Need Lights

Home Assistant Automation

Automation to set a Input Boolean based on the sun elevation and light readings. The boolean can then be used in all motion triggered lighting automations allowing easy update of settings as requirements change.

Requires to be set up in Configuration Helpers:

• Input Boolean
• Input Number for each Sensor, if you want to be able to adjust from the UI

Averaging Sensor Readings

Experience found that light readings can vary a great deal so to stabilise the reading, a sensor which averages the last twenty minutes improved the reading.

sensor:
  - platform: statistics
    name: piz_average_light
    entity_id: sensor.pizlivingroom_lux
    sampling_size: 5
    max_age:
      minutes: 20

Automation

alias: Do We Need Lights?
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.sun_elevation
  - platform: state
    entity_id: input_number.min_light_level
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.study_illuminance
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.lumi_living_room_illuminance
  - platform: state
    entity_id: input_number.min_living_room_light_level
condition: []
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: or
            conditions:
              - condition: template
                value_template: >-
                  {{states.sensor.study_illuminance.state|float <
                  states.input_number.min_light_level.state | float}}
              - condition: template
                value_template: '{{state_attr(''sun.sun'', ''elevation'')|float < 4}}'
              - condition: template
                value_template: >-
                   {% set excess = 0 %}
                   {% if states.light.wall1.state == 'on' %}
                   {% set excess = 15 %}
                   {% endif %}
                   {% set brightness = states('sensor.lumi_living_room_illuminance')|float %}
                   {% set min = states('input_number.min_living_room_light_level')|float %}
                   {% set level = brightness -  excess %}
                   {{level <  states.input_number.min_living_room_light_level | float}}
        sequence:
          - service: input_boolean.turn_on
            data: {}
            entity_id: input_boolean.need_lights
    default:
      - service: input_boolean.turn_off
        data: {}
        entity_id: input_boolean.need_lights
mode: single