Highest hour - directly as time to be used in automation

[riesi77]

Hi,

I adopted the low sensor demo code a bit to a) show me the highest price (I want to get a push notification then) and b) directly output a timestamp so it can be used in time based automations (using the UI for automations).
The sensor looks like this:

- name: epex_start_high_period_1h
        device_class: timestamp
        state: >- 
          {% set ns = namespace(attr_dict=[]) %}
          {% for item in (state_attr('sensor.epex_spot_at_price', 'data'))[0:24] %}
              {%- set ns.attr_dict = ns.attr_dict + [(loop.index-1,item["price_eur_per_mwh"])] %}
          {% endfor %}
          {%- set price_map = dict(ns.attr_dict) %}
          {%- set price_sort = price_map.values()|list %}
          {%- set keys_list = price_map.keys()|list %}
          {%- set ns = namespace(combo=[]) %}
          {%- for p in keys_list %}
            {%- set p = p|int %}
            {%- if p < 22 %}
              {%- set ns.combo = ns.combo + [(p, ((price_sort)[p]  )|round(2))] %}
            {%- endif %}
          {%- endfor %}
          {%- set mapper = dict(ns.combo) %}
          {%- set key = mapper.keys()|list %}
          {%- set val = mapper.values()|list %}
          {%- set val_max = mapper.values()|max %}
          {%- set hour = key[val.index(val_max)] | string %}
          {{today_at(hour+":00") }}

The automation like this. It uses pushover to deliver my notification:

alias: "Awattar most expensive hour starts"
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: time
    at: sensor.epex_start_high_period_1h
condition: []
action:
  - service: notify.pushover
    data:
      message: >-
        Strompreis: Teuerste Stunde ({{
        states('sensor.epex_spot_at_highest_price') }} Cent) startet jetzt ({{
        now().strftime('%H:%M') }})
mode: single

[mampfes]

Just to be curios: Wouldn't the rank sensor together with the following automation do the same?

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.epex_spot_de_rank
condition:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.epex_spot_de_rank
    above: 22
action: []

[riesi77]

you are fullyright and it's a very elegant solution.
However I see one tiny advantage of having the timestamp: You can see when it will start:

[riesi77]

Another questino, mampfes: How would you turn off the device after the hour is over?
I can just imagine having another timestamp sensor that basically has starttime + 1h and create a second automation for turning the device off. But maybe you have a more elegant solution?

[mr-p666]

You can just use a delay in your action section:

action:
  - type: turn_on
    device_id: 5921b941538f23da8a21cbf29626a3ab
    entity_id: f25613067c63fdf9c9d178b058c0c822
    domain: switch
  - delay:
      hours: 1
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 0
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: 5921b941538f23da8a21cbf29626a3ab
    entity_id: f25613067c63fdf9c9d178b058c0c822
    domain: switch
mode: single

[mampfes]

I implemented a (hopefully) better solution for the cheapest / most expensive duration problem:

You can now run a ServiceCall and let the integration calculate the best timeframe for your appliance. The ServiceCall response contains the start- and end-time and the average price. This can be used directly in automations or together with the new Actions for new trigger template entities.

The documentation can be found here (not in main branch yet!):
https://github.com/mampfes/ha_epex_spot/blob/docu_for_service_call/README.md#services

The code is already in the main branch. You can easily get it via HACS if you select main instead of a release number.

It would be nice if s.o. could test this out and let me know how it works.

Disclaimer:
This version is a major rewrite! Bahaviour should not change, with one exception: The entity names changed because the now follow the latest HA naming conventions.