---
title: "Times of the Day Binary Sensor"
description: "Instructions on how to integrate Times of the Day binary sensors within Home Assistant."
ha_category:
  - Binary Sensor
ha_release: 0.89
ha_iot_class: Local Push
logo: home-assistant.png
ha_qa_scale: internal
---

The `tod` platform supports binary sensors which get their values by checking if the current time is within defined time ranges.

The time ranges can be provided as absolute local time or using the `sunrise` or `sunset` keyword calculated based on the sun position for location. The location must be provided in the configuration.

In addition for sun position based ranges, the negative or positive offset can be configured.

## Configuration

Here is an example of adding a sensor to the `configuration.yaml` file:

```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: tod
    name: Early Morning
    after: sunrise
    after_offset: '-02:00'
    before: '07:00'

  - platform: tod
    name: Late Morning
    after: '10:00'
    before: '12:00'
```

{% configuration %}
name:
  description: Name of the sensor.
  required: true
  type: string
before:
  description: The absolute local time value or sun event for beginning of the time range.
  required: true
  type: [string, time]
before_offset:
  description: The time offset of the beginning time range.
  required: false
  type: time
after:
  description: The absolute local time value or sun event for ending of the time range.
  required: true
  type: [string, time]
after_offset:
  description: The time offset of the beginning time range.
  type: time
  required: false
{% endconfiguration %}

## Considerations

The primary purpose of this sensor is to use a simple time range definition instead of creating a complex template with references to `sun.sun` integration attributes.

The sensor state is ON when this condition `after` + `after_offset` <= `current time` < `before` + `before_offset`.

If `after` time is later than `before` then the next day is considered, i.e.:

```yaml
binary_sensor:
  - platform: tod
    name: Night
    after: sunset
    before: sunrise
```

In the above example, the next day `sunrise` is calculated as a time range end.