Sometimes you need custom sensors for bespoke automations or uncommon devices. These need to be added manually to a file on the persistent storage, so it survives reboots and updates of the COFY-box.
In this demo we will add a statistics sensor averaging the total power consumption over a 5-minute interval, useful for controlling immersion heaters.
You first need to find the entity IDs of the sensors/states which you want to forward (these will be our 'ingredients'). There are several ways to find these.
Settings> Devices and services> Devices. Open the device and click on the sensor. A pop-up should appear displaying the entity ID, e.g. sensor.utility_meter_total_active_power.Developer tools> States. Locate the required entity ID(s) in this list.homeassistant service.cd /config/.storage/user and enter. Next, type in vi sensor.yamland enter. A vi editor opens.The file might be empty, in which case you can proceed to the next step. If not, you need to use your keyboard arrow keys to navigate the cursor to the very last character. You can also type in
Gfollowed by$, e.g. if it is a very long file.
i key on your keyboard. In the bottom left corner, you will see an I appearing, meaning the vi editor is in insert mode.If your cursor is still highlighting the last character of previously existing text, press the right arrow on your keyboard and enter to add a new line.
- platform: statistics
name: "5min active power"
unique_id: sensor.utility_meter_mean_power
entity_id: sensor.utility_meter_total_active_power
state_characteristic: mean
max_age:
minutes: 5
Copy the above code for the custom sensor. Right-click in the vi editor and select Paste. This copies the content from the source file into the editor.
5. Press the Esc key on your keyboard a few times. Now type :w and press Enter. Next, type :q and enter. This saves (writes) and closes (quits) the file.
If you have made a mistake, pressing
Esca few times followed by:q!quits the file without saving.
Developer Tools. In the tab YAML, click on Check configuration. This should yield the message Configuration will not prevent Home Assistant from starting!. If you have made a mistake in the sensor definition, this will show you where the mistake is.Restart, confirm, and wait until Home Assistant is fully started again. The custom sensor will then be available (you can check in Developer tools> States).