Update energy_dashboard.md expanded electricity monitoring instructions #521
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Expanded instructions for how to setup electricity monitoring in the Home Assistant Energy dashboard: - added other options for retrieving current consumption data using the Hildebrand Glow IHD, Hildebrand DCC API or energy sensors such as Shelly EM or an existing inverter sensor - clarified further how to use previous day sensors in the dashboard
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Thanks for the contribution. Always good to have someone else add some further clarification that is more removed than I am, as I can take things for granted. My only concern with your additions is how much detail you've put into the energy dashboard. The purpose of the docs is always in relation to the integration, and this feels like it's going beyond it. My worry is that it lead to people making requests of their own ways of configuring the energy dashboard, as it'll never be able to cover everything and there's always multiple ways of doing things in HA. This in turn will dilute the important content. This is what has happened with the community page around graphs where people have made their own contributions with slight tweaks on the same graph, which went beyond the purpose of the docs. Sorry if this comes across as shitting on the effort you've put into it, as I do appreciate it. |
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That’s fine. Feel free to trim/reject as you see fit.
To be honest the integration using the DCC integration sensor is rubbish, the delay tog meter readings makes it of limited use and I only added it for completeness.
I do feel it is worth at least some explanation that you can get live consumption readings if you have a Shelly EM clamp or an inverter that gives that information when combined with the daily consumption from the octopus integration. This for me gives me good enough live daily data. I just followed the approach and level of “instructions” you had given.
I’m happy to trim it down, or do you want to?
BTW the pull request fails the integration tests and I tried making another commit but same happened.
Cheers Geoffrey
… On 10 Nov 2023, at 17:51, David Kendall ***@***.***> wrote:
Thanks for the contribution. Always good to have someone else add some further clarification that is more removed than I am, as I can take things for granted.
My only concern with your additions is how much detail you've put into the energy dashboard. The purpose of the docs is always in relation to the integration, and this feels like it's going beyond it. My worry is that it lead to people making requests of their own ways of configuring the energy dashboard, as it'll never be able to cover everything and there's always multiple ways of doing things in HA. This in turn will dilute the important content. This is what has happened with the community page around graphs where people have made their own contributions with slight tweaks on the same graph, which went beyond the purpose of the docs.
Sorry if this comes across as shitting on the effort you've put into it, as I do appreciate it.
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there you go, I've made some edits to cut down the detail of all the non-octopus mini options I had for daily consumption. Left in that there are other options, but now it's much more higher level and more "here are some examples of how you can do this" btw the integration tests are still failing in this PR |
_docs/energy_dashboard.md
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| 1. Create a utility meter that resets daily to store the consumption sensor information in, e.g. called `Grid Import Today` | ||
| 2. The utility meter should point to the sensor that is measuring your grid import. e.g. for a Hildebrand Glow it could be `sensor.smart_meter_electricity_energy_import`; a Shelly EM will be `sensor.<EM channel name>_energy_total`; for a GivEnergy inverter using the GivTCP integration it will be `sensor.givtcp_XXyywwXnnn_import_energy_today_kwh` | ||
| 3. Then add the consumption information to the Energy dashboard as per the steps for Octopus Home Mini above. For step 3, `consumed energy`, you want the utility meter you have just created above, e.g. `sensor.grid_import_today` |
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I think if you're using these external sensors, its probably because you don't have access to the current consumption sensors. Therefore you'd want to use the current rate sensor with the option of 'use an entity with current price'. The calculated cost will obv not include standing rate charges.
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You are absolutely correct, I had indeed been using 'entity with a current price', and in my haste to shorten the text, had overlooked that this was different from the consumption option being used for the octopus mini. Fixed now
_docs/energy_dashboard.md
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| Instead, you can use external statistics that are exported by the `previous consumption` sensors, which are broken down into hourly chunks. Please note it can take **up to 24 hours** for the external statistics to appear. | ||
| Beware: Whilst you can add the previous consumption sensors directly to the Energy dashboard, they will be associated with the wrong day. This is because the Energy dashboard uses the timestamp of when the sensor updates to determine which day the data should belong to. |
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Might be worth making beware bold
| * `octopus_energy:electricity_{{METER_SERIAL_NUMBER}}_{{MPAN_NUMBER}}_previous_accumulative_consumption_off_peak` - The total consumption reported by the meter for the previous day that applied during off peak hours. This is [disabled by default](./faq.md#there-are-entities-that-are-disabled-why-are-they-disabled-and-how-do-i-enable-them). This will only be populated if you're on a tariff with two available rates. **Please note the different name to the standard entity.** | ||
| 1. For `Use an entity tracking the total costs` option you want one of the following | ||
| 3. For `consumed energy` you want one of the following: | ||
| * **`octopus_energy:`**`electricity_{{METER_SERIAL_NUMBER}}_{{MPAN_NUMBER}}_previous_accumulative_consumption` - The total consumption reported by the meter for the previous day. **Please note the different name to the standard entity, do NOT choose sensor.electricity_{{METER}}_{{MPAN}}_previous_accumulative_consumption.** |
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If you're adding this do not choose line here, you'll probably want to add it to the other options for consistency.
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Done. I was trying to reduce duplication and text, but added for consistency.
Incorporate feedback comments to PR BottlecapDave#521
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Thanks for the additions |
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No problem, happy to support this great integration, if only in a little way. |
Expanded instructions for how to setup electricity monitoring in the Home Assistant Energy dashboard:
For #495