How does the alarm cooldown period work and how should I set it?
The cooldown period controls how long an alarm rule waits after triggering before it can fire again. This prevents a single ongoing issue from generating hundreds of duplicate alerts.
How cooldown works
- An alarm rule triggers and creates an alarm trigger record
- The rule's last_triggered_at is updated to the current time
- On subsequent evaluation cycles, the worker checks: has cooldown_period minutes passed since last_triggered_at?
- If still in cooldown, the rule is skipped even if the condition is still met
- Once cooldown expires, the rule can trigger again on the next evaluation cycle
Default cooldown: 60 minutes. Since the worker runs hourly, a 60-minute cooldown means an alarm triggers at most once per evaluation cycle.
How to choose the right cooldown
| Scenario | Recommended Cooldown | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Critical equipment failure | 15–30 minutes | Need frequent alerts until resolved |
| Energy waste detection | 60–120 minutes | One alert per hour or two is enough |
| Trend deviations | 240–480 minutes | Trends change slowly, daily alerts suffice |
| Informational monitoring | 720–1440 minutes | Once or twice per day |
| Weekend off-hours check | 60 minutes | Alert each hour of unexpected usage |
Common mistakes
- Cooldown too short (< 15 min): Every evaluation cycle generates a new trigger and notification. Your inbox fills up with the same alert.
- Cooldown too long (> 24 hours): You might miss a second distinct event that happens later the same day.
- Forgetting cooldown exists: Users wonder "why did my alarm only fire once when consumption was high all day?" — the cooldown is doing its job.
Interaction with evaluation frequency
Since the worker runs hourly, cooldowns shorter than 60 minutes effectively behave like 60 minutes — the rule can only be checked once per hour regardless. If you need sub-hour alerting, this requires a configuration change to the alarm worker interval.
Where to configure: Analytics → Alarms → select or create a rule → Cooldown Period field (in minutes).