Hello guys, as I diverted photovoltaic surplus to a water heater, I need an automation that turn on a pump every time the energy counter increases of a certain amount. As surplus energy is not constant, I’d like using a better solution than simple time pattern.
This is my actual code but it only triggers once at the beginning and not at the subsequent increments.
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: '{{ (states ('sensor.heater_kwh_today') | float *8) | int }}'
the template you’re using can’t be used as a trigger.
a trigger has to be either “true” or “false”. the template you are using returns an integer value.
And the template requires you to use different quotation marks on the inside than on the outside.
so, since it looks like you want to trigger the automation whenever the value is a multiple of 8 then try this:
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: "{{ (states ('sensor.heater_kwh_today') | float % 8) > 0 }}"
Sorry, I forgot to explain the reason of that “*8”. As the sensor value is kWh and I want to trigger the automation every 125W, I simplified the original
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: "{{ (states ('sensor.heater_kwh_today') | float *1000/125) | int }}"
The trigger is intended to start every time the resulting integer value changes.
Thanks for the different quotations advice that I was ignoring, even if I noticed HA already formatted it in the correct way.
I’m sure there are cleverer ways, but I’d do it by setting up an input_number helper. Then:
input_number.input_number.- alias: "Pump runner setup"
trigger:
- platform: homeassistant
event: start
- platform: event
event_type: automation_reloaded
action:
- service: input_number.set_value
data:
entity_id: input_number.power_125wh_units
value: "{{ (states('sensor.heater_kwh_today')|float *1000/125)|int }}"
- alias: "Pump runner"
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: "{{ (states('sensor.heater_kwh_today')|float *1000/125)|int != states('input_number.power_125wh_units')|int }}"
action:
- service: input_number.set_value
data:
entity_id: input_number.power_125wh_units
value: "{{ (states ('sensor.heater_kwh_today')|float *1000/125)|int }}"
- YOUR PUMP RUNNING CODE HERE
These could easily be combined by using trigger variables to not run the pump at startup , but this is a simple-to-understand starting point.
Note that as per @finity’s post above, the value_template must evaluate to true or false — this isn’t the same as a state trigger.
Many thanks to all, guys.
According to finity’s suggestion I’m gonna trying this
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: "{{ ((states ('sensor.heater_kwh_today') | float*1000) % 125) > 0 }}"
Will come back in the evening to report results
@AlainGH — that will trigger for every sensor update when the value in Wh is not a multiple of 125.
And you can’t use == 0 instead of > 0 as the number you’re looking at might jump from 124Wh to 126Wh in one step. 2Wh in a 30-second sampling interval is 240W average power.
Actually it seems to work exactly as finity said, when the value is multiple of 125.
But there is the problem you mentioned too: since sensor readings are about one every 10 seconds it often misses the exact value, especially at highest heater rate, and so the trigger does not start.
So tomorrow I’ll try the following in order to achieve less “granularity” and avoid holes in the sequence of values
{{ ((states ('sensor.heater_kwh_today') | float*200)|int % 25) >0 }}
In practice I reduced the values to a fifth of the original and cut off decimals
My suggestion above will be waiting when you realise this won’t work 
.
Sorry to let you down 
, but it seems to be working fine.
I will monitor it a little more though.
Genuinely interested what the trigger values are. By my testing, your template should trigger for any state update except a multiple of 125Wh and 4Wh after that multiple:
The entity the trigger is based on is a daily kWh counter that reset at midnight and measures the power of the heater and it normally reaches 5-6 kWh.
Here is the hystorical of my pump switch
That’s probably related to the period when the template in my example is returning false.
If you compare the switch operation against the value of sensor.heater_kwh_today, you’ll probably find it’s triggering every time there is an update, regardless of value except at or shortly after a 125Wh increment.
Can you post the whole automation?
It’s a lot “work in progress” but here is
alias: Turn on Circolatore ACS for 1 min every 125 kWh of Heater's consumption
description: ''
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: '{{ ((states (''sensor.heater_energy_today'') | float*200)|int % 25) >0 }}'
- platform: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.heater_energy_power
below: '5'
for: '00:00:10'
value_template: |-
{% if states('sensor.heater_energy_power')|float == 0 %}
{{ states('input_number.pwm_duty_cycle')|float > 1200 }}
{% endif %}
- platform: numeric_state
entity_id: sensor.heater_energy_power
above: '1200'
for: '00:06:00'
condition:
- condition: sun
before: sunset
after: sunrise
after_offset: '02:30:00'
before_offset: '01:00:00'
- condition: template
value_template: >-
{{ as_timestamp(now()) -
(as_timestamp(state_attr("switch.sonoff_1000020f3c", "last_triggered")) or
0) > 400 }}
action:
- repeat:
count: '2'
sequence:
- service: switch.turn_on
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000020f3c
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 1
seconds: 0
milliseconds: 0
- service: switch.turn_off
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000020f3c
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 1
seconds: 30
milliseconds: 0
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 0
seconds: 10
milliseconds: 0
- choose:
- conditions:
- condition: state
entity_id: switch.tasmota
state: 'on'
sequence:
- service: switch.turn_off
target:
entity_id: switch.sonoff_1000020f3c
default: []
mode: single
For brevity, you don’t have to specify the unused bit of the time, so:
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 0
seconds: 10
milliseconds: 0
can be just:
- delay:
seconds: 10
or even just delay: 10.
If you give the automation an id, you can use the automation debugger to examine its triggering (I use UUID4 codes from here, but anything will do):
alias: Turn on Circolatore ACS for 1 min every 125 kWh of Heater's consumption
description: ''
id: e6ffb4b4-c6ff-47d9-838a-d297be91eca1
trigger:
Then you can see this sort of thing, showing which trigger fired and what the related variables and state changes were:
You get to that via Configuration / Automations and clicking the 
icon against the automation you want to see.
Thank you very much for the precious hints 
