How to Pair the Shelly BLU H&T with Home Assistant: A Step-by-Step Guide

Integrating environmental sensors with Home Assistant opens up endless automation possibilities, from climate control to energy savings. The Shelly BLU H&T is a compact, battery-powered sensor that measures temperature and humidity and communicates over Bluetooth Low Energy. Pairing it with Home Assistant requires a bit of setup, but once done, you’ll have real-time data right in your dashboard.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the entire process: from preparing your sensor and enabling Bluetooth in Home Assistant, to pairing the Shelly BLU H&T and creating your first automation. Whether you’re using a dedicated Bluetooth proxy or an ESPHome device, you’ll find clear instructions that work with any Home Assistant installation. Let’s get started.

What You’ll Need

Before you begin, make sure you have the following hardware and software ready. First, you need a Shelly BLU H&T ZB Ivory sensor – this is the Zigbee version that also supports Bluetooth for local communication. For the Home Assistant side, you’ll need a running instance of Home Assistant (version 2023.5 or later recommended) with Bluetooth hardware accessible. That could be an integrated Bluetooth adapter on your server, a USB dongle, or an ESP32-based Bluetooth proxy running ESPHome.

Additionally, consider having a Shelly BLU Remote Control ZB White nearby if you plan to trigger actions manually; it pairs similarly and can serve as a test device. Finally, ensure your Home Assistant installation has the default Bluetooth integration enabled – it usually works out of the box if Bluetooth hardware is detected.

Preparing the Shelly BLU H&T

The Shelly BLU H&T ships with an insulating tab to save battery. Remove the tab from the battery compartment to power on the sensor. A single LED flash indicates it’s active. If the sensor has been used before, you may need to reset it: press and hold the pairing button (located inside the back cover) for 5 seconds until the LED blinks rapidly.

Place the sensor within a few meters of your Home Assistant host or Bluetooth proxy. Because BLE has limited range, keep walls and obstacles to a minimum during initial pairing. Once paired, you can move the sensor to its permanent location, but test connectivity first.

By default, the Shelly BLU H&T broadcasts data every 2–5 minutes depending on battery settings. You can adjust the reporting interval via the Shelly Smart Control app if needed, but for Home Assistant integration, the default works well.

• Tip: To conserve battery, reduce the data broadcast frequency in the Shelly app if you don’t need minute‑by‑minute updates.

Setting Up Home Assistant to Discover Bluetooth Devices

Home Assistant includes a built-in Bluetooth integration that automatically scans for nearby BLE devices. Navigate to Settings → Devices & Services and click “Add Integration”. Search for “Bluetooth” and follow the wizard. If your system has Bluetooth hardware, it will be detected automatically. If you’re using an ESP32 Bluetooth proxy (flashed with ESPHome), that proxy will also appear as a Bluetooth device in Home Assistant.

Once the integration is active, Home Assistant starts scanning. The Shelly BLU H&T should appear as a discovered device within a minute or two. You may see it listed as “Shelly BLU H&T” or with its MAC address. Click “Configure” to add it. Home Assistant will automatically create entities for temperature, humidity, and battery level. No YAML configuration is required for basic functionality.

• Troubleshooting: If the sensor does not appear, check that Bluetooth is enabled on your host and that the sensor is in pairing mode (blinking LED). Restart Home Assistant if needed.

Configuring the Sensor and Creating Automations

After adding the Shelly BLU H&T, you’ll find the temperature and humidity entities in your dashboard. They update every few minutes with new sensor readings. You can customize the entity names and icons, and add them to a Lovelace card for real‑time display. For example, create a glance card showing the current temperature and humidity inside your living room.

Now for the fun part: automations. Go to Settings → Automations & Scenes and create a new automation. Choose a trigger based on a numeric state – for instance, when temperature rises above 28°C, turn on a fan via a smart plug. Alternatively, trigger an alert if humidity climbs above 70% to warn of potential mold. Combine with other Shelly devices for powerful climate control: use a Shelly Plus 0‑10V Dimmer to adjust lighting based on ambient brightness, or trigger a Shelly BLU Remote Control to send notifications.

To make your automation more robust, consider using conditions and delays. For example, only activate if the temperature remains high for 5 minutes. The sensor’s accuracy (±0.3°C) ensures reliable triggers without false alarms.

• Example automation: “When temperature rises above 26°C and humidity is below 60%, turn on the floor fan via a smart plug.”

With your Shelly BLU H&T now fully integrated into Home Assistant, you have real‑time environmental data at your fingertips and the power to automate your home intelligently. Pairing was straightforward, and the possibilities are endless. If you’re ready to upgrade your sensor setup, we recommend exploring the Shelly BLU H&T ZB Ivory – its compact design, Zigbee and Bluetooth support, and long battery life make it an ideal choice for any smart home enthusiast.