1 entity, 2 functions

Configuration
1

I have a electrical heater on the attic, which I’ve integrated in Lovelace. I’m not using the attic often, primarily to hang up my laundry. So I would like this heater on 2 ways in Lovelace:

  • a button which switches the heater to on/of, when I would like to be for a longer time on the attic.
  • a button which trigers a timer for a few (2 or 3) hours, so I can use the heater to speed up the laundry drying process a bit.

So in short, I’ve 1 “heater switch entity” and I would like to give it “on/off” & “timer” functions under 2 sepperate buttons. Is this possible?
I assume I have to copy this “heater switch entity” somehow?

I’ve had tried to do the following in the meanwhile, whit no luck.

  • I’ve copied the entity of the heater in configuration.yaml to:
    # BW-SHP2_02
    • platform: mqtt
      name: “Heater (timed)”
      state_topic: “stat/BW-SHP2_02/POWER”
      command_topic: “cmnd/BW-SHP2_02/POWER”
      payload_on: “ON”
      payload_off: “OFF”
      retain: true

So now having 2 heater entities, “Heater” & “Heater (timed)”, which are both fuctioning in Lovelace when I click them.

Then I tried to follow these instructions, maybe I’m doing something wrong here, but it the heater is not switching of after 30 sec. when clicked the Heater (timed) entity button.

# Example configuration.yaml entry
timer:
  test:
    duration: '00:00:30'

and:

# Example automations.yaml entry
- alias: Timerswitch
  id: 'Timerstart'
  # Timer is started when the switch pumprun is set to on.
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: switch.heater_(timed)
    to: 'on'
  action:
  - service: timer.start
    entity_id: timer.test
2

No. You only have one heater. You just need two methods of controlling it. One or two automations with a condition will do.

Delete the duplicate (timed) this is not the way to do it.

This is because you have no switch off automation triggered by the expiring timer.

1 Like
3

I was thinking missing something in this yes, thanks!

Edit:
Think I don’t understand it verry well yet. But this however seems to work:

- alias: Timerswitch
  id: 'Timerstart'
  # Timer is started when switch.heater is set to on.
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: switch.heater
    to: 'on'
  action:
  - service: timer.start
    entity_id: timer.test

- alias: Timerstop
  id: 'Timerstop'
  trigger:
  - platform: event
    event_type: timer.finished
    event_data:
      entity_id: timer.test
  action:
  - service: switch.turn_off
    entity_id: switch.heater

But now this timer is triggered every time I click this heater entity. How can I create a separate option for toggle (under a separate button ofcourse)?

I could solve this by directing the “entity_id:” to a specific card or name (for example laundry) instead of directing it to “switch.heater” I guess? Don’t know if this will be possible/accepted?

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: switch.heater
    to: 'on'
4

Use an input_boolean.

I’ll have a closer look at your automations tonight. Bit rushed ATM.

1 Like
5

The way I would do this is to have only the original heater configuration (no duplicate component).

Turn it on and off manually via the heater front end switch.

Or by switching an input boolean to get a timed heating period. The timed heating or manually operated heating can be manually cancelled by switching off either the heater switch or timer switch.

Have a timed automation to turn it off after the time expires.

It would look something like this:

input_boolean:
  - timed_heat:
      name: Timed Heat
      icon: mdi:radiator

automation:
- id: timed_heat_on
  alias: 'Timed Heat On'
  trigger:
    entity_id: input_boolean.timed_heat
    platform: state
    to: 'on'
  action:
    service: switch.turn_on
    switch.heater

- id: timed_heat_off
  alias: 'Timed Heat Off'
  trigger:
    entity_id: switch.heater
    platform: state
    to: 'on'
    for:
      hours: 3
  condition:   ### only turn off if timed heating activated 
    condition: state
    entitiy_id: input_boolean.timed_heat
    state: 'on'
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_off
      switch.heater
    - service: homeassistant.turn_off
      input_boolean.timed_heat

- id: manual_heat_off
  alias: 'Manual Heat Off'  ### turn off by any switch
  trigger:
    platform: state
      - entity_id: switch.heater
      - entitiy_id: input_boolean.timed_heat
    to: 'off'
  action:
    - service: switch.turn_off
      switch.heater
    - service: homeassistant.turn_off
      input_boolean.timed_heat

There’s quite a bit of redundant action in that last automation but it does not hurt to turn off a switch that is already off and it catches all situations this way.

Create an entities card with your heater switch and the input boolean in it. Set the actual on time to a minute or two instead of 3 hours, reload the automations and test the scenarios.

1 Like
6

Thanks a lot for your effort! :smiley:
I will try this afternoon!

btw: This “input boolean” is it to be placed inside configuration.yaml? Or can I put it together with the automations in automation.yaml?

7

the input_boolean platform goes in your configuration.yaml file.

You can create an input_boolean.yaml file and put this in your configuration file if you want:

input_boolean: !include: input_boolean.yaml

You’ll probably make a few more of them as you progress with HA. I suggest using the !include method to stop cluttering up your configuration file.

1 Like