Help Building Light Automation

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1

Hi Friends, I need some help building a light automation.

I have two automations today: one that turns on the external lights at 5pm and another that turns them off at 2am. BUT, if there is a power failure for example at 8pm, when everything turns back on, the lights won’t turn on, since the automation was to turn them on at 5pm.

How do I make an automation not to only turn the lights on at 5pm but to check if time is >= 5pm and < 2am, make sure the light is on?

This is what I have today:

- id: '03'
  alias: TurnOnLights
  trigger:
  - at: '17:00:00'
    platform: time
  action:
  - entity_id: light.iluminacao_externa
    service: light.turn_on

- id: '04'
  alias: TurnOffLights
  trigger:
  - at: 02:00:00
    platform: time
  action:
  - entity_id: light.iluminacao_externa
    service: homeassistant.turn_off

Thanks in advance!

2

There’s a bunch of ways to do it. If your home assistant server is not on a UPS then add a home assistant started trigger and a time window condition.

If your home assistant server is on a ups you’re going to need a power fail sensor. Trigger on return of power and use the same time window condition.

3

The HA Server is on a UPS, but the lights aren’t, so, even with a trigger on HA start, I would need something that keeps checking the lights and keeps trying to turn them on, so, when power is restored and lights are connected, then they receive a command to turn on…

4

All you need is a power fail sensor. A DC plugpack with a matching relay for voltage free contacts is how I do it.

You might even be able to trigger on any one of the lights going from unknown or unavailable to off.

5

You could just run a time trigger every x minutes, and conditions, between 5pm and 2am, and lights are off. Run action turn on.

6

Time pattern triggers will work but they are never the optimal solution.

7

Neither are lights that don’t turn back on with event triggers :slight_smile:

I don’t use them frequently, but sometimes they work the best, and a time trigger every few minutes is hardly going to raise the CPU and certainly easier than building voltage sensors.

Does the UPS have a USB or network management port you can use? I monitor status and voltage through mine, and use that to trigger network shutdowns during an extended failure. When UPS goes from OnBattery->Online for x seconds, if lights are off and time is between x and y, turn on lights.

The other thought it whether the lights have a way of setting them to return to their former state. I know some zigbee/zwave lights support sending commands for them to turn on/off or previous state after a power failure.

8

Which was why I offered two solutions that don’t time pattern triggers.