Sensors & Entities¶

Particle Man creates four devices per monitored location, each grouping related sensors.

Particle Man Pollution¶

About the two AQI types

Universal AQI (UAQI) is Google's own air quality index — a single 0–500 scale that means the same thing everywhere. It is always available and is the primary AQI sensor. (Google UAQI reference)

Regional/Local AQI is the official index published by your country's regulatory authority — for example, the US EPA AQI, UK DEFRA index, or Germany's UBA index. It measures the same air quality but applies the thresholds and categories defined by that authority. This is optional and disabled by default; enable it in Configure if you want your country's standard alongside the universal one. 13 regional standards are supported — see Setup.

Universal AQI¶

The main air quality number. Google's Universal AQI (UAQI) — a single 0–500 scale that works the same way in every country. Higher is worse.

Range	Category	What it means
0–50	Good	Air quality is satisfactory
51–100	Moderate	Acceptable; some pollutants may be a concern for sensitive people
101–150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Children, elderly, and people with lung or heart conditions should limit outdoor exertion
151–200	Unhealthy	Everyone may begin to experience health effects
201–300	Very Unhealthy	Health alert — everyone may experience serious effects
301–500	Hazardous	Emergency conditions

Includes a trend (rising, falling, stable) calculated from the hourly forecast, plus daily_forecast and hourly_forecast attributes for charts.

Universal AQI Level¶

The same data as Universal AQI expressed as a category text (Good, Moderate, etc.). Useful for display cards and condition-based automations.

Air Quality Advisory¶

A simplified advisory level for automations — maps the UAQI category to four levels:

Advisory	AQI Categories
None	Good, Moderate
Caution	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups
Warning	Unhealthy
Alert	Very Unhealthy, Hazardous

Attributes: AQI value, full category, dominant pollutant, elevated pollutants list, trend, and health recommendations (if enabled).

Use this sensor in automations when you want simple state-based triggers without numeric thresholds.

Local AQI (optional)¶

A country-specific index alongside the Universal AQI. Enable in Configure → Air Quality Options. Supports 13 regional standards. (AQI indexes reference)

Pollutant Sensors¶

A sensor for each pollutant detected at your location:

Pollutant	What it is
PM2.5	Fine particles from smoke, traffic, industry
PM10	Coarser particles — dust, pollen, mold spores
O3 (Ozone)	Ground-level ozone from sunlight + traffic exhaust
NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide)	Mainly from vehicles and power plants
CO (Carbon Monoxide)	From combustion — vehicles, fires
SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide)	From burning fossil fuels, industrial activity

Each shows current concentration with an EPA health category, trend, and hourly/daily forecasts. A matching Level sensor (e.g. "PM2.5 Level") shows the plain-language EPA category.

Pollutant sensors are disabled by default — enable individually as needed.

(Pollutants reference)

Sensor attributes

AQI and Pollutant sensors

Attribute	Description
`daily_forecast`	Daily peak values up to configured forecast days. Each entry: `datetime`, `aqi` or `max`, `category`
`hourly_forecast`	Hourly values up to 96 hours. Each entry: `datetime`, `aqi` or `value`, `category`, `epa_category`
`trend`	Direction based on hourly slope: `rising`, `falling`, or `stable`

Particle Man Pollen¶

Pollen Advisory¶

The worst pollen level across all in-season pollen types. Levels: None, Very Low, Low, Moderate, High, Very High.

Attributes: dominant type, dominant index value, in-season types list, all levels by type, health recommendations (if enabled).

Use this for simple automations — trigger on High or Very High without checking each type individually.

Pollen Type Sensors¶

Three sensors covering the main pollen categories: Grass, Tree, and Weed. Each shows a 0–5 index value and category, plus a trend and 5-day daily forecast.

Pollen Plant Sensors¶

Individual sensors for specific plant species — Oak, Ragweed, Birch, and others depending on your region. Each includes the same index/category/trend data, plus family, genus, and cross-reaction information. Each species also has a corresponding Level sensor (e.g. "Oak Pollen Level") whose state is the category text, consistent with pollutant and pollen type sensors.

Note

Pollen data is only available in regions covered by Google's Pollen API. Coverage map — primarily North America and Europe. If your location isn't covered, pollen sensors will remain unavailable.

Sensor attributes

Attribute	Description
`daily_forecast`	Daily forecast entries: `datetime`, `index`, `category`, `color_hex`
`trend`	`up`, `down`, or `flat` based on today vs tomorrow
`expected_peak`	Forecast entry with the highest index value

(Pollen types reference)

Particle Man Weather¶

The weather device includes a native HA weather entity and several extra sensors. See Weather for full details.

Weather Entity¶

Current conditions and three forecast types (hourly 24h, daily 5-day, twice-daily 5-day). Works with all native HA weather cards and the weather.get_forecasts action.

Extra Sensors¶

Sensor	Description
Thunderstorm Probability	Probability (%) of a thunderstorm this hour
Heat Index	Feels-like temperature in hot and humid conditions
Wind Chill	Feels-like temperature in cold and windy conditions
UV Index Category	WHO UV scale text: Low / Moderate / High / Very High / Extreme

Weather Alert Sensors (optional)¶

Three sensors created together when Enable weather alerts is on in Configure → Weather Options:

Sensor	State	Notes
Alert Count	Integer	Number of active warnings. Attributes: full alert list, `highest_severity`, `active_event_types`.
Alert Highest Severity	Text	`MINOR`, `MODERATE`, `SEVERE`, or `EXTREME`; `None` when no alerts.
Alert Event Types	Text	Comma-separated sorted list of active alert codes, e.g. `FLOOD_WATCH, TORNADO_WARNING`; `None` when no alerts.

The Alert Count sensor retains the highest_severity and active_event_types attributes for automations already using them. The two new sensors expose those same values as first-class entity states.

Particle Man Diagnostics¶

Fetch Timestamp Sensors¶

Three sensors — one per API — showing when Particle Man last successfully called each Google API. Only created when the corresponding API is enabled.

Sensor	State	`data_timestamp` attribute
AQ Last Fetched	When the integration last called the Air Quality API	When Google generated that AQ observation
Pollen Last Fetched	When the integration last called the Pollen API	— (not available from Pollen API)
Weather Last Fetched	When the integration last called the Weather API	When Google generated that weather observation

The state and data_timestamp are typically different: the state is the actual poll time, while data_timestamp reflects when Google published the underlying data (usually rounded to the hour). Before the first poll after a restart, all three sensors are unavailable.

API Call Sensors (Monthly)¶

One sensor each for AQ, Pollen, and Weather API calls.

Attribute	Description
`monthly_limit`	Your configured limit for this API
`projected_monthly`	Estimated calls by end of billing period at current rate
`pct_of_limit`	Percentage of limit used so far
`pct_projected`	Percentage of limit the projection will reach
`status`	`ok` / `warning` (projected ≥95% of limit) / `critical` (projected ≥100% of limit)
`billing_period`	Current period in YYYY-MM format (Pacific Time)
`shared_total_calls`	Total across all entries sharing this API key
`locations_sharing_key`	Number of locations sharing this key

HA Diagnostics download¶

The full diagnostics payload (available via Settings → Devices & Services → Particle Man → Download Diagnostics) includes a quiet_hours_active_now field per location, indicating whether polling is currently paused due to quiet hours — distinct from quiet_hours_enabled, which only reflects whether the feature is turned on.