home-assistant.io/source/_components/binary_sensor.template.markdown

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page	Template Binary Sensor	Instructions on how to integrate Template Binary Sensors into Home Assistant.	2016-02-25 15:00	true	false	true	true	Binary Sensor	0.12	Local Push	home-assistant.png	internal

The template platform supports binary sensors which get their values from other entities. The state of a Template Binary Sensor can only be on or off.

Configuration

Here is an example of adding a Template Binary Sensor to the configuration.yaml file:

{% raw %}

# Example configuration.yaml entry
binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      sun_up:
        friendly_name: "Sun is up"
        value_template: >-
          {{ state_attr('sun.sun', 'elevation')|float > 0 }}

{% endraw %}

{% configuration %} sensors: description: List of your sensors. required: true type: map keys: sensor_name: description: The slug of the sensor. required: true type: map keys: friendly_name: description: Name to use in the frontend. required: false type: string entity_id: description: A list of entity IDs so the sensor only reacts to state changes of these entities. This can be used if the automatic analysis fails to find all relevant entities. required: false type: string, list device_class: description: Sets the class of the device, changing the device state and icon that is displayed on the frontend. required: false type: device_class default: None value_template: description: The sensor is on if the template evaluates as True and off otherwise. The actual appearance in the frontend (Open/Closed, Detected/Clear etc) depends on the sensor’s device_class value required: true type: template icon_template: description: Defines a template for the icon of the sensor. required: false type: template entity_picture_template: description: Defines a template for the entity picture of the sensor. required: false type: template delay_on: description: The amount of time the template state must be met before this sensor will switch to on. required: false type: time delay_off: description: The amount of time the template state must be not met before this sensor will switch to off. required: false type: time {% endconfiguration %}

Considerations

Startup

If you are using the state of a platform that takes extra time to load, the Template Binary Sensor may get an unknown state during startup. This results in error messages in your log file until that platform has completed loading. If you use is_state() function in your template, you can avoid this situation. For example, you would replace {% raw %}{{ is_state('switch.source', 'on') }}{% endraw %} with this equivalent that returns true/false and never gives an unknown result: {% raw %}{{ is_state('switch.source', 'on') }}{% endraw %}

Entity IDs

The template engine will attempt to work out what entities should trigger an update of the sensor. This can fail, for example if your template loops over the contents of a group. In this case you can use entity_id to provide a list of entity IDs that will cause the sensor to update or you can run the service homeassistant.update_entity to update the sensor at will.

Examples

In this section you find some real-life examples of how to use this sensor.

Sensor Threshold

This example indicates true if a sensor is above a given threshold. Assuming a sensor of furnace that provides a current reading for the fan motor, we can determine if the furnace is running by checking that it is over some threshold:

{% raw %}

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      furnace_on:
        friendly_name: "Furnace Running"
        device_class: heat
        value_template: "{{ states('sensor.furnace')|float > 2.5 }}"

{% endraw %}

Switch as Sensor

Some movement sensors and door/window sensors will appear as a switch. By using a Template Binary Sensor, the switch can be displayed as a binary sensors. The original switch can then be hidden by customizing.

{% raw %}

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      movement:
        device_class: motion
        value_template: "{{ is_state('switch.movement', 'on') }}"
      door:
        device_class: opening
        value_template: "{{ is_state('switch.door', 'on') }}"

{% endraw %}

Combining Multiple Sensors

This example combines multiple CO sensors into a single overall status. When using templates with binary sensors, you need to return true or false explicitly.

{% raw %}

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      co:
        friendly_name: "CO"
        device_class: gas
        value_template: >-
          {{ is_state('sensor.bedroom_co_status', 'Ok')
             and is_state('sensor.kitchen_co_status', 'Ok')
             and is_state('sensor.wardrobe_co_status', 'Ok') }}

{% endraw %}

Washing Machine Running

This example creates a washing machine "load running" sensor by monitoring an energy meter connected to the washer. During the washer's operation, the energy meter will fluctuate wildly, hitting zero frequently even before the load is finished. By utilizing delay_off, we can have this sensor only turn off if there has been no washer activity for 5 minutes.

{% raw %}

# Determine when the washing machine has a load running.
binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      washing_machine:
        friendly_name: "Washing Machine"
        delay_off:
          minutes: 5
        value_template: >-
          {{ states('sensor.washing_machine_power')|float > 0 }}

{% endraw %}

Is Anyone Home?

This example is determining if anyone is home based on the combination of device tracking and motion sensors. It's extremely useful if you have kids/baby sitter/ grand parents who might still be in your house that aren't represented by a trackable device in Home Assistant. This is providing a composite of WiFi based device tracking and Z-Wave multisensor presence sensors.

{% raw %}

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      people_home:
        value_template: >-
          {{ is_state('device_tracker.sean', 'home')
             or is_state('device_tracker.susan', 'home')
             or is_state('binary_sensor.office_124', 'on')
             or is_state('binary_sensor.hallway_134', 'on')
             or is_state('binary_sensor.living_room_139', 'on')
             or is_state('binary_sensor.porch_ms6_1_129', 'on')
             or is_state('binary_sensor.family_room_144', 'on') }}

{% endraw %}

Change the icon when state changes

This example demonstrates how to use icon_template to change the entity's icon as its state changes, it evaluates the state of its own sensor and uses a conditional statement to output the appropriate icon.

{% raw %}

sun:
binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      sun_up:
        entity_id:
          - sun.sun
        value_template: >-
          {{ is_state("sun.sun", "above_horizon") }}
        icon_template: >-
          {% if is_state("binary_sensor.sun_up", "on") %}
            mdi:weather-sunset-up
          {% else %}
            mdi:weather-sunset-down
          {% endif %}

{% endraw %}