Do I need two automations

Configuration
1

I want to turn a light on with movement and keep it on until no movement is detected for xx minutes
This is off the HA cookbook site

Do I need one automation for the “Turn on kitchen light when there is movement” part and a second one for the “Turn off kitchen light 10 minutes after last movement”

When I see two aliases in one code, is that a giveaway to me that I need two?

automation:
- alias: Turn on kitchen light when there is movement
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.motion_sensor
    to: 'on'
  action:
    service: light.turn_on
    entity_id: light.kitchen_light

- alias: Turn off kitchen light 10 minutes after last movement
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.motion_sensor
    to: 'off'
    for:
      minutes: 10
  action:
    service: light.turn_off
    entity_id: light.kitchen_light
2

Many of the cookbook entries are quite old. These days I recommend having the “off” as a wait for trigger in your first automation action.

3

Yes that is two automations.

4

Simplest combination of the two automations:

- alias: 'Motion controlled kitchen light'
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.motion_sensor
    to: 'on'
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.motion_sensor
    to: 'off'
    for:
      minutes: 10
  action:
  - service: 'light.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}'
    entity_id: light.kitchen_light
2 Likes
5

Thanks everyone.
@123 … Very elegant solution… I am replacing all my existing automations with this

6

I like this a lot, very succinct. If someone needs to do a more complicated action, multiple actions, not use a template, etc… I recommend the wait_for_trigger. I only re-iterate because I feel like this newish feature is not well known!

7

As a refinement, you may want to add the following condition to the automation:

  condition: >
    {{ (trigger.to_state.state == 'on' and is_state('light.kitchen', 'off')) or
       (trigger.to_state.state == 'off' and is_state('light.kitchen', 'on')) }}

Basically, it prevents turning on the light if the light is already on (and turning it off if it is already off). This prevents sending needless commands to the light.

1 Like
8

so, how would I control multiple devices?

This doesn’t throw an error but wont work

alias: Office Lights
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.office_motion
    to: 'on'
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.office_motion
    to: 'off'
    for:
      minutes:10
action:
  - service: 'light.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}'
    entity_id: switch.office
  - service: 'light.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}'
    entity_id: light.office_accent
9

Yes, like that or you can do this:

action:
  - service: 'homeassistant.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}'
    entity_id: switch.office, light.office_accent

or like this:

action:
  - service: 'homeassistant.turn_{{ trigger.to_state.state }}'
    entity_id: 
      - switch.office
      - light.office_accent

The reason it calls homeassistant.turn_on (or turn_off) is because the entities aren’t all the same domain but a combination of light and switch domains.