How can I ensure that my automation waits for my purifier to change state?

Configuration
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1

I have a Xiaomi air purifier which I run for few minutes every two hours to move the air around.
I do this in Silent mode to ensure that no other automation will touch it in the meanwhile.

At the end of the cycle, if the pollution is below a certain limit, the purifier is switched to automatic AND THEN turned off. This because changing mode of the purifier while off makes it turn on.

However, I find in the logbook that sometimes the fan if first turned off and then changed to Auto.
This results in the fan staying on for a long time, because no other automation will touch it until the pollution threshold is crossed. Also, this periodic Silent mode is not executed if the fan is already on.

To solve the problem I introduced a delay of 5 seconds between changing mode to Auto and turning off, hoping that within 5 seconds the fan will have applied the change of state (or is it maybe that the Home Assistant components subsystem somehow caches the values? I have no way to test).

This proves insufficient.

How could I ensure that the fan is turned off only after the change of mode is applied?

This is the code:

- id: xxx                                          
  alias: 'Air Purifier: silent on 10m every 2h'                                 
  trigger:                                                                      
    platform: time_pattern                                                      
    hours: /2                                                                   
    minutes: 0                                                                  
  condition:                                                                    
    condition: and                                                              
    conditions:                                                                 
    - condition: state                                                          
      entity_id: fan.air_purifier_living_room                                   
      state: 'off'                                                              
    - condition: template                                                       
      value_template: '{{ is_state_attr(''fan.air_purifier_living_room'', ''mode'',
        ''auto'') }}'                                                           
  action:                                                                       
  - service: fan.set_speed                                                      
    entity_id: fan.air_purifier_living_room                                     
    data_template:                                                              
      speed: Silent                                                             
  - delay: 0:10                                                                 
  - service: fan.set_speed                                                      
    entity_id: fan.air_purifier_living_room                                     
    data_template:                                                              
      speed: Auto                                                               
  - delay: 00:00:05                                                             
  - condition: template                                                         
    value_template: '{{ state_attr(''fan.air_purifier_living_room'', ''aqi'') | int < 10 }}'
  - service: fan.turn_off                                                       
    entity_id: fan.air_purifier_living_room
2

You could also check the fan mode as a condition of your action:…

  - condition: template                                                         
    value_template: '{{ state_attr(''fan.air_purifier_living_room'', ''aqi'') | int < 10 and is_state_attr(''fan.air_purifier_living_room'', ''mode'', ''auto'') }}'

Edit: Nope, that won’t help – if the fan was not in ‘auto’ mode when the automation ran the fan would stay on…

3

I think a wait template might do what you want…

  - wait_template: '{{ state_attr(''fan.air_purifier_living_room'', ''aqi'') | int < 10 and is_state_attr(''fan.air_purifier_living_room'', ''mode'', ''auto'') }}'
4

Thanks, I was not aware of the wait template!
In my case I think I need only the second condition as part of the actions, but I’ll check it myself.

1 Like
5

Actually, I wasn’t either! I just came across it while looking for something else. :smile: