[Arch] Areas as entities

I’ve recently had a high-level idea about how the architecture could change to support Areas as entities.

How would it work?
As an entity, they would work like groups in that they’d be a switch that could be toggled. So devices that live in that area would all be switched on/off when you toggle it.

A few thoughts/caveats I’ve had:

  • There would need to be the ability to configure specific devices to include/exclude from this toggle so that you don’t accidentally turn things like your fridge off.
  • Would need the ability to specify any/all for the area to reflect how it would display as “on”.
  • It would be great if areas could be nested in areas. This would allow for a hierarchy of Downstairs -> Lounge.

Some additional attributes that they could have which would be really useful:

  • Occupied (bool) - Could be triggered by any other entity/value template (motion, presence, power usage, etc)
  • Occupants (list) - List of person entities in the room for advanced presence detection

I’m sure there’s a bunch of other functionality that I’m not thinking of right now, so please chime in if you can think of any!