Skip to content

Configuration

Area Occupancy Detection is built for simplicity: just specify the sensors available in each area and a purpose, the integration will then intelligently handle occupancy detection for you. While some customization options are available, the system’s powerful history-based intelligence learns your habits over time—automatically refining its accuracy without constant manual tweaking.

Purpose

The first step after naming the area is choosing its Purpose. This sets a sensible default for the decay half life used when probability decreases. Decay half life affects how quickly the system reduces the probability of occupancy after activity stops. This essentially works like a gradual timeout for the area.

The following purposes are available (in order of decay time, shortest to longest):

  • Passageway
  • Driveway
  • Utility
  • Garage
  • Kitchen
  • Garden
  • Bathroom
  • Dining Room
  • Living Room
  • Office
  • Media Room
  • Bedroom

You can override the resulting half life in the parameters section if needed.

Global Sleep Schedule: For areas with the Bedroom purpose, the half life dynamically adjusts based on your configured sleep schedule. You can set your household's Sleep Start and Sleep End times in the Global Settings menu (accessible via the main integration options). Outside of sleep hours, Bedroom areas behave like Living Room areas.

Sensor Selection

You will be prompted to select entities for various categories. You only need to select Sensors relevant to the specific area you are configuring.

  • Motion Sensors (active, inactive)
  • Door Sensors (open, closed)
  • Window Sensors (open, closed)
  • Media Devices (playing, paused, idle, off)
  • Appliances/Switches (on, off, standby)
  • Illuminance (lx)
  • Temperature (°C/F)
  • Humidity Sensors (%)
  • CO2 (ppm)
  • Sound (dB)
  • Atmospheric Pressure (hPa)
  • Air Quality Index (AQI)
  • VOC (ppb)
  • Particulate matter (µg/m³)
  • Power (W/kW)

More information on the Sensors page.

Wasp in Box

The Wasp in Box is a virtual sensor that combines motion and door sensor data to create a more reliable occupancy indicator. It's particularly useful for areas where there is a single entry/exit point. This is disabled by default. When enabled it will add a new binary sensor entity to the area. More information on the Wasp in Box page.

Parameters

Parameter Description Range Default
Occupancy Threshold (%) The probability percentage required for the main Occupancy Status binary sensor to turn on 1-99 50%
Decay Enabled Toggle whether to enable the Probability Decay feature True/False Enabled
Decay Half Life (Seconds) When decay is enabled this defines how long it takes for the occupancy probability to reduce by half after activity stops 10-3600 Based on purpose
Minimum Prior Override The minimum prior probability to use when calculating the occupancy probability. This overrides the learned prior probability for the area. 0.0-1.0 0 (disabled)

Next Steps

After configuration:

  1. Monitor the created entities to ensure they reflect actual occupancy
  2. Adjust the threshold if needed
  3. Review the Basic Usage guide