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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchStop an unwanted light, HVAC, alarm, or routine by first finding out whether the sensing layer reported the wrong state or the automation acted on a valid state without enough safeguards. In Home Assistant, inspect the automation trace and the sensor history; in Google Home, review enrolled phones, devices, and Wi‑Fi presence settings. Then add authorization conditions, sustained-state delays or event thresholds, and correct any room-coverage or interference problems.
What a Wi‑Fi presence signal actually measures
Wi‑Fi sensing does not normally “see” a person as a camera does. It infers changes in a radio channel from ordinary Wi‑Fi transmissions. TOMMY’s technical documentation describes extracting Channel State Information (CSI) from Wi‑Fi packets and analyzing signal amplitude, phase, frequency response, and multipath characteristics. A person, pet, moving object, open door, or changed piece of furniture can alter those measurements.
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The IEEE 802.11bf standards effort is intended to support WLAN-sensing applications such as user-presence detection, environment monitoring, and remote wellness monitoring. NIST’s overview, dated May 31, 2023, describes the amendment effort; it does not mean that every current router, access point, or smart-home platform implements sensing in the same way.
A generic Wi‑Fi presence result also is not proof that a named household member is in the room. TOMMY says its system reports presence without distinguishing humans, pets, or objects. Treat the result as an occupancy signal and combine it with other facts when an action has serious consequences.
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Why a smart-home action can be wrong even when the sensor is right
There are two separate failure layers:
- Sensing error: the system changes to occupied or unoccupied even though the room’s real state did not change.
- Automation-logic error: the state change is valid, but the rule is allowed to act without checking the other circumstances that should authorize the action.
Home Assistant’s documentation makes the distinction explicit: “A trigger reacts at a specific moment, not while something is true.” A trigger starts a run; conditions are checked afterward. Therefore, an automation can be triggered by a brief or expected state transition and still be prevented from switching a device if the required conditions are not met.
For example, a room sensor may correctly report that somebody left for a moment, while an “all lights off” routine incorrectly assumes that the whole home is empty. Conversely, a reflective surface may create a false occupied event that starts a light-on action. Diagnose these cases differently instead of changing every threshold at once.
Step 1: Identify the event that initiated the unwanted run
Home Assistant trace
- Open Settings and then Automations & scenes.
- Select the automation that performed the unwanted action.
- Open its Traces view and select the run that occurred at the relevant time.
- Inspect the trigger node to see which entity, state change, time event, or other trigger started the run.
- Open the sensor entity’s history for the same interval and compare the recorded state with what was happening in the room.
Each Home Assistant run records a trace showing its trigger. If the trace was started by the expected presence entity, investigate the sensor and the rule’s conditions. If another trigger started it, changing Wi‑Fi sensing will not fix the automation.
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Google Home activity and presence settings
Google Home presence sensing can combine phone location, eligible home-device signals, and Wi‑Fi connection. Google says it works best when every household member enables their phone. An “Everyone’s away” automation can run when only one person’s phone is enrolled even though other members remain home. Check the home’s presence-sensing settings, enrolled phones, eligible devices, and the home Wi‑Fi network before adjusting room hardware.
Step 2: Separate a trigger from the conditions that authorize an action
Keep the sensor transition as the trigger when it represents the event you care about, but add conditions that must also be true before actions run. This prevents a valid state change from producing an unwanted result.
Room-light example
A practical rule might trigger when the room changes to occupied, then require that the room is actually the intended zone, the light is currently off, and the automation is within an allowed time or illuminance range. A separate turn-off rule can trigger on unoccupied, but require that no other occupancy signal for the room is active and that a manual override is not in effect.
Whole-home away example
For an away routine, require that every household member’s presence signal indicates away, rather than checking one enrolled phone. Add a condition that doors are locked or that nobody has recently canceled the routine if those facts matter to your household. Presence sensing alone should not be the only authorization for an alarm or other safety-critical action.
Why this structure works
The trigger answers “what event should make me evaluate this rule?” Conditions answer “is it safe and appropriate to perform the action now?” Keeping those jobs separate makes traces easier to read and lets you add safeguards without hiding the original event.
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Step 3: Require a sustained state or a threshold for brief changes
Short-lived detections are common sources of nuisance actions. Use a duration, occupancy delay, or event threshold when your platform supports one, and then test both directions: preventing a false-on event and avoiding a delayed response to a real arrival or departure.
Home Assistant duration trigger
Home Assistant supports a template trigger with a for duration. Conceptually, the automation waits until the template remains true for the specified period before starting the run. The documented limitation is important: a pending template for does not survive a Home Assistant restart or an automation reload. After either event, the timer starts over when the condition becomes true again.
Google occupancy delay and event threshold
Google’s Cloud-to-cloud OccupancySensing trait includes configurable occupied and unoccupied delays and an event threshold. A delay can filter a momentary change; an event threshold can require enough qualifying events before a state transition. The correct values depend on the room, sensor behavior, and the consequence of being early or late. No universal setting is established for all homes.
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- A longer occupied delay reduces reactions to brief motion or radio changes but can leave lights off when someone enters.
- A longer unoccupied delay reduces false-off actions when someone is still present but can keep HVAC or lighting active after a genuine departure.
- A higher event threshold demands stronger evidence but may miss a quiet occupant or a short visit.
Change one value at a time, record the room conditions, and observe false-on and false-off behavior separately.
Step 4: Inspect room layout, coverage, and radio conditions
Wi‑Fi sensing is highly dependent on the physical environment. TOMMY documents that reflective surfaces can create multipath effects that sometimes produce false positives outside the intended detection area. Large metal objects can block or redirect signals, while interference can reduce CSI quality. Walls, furniture, device spacing, and room layout all affect coverage.
Use a coverage checklist
- Confirm which physical zone the sensor is intended to cover and whether the radio path crosses a wall or doorway.
- Look for mirrors, glass, polished surfaces, appliances, metal shelving, and large furniture near the signal path.
- Check whether a transmitter or receiver was moved, rotated, blocked, or placed close to a new source of radio interference.
- Compare the spacing between devices with the vendor’s installation guidance. TOMMY says a zone in its system needs at least two devices.
- Retest after moving one device or removing one obstruction; do not relocate every device before you know which change mattered.
Radio signals can pass through walls, so a zone boundary may not match a room boundary. If an adjacent room repeatedly appears occupied, treat that as a coverage problem rather than assuming the automation is interpreting the state incorrectly.
Packet rate is system-specific
TOMMY says its transmit rate depends on performance mode and documents a range of 30 to 100 packets per second for its system. That figure is vendor-specific and should not be generalized to other Wi‑Fi sensing implementations or treated as an accuracy guarantee.
Step 5: Verify presence enrollment and platform dependencies
Google Home
Review which household phones have presence sensing enabled, which eligible home devices contribute signals, and whether the home Wi‑Fi network is enrolled. Turning off phone or home presence can stop presence-based automations from working, while enrolling only one person’s phone can make an “Everyone’s away” rule unsafe. Make the enrollment list match the people who need to authorize an away state.
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Local Wi‑Fi sensing systems
TOMMY documents a setup using ESP32 development boards and says its sensing data stays on local hardware and the local network. License verification and optional online coordination require internet access, however. A local data path does not mean every management or licensing function is offline, so check the current product documentation before disconnecting internet access.
Hardware and platform compatibility also matters. A sensor may expose an occupancy state but not support the delay, threshold, or condition features you expect in your automation platform. Confirm the entity type, update behavior, and supported configuration fields before designing a rule around them.
Why did my lights turn off when someone was still home?
Start with the trace or activity record, not with a new sensor. If the automation was triggered by an “everyone away” state, check whether every household member’s phone was enrolled and reporting presence. If the trigger was a room-level unoccupied state, inspect the sensor history and look for a brief drop caused by interference, a blocked radio path, or a zone boundary that does not match the room.
Then add an authorization condition: require all relevant household presence signals to be away for a whole-home routine, or require a sustained unoccupied period for a room light. Test after a restart because Home Assistant’s pending for timers do not survive restart or automation reload. If the false-off event persists, change the physical placement of one sensing device and observe again.
Why does my presence sensor keep triggering?
Repeated occupied events can come from multipath reflections, objects moving in the radio path, pets, interference, or a zone that extends beyond the intended room. TOMMY specifically warns that excessive reflections can cause out-of-area false positives and that large metal objects can redirect or block signals.
Check whether the sensor is reporting a state transition or merely updating an already-occupied state. A trigger configured for every event may run more often than a trigger configured for a change to occupied. Add a sustained-state requirement or event threshold where supported, then confirm that the automation’s conditions prevent repeated actions when the light or HVAC is already in the desired state.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Comparing presence signals before changing hardware
No cited source establishes a universal accuracy ranking. Compare technologies by how they detect occupancy, how boundaries behave, which settings are adjustable, and what a false-on or false-off result costs in your home.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Wi‑Fi CSI sensing | Infers changes in radio-channel amplitude, phase, frequency response, and multipath from Wi‑Fi packets. | Supported delays, event thresholds, performance mode, device placement. | Can cross walls; reflections, metal, furniture, interference, pets, and objects may affect results. Generic systems may not identify a person. |
| Phone location or Wi‑Fi connection | Uses a phone’s location, connection, or presence signal. | Household enrollment, phone permissions, home Wi‑Fi enrollment. | Fails when a phone is absent, disabled, shared, left behind, or not enrolled; one phone is not equivalent to everyone being away. |
| PIR | Detects changes in infrared radiation associated with movement. | Occupancy delay, sensitivity, placement, timeout. | May miss a still occupant and can be affected by field-of-view limitations; it does not establish identity. |
| Ultrasonic | Uses reflected ultrasonic energy to detect changes or presence. | Delay, threshold, mounting and coverage settings. | Room geometry and obstructions shape coverage; verify behavior with furniture and doors in their normal positions. |
| Physical contact | Reports an open or closed contact, such as a door or window. | Debounce or delay where available. | Precisely describes the contact, not occupancy; someone can remain in a room after a door closes. |
Google’s OccupancySensing schema includes PIR, ultrasonic, and physical-contact sensor types, along with occupancy-delay and event-threshold fields. Those capabilities support a comparison of configuration options, not a claim that one sensor type is universally more accurate.
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Design automations around the cost of each error
Decide whether a false-on or false-off result is more harmful before selecting thresholds. A light that turns on unnecessarily is usually an annoyance; a heater, air conditioner, siren, lock, or alarm routine can have higher cost or safety implications.
- For convenience lighting: use a modest sustained-state requirement and a condition that the light is not already on.
- For HVAC: combine occupancy with a temperature or schedule condition, and choose an unoccupied delay long enough to cover brief exits.
- For alarms and locks: do not authorize a high-impact action from one generic occupancy signal. Require corroborating household or device states and provide a manual override.
- For whole-home scenes: evaluate all relevant people and rooms, not just the last phone or sensor that changed.
These are design examples, not guaranteed settings. Validate them in the actual space and keep a record of what changed.
A controlled troubleshooting routine
- Capture the incident: note the exact time, affected device, room conditions, and who was present.
- Find the initiating event: read the Home Assistant trace or Google activity and identify the trigger entity or presence signal.
- Check state history: determine whether the sensor changed incorrectly or whether the rule acted on an expected state.
- Inspect conditions: add or correct requirements for room, person, device state, schedule, and manual override.
- Apply one timing or threshold change: use a supported duration, occupancy delay, or event threshold.
- Test normal and edge cases: enter, leave briefly, remain still, open doors, turn on appliances, and repeat with the usual furniture and people.
- Change one physical variable if needed: move one device, reduce an obstruction, or address interference, then repeat the same tests.
- Check both error directions: confirm that nuisance actions decline without making genuine arrivals, departures, or safety responses unacceptably slow.
Privacy, standards, and evidence limits
Wi‑Fi sensing can provide occupancy information without a camera, but occupancy is still sensitive household data. Limit who can read the entity, keep dashboards and logs protected, and understand which parts of a system remain local. TOMMY says sensing data stays on local hardware and the local network, while license verification and optional online coordination require internet access.
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NIST’s July 23, 2020 publication, Smart Home Security and Privacy Mitigations: Consumer Perceptions, Practices, and Challenges, reports interviews with 40 smart-home users about security and privacy concerns and mitigation strategies. That study addresses smart-home mitigation generally; it is not a Wi‑Fi-sensing false-trigger accuracy study.
The available platform and vendor documentation does not establish a universal Wi‑Fi-sensing false-trigger rate, guaranteed accuracy figure, or cross-vendor ranking. Treat every threshold as a home-specific engineering choice, and keep the automation’s consequences proportional to the confidence of the signal.
When replacing the sensor is justified
Replacement is reasonable when the sensing zone cannot be made to match the room, interference is persistent, the platform lacks the delay or condition controls you need, or the consequences of missed presence are unacceptable. Before buying anything, write down the required boundary, acceptable response time, privacy constraints, network dependencies, and whether the automation needs identity rather than generic occupancy.
If the requirement is “a particular person is home,” generic Wi‑Fi occupancy is the wrong proof by itself. Use a person-specific signal, and still protect the automation with conditions and a manual fallback. If the requirement is simply “the room has been occupied continuously,” a properly placed occupancy sensor with a deliberate delay may be sufficient.
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