New User needs help with automations

Configuration
1

Hi, I am new to HA and I am trying to get my head around automations.

The issue is with the triggers, and what values to use. For example I have written an automation that I want to sense the change in temperature of the met office location temperature entity. So when temperature goes above or below a value.

I use state as trigger type
select the entity
Then I have the
“From”
“To”
“For” fields

My assumption is and lets says I’m going higher to lower temp

From 9.0
To 8.0
For 00:00:10 ( which I think is 10 seconds)

But this doesn’t work ?

What am I doing wrong and how do you work out the value that an entity uses ?

Any help is appreciated… thankyou

Andy

2

You need the numeric_state trigger.

A state trigger composed like that would have to go from exactly 9.0 to exactly 8.0, so it’s never going to work.

Numeric_state will give you an above value and/or a below value, so that you can say ‘trigger this automation when the reading from my temperature sensor drops below 9 degrees and stays there for at least 10 seconds’.

3

Thank you I’ve adjusted the automation to test that but one point came to mind.

Will a trigger that says below 8.0 for 00:00:10 mean that the automation will trigger over and over or just at the point where the temp gets to the trigger point. In Smartthings there is a value to say run just once a day for example, hence why I ask

Thankyou for taking the time to answer my question

4

The automation will only trigger once at the time that the temperature sensor crosses the threshold (above or below as you have selected) and the stays there for the time you have specified.

If for example you have:

trigger:
  platform: numeric_state
  entity_id: sensor.temperature
  above: 7.0
  for: '00:00:10'

then if the temp goes above 7.0 for 9 seconds then goes back below 7.0 it has to go back to above 7.0 for another 10 seconds before the trigger will fire. then it has to go back below 7.0 before it will trigger again.

1 Like
5

Thank you for that explanation, that helps me to understand a bit more about HA automations.