diff --git a/esphome/dashboard/dashboard.py b/esphome/dashboard/dashboard.py
index a70fe2add2..6c1d9f2616 100644
--- a/esphome/dashboard/dashboard.py
+++ b/esphome/dashboard/dashboard.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import tornado.websocket
 from esphome import const
 from esphome.__main__ import get_serial_ports
 from esphome.helpers import mkdir_p, get_bool_env, run_system_command
-from esphome.py_compat import IS_PY2
+from esphome.py_compat import IS_PY2, decode_text
 from esphome.storage_json import EsphomeStorageJSON, StorageJSON, \
     esphome_storage_path, ext_storage_path, trash_storage_path
 from esphome.util import shlex_quote
@@ -223,8 +223,8 @@ class WizardRequestHandler(BaseHandler):
     def post(self):
         from esphome import wizard
 
-        kwargs = {k: ''.join(v) for k, v in self.request.arguments.items()}
-        destination = os.path.join(CONFIG_DIR, kwargs['name'] + '.yaml')
+        kwargs = {k: u''.join(decode_text(x) for x in v) for k, v in self.request.arguments.items()}
+        destination = os.path.join(CONFIG_DIR, kwargs['name'] + u'.yaml')
         wizard.wizard_write(path=destination, **kwargs)
         self.redirect('/?begin=True')
 
diff --git a/esphome/espota2.py b/esphome/espota2.py
index dbe7e94313..ac0dd33ebc 100755
--- a/esphome/espota2.py
+++ b/esphome/espota2.py
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ def perform_ota(sock, password, file_handle, filename):
         send_check(sock, cnonce, 'auth cnonce')
 
         result_md5 = hashlib.md5()
-        result_md5.update(password.encode())
+        result_md5.update(password.encode('utf-8'))
         result_md5.update(nonce.encode())
         result_md5.update(cnonce.encode())
         result = result_md5.hexdigest()
diff --git a/esphome/py_compat.py b/esphome/py_compat.py
index 16a4d27ebf..4b48aa0f88 100644
--- a/esphome/py_compat.py
+++ b/esphome/py_compat.py
@@ -69,3 +69,13 @@ def indexbytes(buf, i):
         return buf[i]
     else:
         return ord(buf[i])
+
+
+if IS_PY2:
+    def decode_text(data, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict'):
+        # type: (str, str, str) -> unicode
+        return unicode(data, encoding='utf-8', errors=errors)
+else:
+    def decode_text(data, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict'):
+        # type: (bytes, str, str) -> str
+        return data.decode(encoding='utf-8', errors=errors)
diff --git a/esphome/wizard.py b/esphome/wizard.py
index a2401584a1..abc2270235 100644
--- a/esphome/wizard.py
+++ b/esphome/wizard.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def wizard_write(path, **kwargs):
         kwargs['platform'] = 'ESP8266' if board in ESP8266_BOARD_PINS else 'ESP32'
     platform = kwargs['platform']
 
-    with codecs.open(path, 'w') as f_handle:
+    with codecs.open(path, 'w', 'utf-8') as f_handle:
         f_handle.write(wizard_file(**kwargs))
     storage = StorageJSON.from_wizard(name, name + '.local', platform, board)
     storage_path = ext_storage_path(os.path.dirname(path), os.path.basename(path))