Area Purpose and Decay Behaviour¶

The integration lets you assign an Area Purpose to each instance. The purpose describes how the room is typically used and determines a sensible default for the probability decay speed.

Selecting a purpose automatically sets the Decay Half Life – the time it takes for the occupancy probability to halve when no new activity occurs. You can still override this value in the options flow if required.

Purpose	Description	Default Half Life
Passageway	Short transit spaces such as hallways or landings. Evidence fades very quickly.	Very short (~45 sec)
Driveway	Parking and vehicle access area. Brief transit for entering/exiting vehicles.	Very short (~1 min)
Utility	Functional rooms like laundries or boot rooms.	Short (~90 sec)
Garage	Storage and workshop space. Visits range from quick retrieval to extended projects.	Moderate (~3 min)
Kitchen	Kitchen work zones.	Moderate (~4 min)
Garden	Outdoor activity space for gardening, relaxing, or yard work.	Moderate-long (~6 min)
Bathroom	Showers, baths, getting ready.	Moderate-long (~7.5 min)
Dining Room	Dining or breakfast areas.	Moderate-long (~8 min)
Living Room	Living rooms or play areas.	Long (~8 minutes)
Office	Offices or desks.	Long (~10 min)
Media Room	Lounges or reading nooks.	Long (~10 minutes)
Bedroom	Bedrooms and similar spaces.	Very long (~20 min)

The chosen purpose does not directly alter the Bayesian calculation beyond this decay timing. A shorter half life causes the probability to drop faster after activity stops; a longer half life keeps the area marked as occupied for longer.

Purpose Justifications¶

Each purpose's half-life is tuned to match typical usage patterns:

Passageway (45s): People walk through quickly (5-30 seconds typically). After someone leaves, the area should be empty almost immediately. A short half-life ensures quick clearing after transit.
Driveway (60s / 1 min): People typically spend 10-30 seconds entering or exiting vehicles, with occasional brief pauses for loading or unloading. A very short half-life ensures the area clears quickly after vehicles depart, similar to passageways but accounting for brief stops.
Utility (90s): Quick functional visits like grabbing detergent (10-30s) or putting on shoes (30-60s). A short half-life matches these brief interactions without unnecessary delay.
Garage (180s / 3 min): Visits range from quick item retrieval (30-60 seconds) to extended projects (15-30+ minutes). A moderate half-life accommodates both brief functional visits and longer work sessions without premature clearing during active use.
Kitchen (240s / 4 min): Kitchen work involves moving between stations (stove, fridge, sink, counter). Residents step away and return frequently. A moderate half-life prevents flicker when moving between work zones while still clearing reasonably quickly after cooking ends.
Garden (360s / 6 min): Outdoor activities like gardening, relaxing, or yard work can involve periods of stillness where motion sensors may not detect activity. A moderate-long half-life accounts for sparse motion detection while maintaining occupancy during active outdoor use.
Bathroom (450s / 7.5 min): Showers typically last 5-15 minutes, but motion sensors may not detect much movement during showers. A moderate-long half-life ensures the area stays marked as occupied throughout a typical shower, preventing lights from turning off.
Dining Room (480s / 8 min): Meals typically last 10-20 minutes, but people sit relatively still while eating. A moderate-long half-life matches typical meal duration, accounting for periods of stillness between bites.
Living Room (520s / ~8.5 min): Conversations and board games create sporadic motion with quiet pauses. A moderate-long half-life allows evidence to fade gently, riding out quiet pauses without flickering.
Office (600s / 10 min): Long seated sessions with occasional trips for coffee or printer. People can be very still while focused on work. A longer half-life prevents premature "vacant" detection during focused work periods while still clearing after extended absence.
Media Room (620s / ~10 min): People can remain very still while watching TV or reading. A longer half-life keeps the room marked as "occupied" through extended stretches of calm activity, while still allowing the room to clear after a reasonable period of inactivity.
Bedroom (1200s / 20 min): Deep sleep has minimal motion. A very long half-life prevents false vacancy during deep sleep while still allowing the house to revert to "empty" within a couple of hours after everyone gets up. This is especially important for preventing lights from turning off during the night.

Dynamic Sleeping Decay¶

Areas with the Bedroom purpose have a special dynamic behavior tied to your household's sleep schedule.

During Sleep Hours: Uses the configured Bedroom half-life to maintain occupancy probability for long periods of inactivity while you sleep.
Outside Sleep Hours: Automatically switches to behave like a Living Room area, recognizing that bedrooms are often used for reading or getting ready during the day where shorter memory is appropriate.

You can configure your global Sleep Start and Sleep End times in the integration's global settings.