User-override occupancy switch for each area

[klatka]

If a person clicks on the button "turn on lights" of a dimmer for a specific area, MA should consider this area as occupied.
To do that I manually created a input_boolean and a template binary_sensor for each area with a dimmer:

input_boolean:
  area_occupancy_user_area1:
    name: Occupy area1
    icon: mdi:location-enter

template:
  - binary_sensor:
      - unique_id: area_occupancy_user_area1
        attributes:
          friendly_name: "Area1 occupied"
        icon: mdi:location-enter
        device_class: occupancy
        state: >-
          {{ states('input_boolean.area_occupancy_user_area1') }}

Because of device class occupancy, this binary sensor is seen by MA.

Compared to presence hold switch this would be another great feature.

[jseidl]

That sounds like a cool idea. The challenge is how do we turn it off? Do we use it as a motion sensor? Do we lock the room occupied?

[klatka]

Good question. At the moment the input_boolean is set to off if the person touches the dimmer again when going out of the area. The dimmer doesn't know the lights. Instead it is clearing the area which turns off the lights.

So yes you have to manually turn it off when you manually turned it on.
If nobody is home all input_booleans are set to off.

Maybe the easiest way to implement this is to let the presence hold switch occupy the area if set to on.

[jseidl]

After talking to @klatka looks like the idea above has been the default behavior for Presence Hold since 3.x. Let me know if we can close this.

[klatka]

Confirmed. Should be closed.