Ultimate guide to motion activated lights

I barely ever use a light switch in my smart home as most of my lights are motion activated, even my automated under bed night lights!

In this video I show you everything I have learned about creating bullet proof motion activated light automations.

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[jarongebhardt]

For the bathroom i got a trick for you. If you combine the motion sensor in the bathroom with a door sensor you can check if someone is in the room. If motion is detected inside the room an the door is closed you know there is someone in the room. That can also be Used for other rooms. Motion only has to be detected once in a room when the door is closed.

[robm]

Using a smart plug that measures power usage works really well for keeping the lights on whilst sitting still at a computer or watching TV. Set a condition that if the computer monitor or TV are switched on, don't turn off the lights! Thanks for the video, very thorough.

[jonathanschmidt]

For LED strips, I like the 12V WS2815 type with 60 leds/m controlled with an ESP32 flashed with WLED. Pros: Cheap, bright even over a long length, individually addressable (each light can be controlled independently for amazing effects), and fully controllable with Home Assistant. Cons: Requires some wiring and ESP32 flashing knowledge (but not much) and they drain some energy even while off. Also Muzata makes some amazing LED covers that diffuse the light so well as to make them nearly spotless in direct viewing. Basically lightsabers. Thanks for your content!

[frankieelkfolk]

To stop my office lights turning off when I'm sitting still, I made a chair sensor using a cheap pressure sensor strip and a Zigbee contact sensor. There are few tutorials online on how to do this. My light automation has a condition to not turn the lights off if the chair is occupied, and it's been flawless so far. I had looked at a mmWave motion sensor instead, but the chair sensor worked out cheeper and easier to set up as it doesn't need wired power, and the parts were also readily available.

[wilsonj]

Bathroom lights also work well with a temp/humidity sensor. So the lights don't go off until while showering. I also use this for controlling the bathroom extractor fans. Really enjoying the house project of yours so far. Keep up the good work 💪🏻

[markstev]

For keeping motion live while sat at my desk, and to prevent my office plunging me into darkness, I find a pair of motion sensors works well. One in the corner of the room for general motion, and then one mounted under the desk. The one under the desk, because it's so close to my legs, picks up the slightest motion, so even when I'm sat still and the main room sensor doesn't pick me up, the one under the desk does.

[SnowyPe]

I found using timers created as a helper work heaps better for turning off the lights than relying on the no motion of the sensors.I have been caught so many times standing in the dark and these timers have solved my lights turning off while im in the presence of a motion sensor.. Great vid this with good tips and great explanations of creating the HA routines.

[TomBaleUK]

Great Explanation. I create a boolean helper for each zone. This boolean is used instead of the motion trigger. The boolean can be controlled based on additional requirements (like the TV playing something). This way I can make sure the lights stay on if the TV is playing but I'm sat still.

[bogorad]

Great video, as always!

From a different perspective: I do everything in Node-red, and use HA just as a hardware abstraction layer and state/timer vehicle.

1. Sonoff hardware does indeed send a 'no motion' signal after ~1 min of no-motion, and then it's ready to send a 'motion' signal again immediately. It's still nowhere near as good as a radar in detecting occupancy, but for places like kitchen where you're moving around and not sitting still, it's okay.

2. Aqara hardware doesn't send a 'no motion' signal, it's generated by the software. So even if you're moving around, Aqara will still 'report' no-motion after a software-defined timeout. That's why I (historically) ignore 'no motion' signals and monitor occupancy in software (or via a radar).

3. I discovered that if I clean the surface with methanol just prior to attaching my LED strips, it holds - rock-solid. Even on the back of my TV, which gets warm :)

4. Radars allow you to be really aggressive when turning the lights off, I love that!

5. In my experience, light meters inside Aqara motion sensors suck.


6. If you have drop-ceilings, it's very easy to put a 5V adatopr and a radar there.

[vynraskopf]

For the bathroom I also have an aqara door/window sensor, so when the door closes and motion is detected, the light doesn't turn off until the door opens again, and the motion goes to "cleared". My full bath doesn't have smart lights yet, but I will have to augment this with a humidity sensor as well, as we generally leave the door open for ventilation (old house, no vent fan) and to allow the cats access to their litter.

For all motion detected lighting, I create two input booleans for each automated light/group - "Do not disturb" and "Leave lights on" that will disable the "on" automation or disable the "off" automation, respectively. I also have two input number helpers that allow users to define their own low-light threshold for turning on lights, and brightness threshold for turning them off, as I've noticed my wife and I have... differing opinions as to when lights should be on.

[daverosenblatt]

"If you look directly at an LED strip, you can clearly see the individual lights and it looks really fugly."

I'm not sure which is funnier - that quote, or the fact that YouTube captioning actually captured that correctly. 😄

Great videos Alan! Thanks.

[RogerStocker]

I more and more realize that you are developing exactly what I'm looking for. Great videos Alan! they are as good as the ones from Lewis.

[Bibble]

Thanks for informative video! One suggestion though:
Imho in the automation it's better to have a separate trigger for turning off the lights. Your trigger would then be "No motion detected for 30s". This will have the automation not staying in running state while still waiting for the motion sensor to go inactive for 30s. 😊

[vegaswayne]

Overall a great video. The changes I would make is to turn the light strips red at night to keep you night vision and way too many batteries to change after a year,

[jim]

Thank you for all the information. I am definingly going to do these automations. I love your sense of humor.

[Jawlf]

I was using single on and off automations, the wait command is great and has now halved my automated lights list. I have a seperate Aqara motion sensor in a window facing east and it is ideal to monitor for a certain light level before running any automations. I have reused my old PIR alarm sensors by use of Konnected and then added additional sonoff or aqara sensors. I have found the addition of a sonoff sensor in front of my computer is enough to keep my lights on. Also, it is worth turning lights off gradually so you have chance to move again!

[HATipsByLarry]

I have used the same tricks, putting the motion sensor under the bedside table, etc. and you covered those nicely. I also use the aqara FP1 sesnors for small motion changes in the areas where me and my wife don't move a lot, those work great. Also found a cheaper version of these that now works well with the new version of HA and that's a Microwave Radar Sensor Module LD2410, you can get them for around 6 dollars US and they work great. I've used wled and a D1 mini for my LED strips everywhere, behind TV, under the bed, under the kitchen cabinets, under the bathroom vanity, well you get the idea.

[RobertQvist]

I've been using HA for one week and I've done three separate motion light automations for my hallway with different time conditions for day/evening/night. This made me think I could just have one automation with three Choose Actions with different time zones instead. Thanks for the tip!

[cbcdesign]

I do find the setting up of Automations rather more difficult in HASS than they are in HE so this video was very helpful. It looks as if there are a lot of options in HASS though automation wise and I am sure I will get used to it in time. I have a motion sensor under my office desk that senses small movements. Unless I nod off in the chair, that often happens after dinner, my office lights stay on. I have a 15 minute inactivity interval set on that for switching lights off, it works a treat.

[gnlgrim]

Wonderful informative video. I don't think I have ever seen anyone install a LED defused cover like that. We just hold them on top and lightly tap it in.