Is triggering automations very often sth. to worry?

Heyhey
I have an automation that, if one of my cameras detect a person at night, puts a snapshot in /www folder and sets an input boolean to true.
So I can watch the images and tweak my cameras settings to minimalize false positives.

If I would run this automation at daytime, it would trigger more than thousand times.

So ai deceided to turn this automation off at a specific time, and turn it on, when no one is present.
Is this the way to go?
Or should I just let the automation be on and set a condition to “if no one is there”,
As ofcourse nothing happens then, but the automation would start very very often.

Having an automation trigger once a minute is fine.

Hi Florian Vieten,

So you have room to store more than thousand images on one event? Hope you have a lot of space.

1 Like

Ah I think i did explain my problem (or my thoughts) badly.
So, I have this automation:

alias: Kameraeinstellungen Menschen
description: ""
triggers:
  - type: turned_on
    device_id: 5beddf3e5d163c26dc4dca55fa62ccaf
    entity_id: 71b70413a6c0ae45d5dd6ecf322c0b3a
    domain: binary_sensor
    trigger: device
    id: drauĂźen hinten links
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - drauĂźen hinten links
        sequence:
          - metadata: {}
            data:
              filename: >-
                /config/www/KameraMenschen/draussen_hinten_L-{{ now ().year
                }}_{{ now ().month }}_{{ now ().day }}_{{ now ().hour }}_{{ now
                ().minute }}.jpg
            target:
              entity_id: camera.draussenhintenl_fliessend
            action: camera.snapshot
          - action: input_boolean.turn_on
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: input_boolean.kamera_hat_mensch_erkannt
mode: single

but with lots more cameras (14 at total)

I want this automation only to make captures at night. Lets say between 7pm and 8 am.
(I dont use time to turn on and off, but actions like locking the door / unlocking the door for first time, but as example lets stick to time).

I think I got two options to receive this.
First is - what im acutally doing - turn the automation on at 7pm and off at 8am.
Or second use a condition like
if time is between 7pm and 8am (or in my case if input_boolean is on) and leave the automation turned on.

My thoughts are - if I leave the automation turned on at daytime and use condition it will trigger - without exaggeration) more than 1000 times a day.
Ofcourse, because of the condition, nothing will happen - but its triggering.
Is this any problem?
Or doesnt it make any difference if I use a condition or turn automation off?

No, it’s fine. The condition means the actions don’t run, and those are the “heavy” part.

Even then, as long as you’re not triggering multiple times a second, or running on a potato, I wouldn’t worry.