Utility meter mode automation based on time and season

Energy
1

Hi
While having programmed before I am quite new to automations and energy monitoring, and would like some feedback if my thinking is correct and good.

My energy company has a different tariff during the winter months between 07-21 weekdays (excluding weekends and specific holidays)

I have just made a utility meter helper to split the consumed energy and wondered if this automation is smart or if there is something I miss:
It’s for now running on startup and every hour to be safe.

alias: EnergyCostMode
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: homeassistant
    event: start
  - trigger: time_pattern
    hours: "*"
conditions: []
actions:
  - alias: Select mode on 'Energi mätare' based on time and season
    if:
      - condition: time
        after: "06:59:00"
        weekday:
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
          - fri
        before: "20:59:00"
        alias: Time is between 07-21 on weekdays
      - condition: template
        value_template: "{{ now().month in [11, 12, 1, 2, 3] }}"
        alias: Month is between november and march
      - condition: state
        entity_id: calendar.sweden
        state:
          - "off"
        alias: Not a swedish holiday
    then:
      - action: select.select_option
        metadata: {}
        target:
          entity_id: select.energi_matare
        data:
          option: Högpristid
        alias: Select 'Peak tariff' on Energi mätare
    else:
      - action: select.select_option
        metadata: {}
        target:
          entity_id: select.energi_matare
        data:
          option: Övrig tid
        alias: Select 'Offpeak tariff' on Energi mätare
mode: single
2

One improvement you could make:

You are triggering far more times than you need to. You only need to trigger at “07:00” and “21:00” (and at HA start, keep that trigger too).

You could also replace this:

      - condition: time
        after: "06:59:00"
        weekday:
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
          - fri
        before: "20:59:00"
        alias: Time is between 07-21 on weekdays

With a schedule helper and a state condition. Easier to adjust if they change the times or days, but that is just personal preference and not really any more efficient.

3

Thanks!
Neat thing that schedule!
In this situation, since its my power distributors contract, they will practically never change the times so I’d rather have one less helper in my list.

I will probably change it to those specific times when I know everything works fine, there is no harm or consequence in selecting the value already set anyway.