Best way to automate one off (but repeating) events (Energy Saving Sessions)

Configuration
1

In the UK we have some energy saving sessions which are announced about a day in advance and during that period we can save money on any reduction in energy usage.

I have an automation which turns off a few big energy consumers but currently this is just an automation with a time trigger and has a fixed one hour wait in it.

This works OK but it is a bit of a faff to remember to disable the automation afterwards, manually amend the start time and duration…

What is the best way to say enter a start time and duration and then have HA do the rest but only run at that date / time for that duration ?

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You can use input_datetime helpers in time triggers.

So a day ahead you could set an on time and an off time from your dashboard.

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Thanks yes I was looking the helpers but couldn’t see option to set a time trigger based on a helper rather than a fixed time…
That should make things a lot easier thanks.

1 Like
4

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/automation/trigger/#input-datetime

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On a similar note, I’ve written a short article on trying to fully automate forced export during Octopus Saving Sessions - Automated Octopus Saving Sessions with Solax X1 Hybrid G4