Ideas on how I can deal with presence detection in the livingroom?

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Hi everyone.

I have been tinkering about the way I detect presence in my livingroom, and I hope that someone here has found a good solution to it.’

So I live in a two floor apartment with a wife and two kids. I have Hassio running on a NUC8thI5 and running both Zwave and Zigbee devices.

Right now I have xiaomi motion sensor on both bathrooms, as well as in the storage room, and all three bedrooms (bedrooms also has a button available so that motion is only on during certain time slots). These rooms work great and keeps the light on for 15 minutes before they turn off again.

However what I struggle with is my livingroom and kitchen which is a part of the same room. It is around 50m2 so one motion sensor is not covering everything.

Right now I have Z wave motion sensors covering the couch area, the dining table as well as near the staircase(I have a motion sensor on each side of the stair case).

So finaly to my question: How do I ensure that my kitchen lights, livingroom lights and hall lights is staying on when they should and are turned off when we are either sleeping or away.

My wife is not good at bringing here phone around so even though I have monitor running on a rpi, it is more just for fun…

I have been thinking about some sort of wasp concept, where when our presence is home, then keep those lights on unless we have triggered the motion sensors in the staircase. (If sequence is first floor -> second floor then that means someone just went up. And opposite.

Ideally that could work, but then we are more than just one. So if im watching TV, reading a book, listening to music and my wife goes up. How do I avoid sitting in the dark? I do use the TV and speakers as a flag today to see if we are there. But right now I have sorted it out with just having 3 motion sensors in the livingroom. I do sit in the dark a few times when im not watching TV or simply using my ipad. but then I can wave my hand like an idiot and it will turn on…

Really looking forward to hear your thoughts before I replace my Zwave motion sensors with Zigbee as im trying to eliminate the Zwave battery powered devices… (often they go into hibernation when I restart Hassio a few times…)

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Take a look at this

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Im reading through it and it is a lot:) isn’t there possible to logically discuss the challenge here so i can here your thoughts on how you would solve it?

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Motion activating light is flawed for room where occupant may be still for long period. This is true for living rooms, bedrooms, offices, and theatres where people sit for long periods without movement

Sonic + motion may work but ultimately it may be best to look at other things. Sonic may detect person based on fact that sonar signature(distance to point) has change and they may see smaller movements

Motion>>turn ON>>wait15>>if TV OFF turn light off else leave On for manual off.
Honestly nthe convince is light turning ON for these areas but maybe rely more heavily on manual operation for off.

Kitchen, bathroom, closets some short delay works well since motion in these areas is more constant and room use is generally short.

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Thanks. That is very valuable thoughts.

So if I only use the motion sensor in the bottom of the stair case(to the main floor) and then have a sensor near the back door and front door.

Then I can simply turn on the lights, but to turn the lights off I click a button which would then turn off the lights after a few minutes.

This means I can remove two of my z wave sensors, by replacing it with a switch.

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Never rely 100% on software in critical area.
Yes. Turn ON with automation and Turn OFF manually by switch.

You can Turn OFF by automation buy I would have 3hr minimum delay(Longer than most movie and most people get up at least once in that time).

Again, this is convenience feature so if lights are On they are likely needed. I have dimmers and just got luminance sensor. I n this case you could lower brightness vs OFF completely but still, if you need them ON…just turn them ON until someone says(manually turns) OFF

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Yes. This would definitly work. Sometimes when having our handsful walking down the stairs then it has been nice with the motion sensors.

It is working, just that there are cases where it doesnt work. And to be honest im not very fond of Zwave battery driven devices so having 4 of them in my livingroom is just overkill.

This definitly got me thinking, thanks a lot.

Im thinking that motion sensors in breaking points (meaning places you need to cross to get a place) will allow me to do an input select or even an input boolean and then that will turn lights on. The lights will be on at a certain brightness during the day and dimmed at 19:00 in order for the kids to become tired :stuck_out_tongue:

I could also play with the LUX but then again I would need the lux readings from the motion sensors :slight_smile: