave. Record breaking temperatures results in a distribution grid stressed beyond it’s abilities which guarantees blackouts. The organization that oversees the electric grid in California publishes RSS feeds for various types of grid related news and events. All the CA ISO RSS feeds are published here, but the two feed that I’m using are: