Window State

A Home Assistant custom integration that derives a single window state sensor from the two contact (reed) sensors on a tilt-and-turn window — one at the top (tilt) and one at the bottom (open).

Each configured window becomes its own device with one enum sensor entity.

State logic

Top contact	Bottom contact	Window state
off	off	closed
on	off	tilted
on	on	open
off	on	unknown

The off/on combination is physically inconsistent for a tilt-and-turn window, so it is reported as unknown. When a source sensor is unavailable the sensor keeps its last known state (and is restored across restarts).

The sensor is a device_class: enum sensor with the options closed, tilted, open, unknown. It updates reactively (local push) the moment either source sensor changes — no polling.

Sensor placement

This integration needs two contact sensors on the window. Both go on the moving edge of the window — the vertical side with the handle, opposite the hinges. Put one near the top and one near the bottom of that edge.

Do not mount the sensors on the hinge side: that edge barely moves when the window opens, so the sensors there wouldn't detect anything. Position each sensor so its two halves line up when the window is fully closed.

   hinges                    handle side (moving edge)
     │                                 │
     ▼                                 ▼
   ┌─────────────────────────────────[ TOP sensor ]┐
   │                                               │
   │                  window                       │
   │                                               │
   └──────────────────────────────[ BOTTOM sensor ]┘

Why top + bottom on the moving edge tells the three states apart:

Window position	Top sensor	Bottom sensor	Reported
Closed	closed	closed	closed
Tilted (handle up)	open	closed	tilted
Open / turned (handle sideways)	open	open	open

When the window is tilted, it pivots along the bottom, so the top of the moving edge swings in (top sensor opens) while the bottom stays put. When it's fully opened, the whole moving edge swings in and both sensors open.

Tips:

• If a window reads tilted when it's actually closed (or vice-versa), your top and bottom sensors are swapped — fix it in the integration's Configure options, no remounting needed.
• A persistent unknown state (bottom open while top is closed) can't happen on a real tilt-and-turn window, so it usually means a mis-mounted, misaligned, or failing bottom sensor.

Installation

Don't have HACS yet?

HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is not part of Home Assistant by default — you have to add it once. If you don't see HACS in your sidebar, install it first, then follow the custom-repository steps below. If you'd rather not use HACS at all, skip to Manual.

1. Open a terminal on your Home Assistant host (e.g. the Terminal & SSH or Advanced SSH & Web Terminal add-on from Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store) and run:

   wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -
   

2. Restart Home Assistant (Settings → System → power icon → Restart Home Assistant).

3. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration, search HACS, accept the prompts, and complete the GitHub device login it shows (open the link, enter the code, authorize). HACS then appears in your sidebar.

For the full, up-to-date procedure see the official HACS install docs.

HACS (custom repository)

1. In Home Assistant, open HACS (from the sidebar).
2. Click the ⋮ menu (top right) → Custom repositories.
3. Add https://github.com/tomislavherman/ha-window-state with category Integration.
4. Search for Window State, install it, and restart Home Assistant.

Manual

1. Copy custom_components/window_state into your Home Assistant config/custom_components/ directory.
2. Restart Home Assistant.

Configuration

This integration is configured entirely through the UI — there is no YAML.

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration.
2. Search for Window State.
3. Enter a Name, then pick the Top contact sensor and Bottom contact sensor (the pickers are filtered to binary_sensor entities).
4. Submit. A new device and its window-state sensor are created.

Repeat Add Integration for each window you want to track — multiple instances are supported.

Options

Open the window's entry in Settings → Devices & Services → Window State and choose Configure to:

• Reselect the top and bottom sensors after setup.
• Hide source sensors — hides the two contact sensors from the Home Assistant UI so only the derived window entity is shown. This works like the core Group helper's "Hide members": it hides them everywhere, not just under this window, and is reversed if you turn the option off or delete the window. Sensors you hid yourself are left untouched.

The window entity also lists its top_sensor and bottom_sensor as attributes, so you can always see which sensors feed it from the entity's more-info dialog.