Binary sensor with sun elevation not updating

Configuration
1

I am trying to make a simple binary sensor that indicates if the sun is low according to my preferences.

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      sun_is_low:
        friendly_name: "Sun is low"
        entity_id: sensor.sun_is_low
        icon_template: "mdi:weather-sunny"
        value_template: '{{ state_attr("sun.sun", "elevation") | float < 6 }}'

When starting or restarting Home-Assistant, the binary-sensor holds the correct value.
However, when the sun elevation is changed so that the binary_sensor should toggle, nothing happens.

I literally sat in front of the dashboard waiting for the sun elevation to update and the binary sensor is not updating.

As it is suggested in this thread, I also tested with this code:

value_template: {{ states.sun.sun.attributes.elevation | float < 6 }}

What am I missing ?

2

The entity_id your sensor is relying on to tell it when to update is, ummm, itself :man_shrugging:

Try sun.sun instead.

2 Likes
3

What Marc said, or even leave out the entity id as the system should be able to work this out from the template alone.

4

Thanks for the swift analysis.
It works fine now.
That also explains why none of my other sensors were working !

1 Like