2021.7: changes to entities in numeric_state above/below are ignored

[Troon]

The problem

When an entity is used in a numeric_state trigger's above or below declaration, changes to that entity do not result in the trigger firing when it seems logical that it should.

Example automation included below.

Moving the test_sensor across the test_threshold value correctly triggers the automations; but moving the test_threshold across the test_sensor value does nothing.

I would have expected moving the threshold to behave in the same way, otherwise I don't understand the point of the new feature.

What is version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2021.7

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant Container

Integration causing the issue

No response

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/automation/trigger/#numeric-state-trigger

Example YAML snippet

- alias: Test on
  id: b9fd928a-8749-428c-92d2-1540da5cb424

  trigger:
    - platform: numeric_state
      entity_id: input_number.test_sensor
      below: input_number.test_threshold

  action:
    - service: homeassistant.turn_on
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_trigger

- alias: Test off
  id: 34535ac7-e711-4882-8f6f-90948093c1ea

  trigger:
    - platform: numeric_state
      entity_id: input_number.test_sensor
      above: input_number.test_threshold

  action:
    - service: homeassistant.turn_off
      entity_id: input_boolean.test_trigger

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

No response

Additional information

New feature in 2021.7. From the release notes:

Referencing other entities in triggers and conditions
A small, but possibly helpful, change to our script and automations. You can now reference other entities for the above/below values of numeric state triggers and conditions. Both sensors and number entities can be used.

[tomlut]

This is also the case for numeric state conditions using input number helpers.

[frenck]

It kinda makes sense and kinda doesn't make sense. But I see the use case.

The thing is, the entity_id is the trigger and created the from->to states, while above/below are conditions.

trigger:
- platform: numeric_state
  entity_id: input_number.test_sensor
  below: input_number.test_threshold

In this case, input_number.test_sensor is monitored and tracked. above/below are basically conditions and only checked when the from & to states for a trigger fired by a change to the monitored entity ID fires.

It becomes even harder when talking about templates in this case. IMHO, we should document how this works.

More importantly, how to write automation that work with this :)

For example, I generally almost never put conditions in my triggers. I just trigger, and later figure out if it should run or not.

- alias: Test
  id: b9fd928a-8749-428c-92d2-1540da5cb424

  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: 
        - input_number.test_sensor
        - input_number.test_threshold

  condition:
    - condition: numeric_state
      entity_id: input_number.test_sensor
      below: input_number.test_threshold

  action:
    - service: light.turn_on
      target:
      entity_id: light.front_lights

☝️ In this example, it will trigger on either change and still only run the automation when the condition matches.

But considering the examples in your report, you can go one step further:

- alias: Test
  id: b9fd928a-8749-428c-92d2-1540da5cb424

  trigger:
    - platform: homeassistant
      event: start
    - platform: event
      event_type: automation_reloaded
    - platform: state
      entity_id: 
        - input_number.test_sensor
        - input_number.test_threshold

  action:
      - choose:
          - conditions:
             - condition: numeric_state
               entity_id: input_number.test_sensor
               below: input_number.test_threshold
            sequence:
              - service: light.turn_on
                target:
                  entity_id: light.front_lights
        default:
          - service: light.turn_off
            target:
              entity_id: light.front_lights

So, in this example, it triggers is either the sensor or the threshold changes and corrects the light state using a choose. So this combines the two automations into a single one.

The cool thing about this method, is that multiple things can trigger it, for example, the startup of Home Assistant or when automation is reloaded (e.g., when you changed something). This will correct the state of the front lights to be correct when you change something or after Home Assistant has been offline (and missed the trigger) as well.

The downside of this, is of course, you'll trigger stuff more often (which in general isn't a problem). If it is, the only solution is to add to use your original automation, but with an added trigger for the reverse of the entities.

[github-actions]

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