Automation only triggers once in the morning | Home Assistant | Page 1

abstract siren Jan 29, 2026, 8:43 PM

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Hi all, i have created an automation with the purpose collecting the last known value, before it gets unavailable. Its the last set Load (percentage) of my solar inverter. I want to see the last set/known value because im reading this information using a modbus connection. When the sun is under; i see a Unavailable regarding this modbus-integration.
Today the Growatt_MTL_Load had his last update on 17:46 UTC+2, but my Automation triggered twice:

OnthoudenGrowattLoadAdress3 triggered by state of Growatt_MTL_Load
9:15:22 AM - 12 hours ago - Traces
OnthoudenGrowattLoadAdress3 triggered by state of Growatt_MTL_Load
9:05:17 AM - 12 hours ago - Traces

This 09:05 is the first moment that the Growatt_MTL_Load sensor received '100'..

Im new to ha and automation, so no idea if i did something wrong, or if its valid. I made everything in de gui.
Automation:

alias: OnthoudenGrowattLoadAdress3
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - sensor.growatt_mtl_load
conditions:
  - condition: template
    value_template: "{{ trigger.to_state.state not in ['unknown', 'unavailable'] }}"
actions:
  - action: input_number.set_value
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_number.growattloadlastknown
    data:
      value: "{{ states('sensor.growatt_mtl_load') }}"
mode: single

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mighty spoke Jan 29, 2026, 8:52 PM

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There's a potential race condition in that automation because the state of the source sensor may have changed between the time the automation triggered and setting the value of the input_number

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you can avoid that by using

      value: "{{ trigger.to_state.state }}"

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Otherwise, I can't really say anything about the problem, if there's a problem at all. If you're concerned about the value in the input_number or whether the automation should have triggered, you can look at the trace for the automation and it will tell you

abstract siren Jan 29, 2026, 9:09 PM

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mighty spoke you can avoid that by using ``` value: "{{ trigger.to_state.state }}" ```

I don’t understand the line of code you are suggesting. Do I need to remove the not in *line 11 12 13^?

mighty spoke Jan 29, 2026, 9:10 PM

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  - action: input_number.set_value
    metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_number.growattloadlastknown
    data:
      value: "{{ trigger.to_state.state }}"

abstract siren Jan 29, 2026, 9:14 PM

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Oke it had one trigger, in the morning. It went from unavailable to 100 and the input number got set.
I didn’t change the percentage today, so it never changed.
At 17:46 the sensor became unavailable.

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sage compass Jan 30, 2026, 8:15 AM

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So that's what you want, right?

abstract siren Jan 30, 2026, 1:44 PM

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sage compass So that's what you want, right?

Yes, I just wanted to double check with you guys, if i was doing something wrong, because i doubted myself.

sage compass Jan 30, 2026, 2:04 PM

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Might have picked the has_value filter instead of unknown/unavailable checking but should work fine if you use trigger.to_state.state.

Little bit more advanced would to change it into a trigger based template sensor.

abstract siren Jan 30, 2026, 4:19 PM

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sage compass Might have picked the ``has_value`` filter instead of unknown/unavailable checki...

The unavailable gives a false with has_value?

mighty spoke Jan 30, 2026, 4:23 PM

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has_value('sensor.my_sensor') will test if the given entity is not unknown or unavailable. Can be used as a filter or a test.
https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/templating/

sage compass Jan 30, 2026, 5:42 PM

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Yep, although I wanted to write is_number but pretty much all the same 😅

#Automation only triggers once in the morning