Trigger event when state is below a threshold for some time not working

Configuration
1

This gives me an error

16-05-31 22:31:47 homeassistant.bootstrap: Invalid config for [automation]: [for] is an invalid option for [automation]. Check: automation->trigger->0->for. (See /config/automation.yaml:348)

- alias: "TV off when off"
  trigger:
    platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.TV_watts
    below: 20
    for:
       minutes: 1
  action:
    service: switch.turn_off
    entity_id: switch.TV

Any idea why?

2

indentation is wrong (3 spaces instead of 2) and numeric_state doesnā€™t work with for, you could work around by adding a condition or delay in your script ā€¦

3

Thanks.how can this be done in a condition? I as thinking a script but that seems overly complicated.

4

if you want to get anything done right, it will be complicated, last time I checked my conf has over 8000 lines of code.
I feel for you as a lot is not straightforward but I prefer the coders advancing the project than the documentationā€¦

in your case youā€™ll need to investigate templating with a state trigger, you can put a ā€˜{{ states.sensor.tv_watts.state < 20 and trigger.for > 60 and states.switch.tv == ā€œonā€ }}ā€™ in a template condition

1 Like
5

@thefrenchmatt thanks Iā€™ll give that a try.

6

Ok. here we go:

- alias: "TV off when off"
  trigger:
    platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.TV_watts
    below: 20
  condition: 
    condition: or
    conditions:  
    - condition: template
      value_template: '{{ states.sensor.tv_watts.state < 20 and trigger.for > 60 and states.switch.tv == "on" }}'
  action:
    service: switch.turn_off
    entity_id: switch.TV

however the TV does not turn off after 1 minute. I suppose the trigger.for > 60 means 60 seconds right?

7

Sorry for not answering sooner, spent the last 3 days moving flats and still plenty to fix in my config :wink:

I think times are in seconds in ā€œtrigger.forā€ but Iā€™m not sure as Iā€™m using (ā€œto: state_valueā€ together with ā€œfor: seconds:ā€) in my trigger (here you could tweak the ā€œupdate_intervalā€ in your sensor.tv_watts config but Iā€™m not sure of the effect nor default values so YMMV).

As you made a nice effort, hereā€™s how Iā€™d do it:

- alias: "TV off when off"
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.TV_watts
  condition: 
    - condition: template
      value_template: '{{ states.sensor.tv_watts.state < 20 and trigger.for > 60 and states(switch.tv) == "on" }}'
  action:
    service: switch.turn_off
    data:
      entity_id: switch.TV
8

@thefrenchmatt thanks. I tried but it still doesnā€™t work. Its also very difficult to debug. It simply does not turn off the TV although the wattage is below 20ā€¦

Why the different syntax: states.sensor.tv_watts.state < 20 but states(switch.tv)=="on" - why? shouldnā€™t it be the same syntax?

9

havenā€™t quite figured it out myself, wiki says one syntax will return an error and another doesnā€™t, but Iā€™m also lost on how to debug the flows properly :confused:
one thing that worked for me is using |round(0) after state values, sometimes hass doesnā€™t interpret the states in the correct format and the jinja2 wiki + stackoverflow are full of answers that may fit your caseā€¦
try value_template: '{{ ( states(ā€œsensor.tv_wattsā€)|round(0) < ā€œ20ā€|round(0) ) }}
then call a script instead of switch_off, you can then add a delay in your script, youā€™ll then need another automation to cancel your switch_off script in case the watts go above 20ā€¦