Help with automation using sun & time conditions, crossing midnight

#1

I’ve been using Home Assistant for a couple of months now, and love it. I’ve written several automations, but I need some help with this one. I’ve been puzzling over this, looking at all kinds of automation examples with time and sunset, and I can’t figure out how to make this work. I want to turn a light on when a motion detector triggers, but only between sunset and 10pm. This is where I am so far:

- alias: Turn on light when motion between sunset and 10pm
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.motion_sensor
    to: 'motion detected'
  condition:
    condition: and
    conditions:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: sun.sun
      state: 'below_horizon'
    - condition: time
      before: '22:00:00'
  action:
    service: light.turn_on
    entity_id: light.my_light
    data:
      brightness: 120

It partially works…The problem is that after midnight, when the day changes, the conditions become true again (until sunrise). I do not want the light to turn on between midnight and sunrise. I’m probably missing something obvious, but if someone could help I’d really appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

#2

It’s somewhat of a dirty solution but will work. Just update your code like this.

- condition: time
  before: '22:00:00'
  after: '12:00:00'

You can make the after time anything bigger than the maximum sunrise time but lower than minimum sunset time at your location .

1 Like
#3

Thank you very much! I never though of doing it this way. I’ll try it out!

#4

You should also be able to change the condition to something like below. I have not tested this so I don’t know for sure if it is the exact syntax.

  - condition: or
    conditions:
      - condition: time
        before: '22:00:00'
      - condition: sun
        after: sunset