Off-Peak Tariffs In Home Assistant's Energy Dashboard 

Figuring it out is the fun part :)

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech to me, taking something complex and building a solution which is simple and obvious enough for the average Joe to use is the big challenge and a key source of satisfaction. Each to their own - it does indeed to all sorts... 😁

Snap. My day job is lead dev on a bespoke web based fault resolution & ticketing system, with an automation and service bus event driven architecture but a lot of the home assistant automation stuff baffles me,somewhat.

​@rhencullen it's quite easy once you learn yaml. Hard part is importing entities, some integration especially cloud based is unreliable and I've been stuck for ages wondering what I've done wrong but it's ended up being cloud based content not being available.

@@Wardyworlds I think you are right - yaml just seems harder to grok. It's too terse. JSON, by contrast seems self-evident/self-documenting.

Thank you!

Glad it was helpful!

There's an updated video now building on this and covering specific Octopus smart tariffs just in case you had an Octopus tariff ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nf90zUbDkd0.html

Glad it helped!

Thank you!

Thank you so much, that's very generous of you

Glad it helped

You're welcome. The official instructions on the Home Assistant web site do tell you all you need to know, but it's always easier to see it actually being implemented step by step I find.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech sent you some PayPal thanksness..

Thank you very much, that's very generous of you

Yeah I’ve been wondering the same thing. I reckon you’d have to grade the tariff so have a ‘negative’, 0-10p, 11-20p, 21-30p etc… either that or just abandon separating it on the dashboard and have it as one big import lump

Glad it helped!

You can set the energy dashboard to show you usage over any custom time period so whilst I don’t specifically track the billing period, I can view it if I want.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Do you have any tips on how I could set up different rates for weekdays and weekends? Setting up my energy tracking worked well - thanks. Unfortunately days of the week does not appear to be part of the time condition.

Thank you so much, that's very generous of you

Many different ways of precisely achieving that, but generally it involves having helpers for the various start and end times and your automation only toggling the tariff if triggered by certain helpers between specific dates. Gets quite complex but entirely possible

If your energy provider gives you an API telling you when peak and off-peak changes happen, then things would be a lot easier because you can use those as your triggers

I shall put it on my to-do list :) Fixed time periods like on Flux, Cosy and Go are quite easy to deal with - instead of peak / off-peak, just create three tariffs named whatever you like (peak, off-peak, flux) and the automation flips between them on the schedule you set. It's when you get the intelligent tariffs (IO / IF) that it gets really complicated!

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I would love to be able to do that, but to be honest not sure where to start. Okay on settling up times but not sure from there, I have learnt a lot from your energy tariff and set up off peak energy import and made one for energy export but not sure on multiple times for import and export. So will look forward to learning more from your videos

Already done that! Video is currently members only but it’ll be public in a few weeks: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LPPi5GdUeFQ.html

Thank you very much :)

Give the utility meters chance to populate with some data. Once they have energy data (kWh) in them then the energy dashboard will allow you to add them

Same, just can’t select the helpers in the consumption settings.

In theory yes that looks ok but you won’t know for sure until you try it!

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Ok, just.... if you have possibility and will - how to do it? :D

You could easily test that theory by setting up another utility meter that doesn’t reset and duplicating the automation to switch tariffs on that one too. If that one works you’ll know it’s a conflict with the reset

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech just did that..will see tomorrow.. thanks

Confirmed... must be some logic in the utility meter selecter

There are two reasons your sensors can't be seen in the energy dashboard. First one is that you might have selected the wrong type of source entities for them - you must choose energy sensors (kWh / Wh) not power (kW / W). Check the unit type used by your sensors and confirm they are energy. The second issue could be you just haven't left them long enough to have data in. Check that the new utility meter sensors are actually populating with data. If they're not then it may be because your automation isn't working properly (check the traces), or you haven't left it long enough to collect any (it's not been off-peak yet).

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Ah that will answer both of my problems, wrong source entities selected in both cases I've corrected the tariffs entities but the BatterySoC may need a bit of thinking about. Now I wait for the data to arrive and see if I can add them to the Energy dashboard.

I’m not sure what you’re meaning by battery soc, the energy dashboard doesn’t support displaying that to my knowledge

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Sorry, Battery State of Charge in my PV system. I'm looking at extending this for the Flux tariffs and part of the useful information for energy management is the battery state of charge for two reasons, the Grid feed in won't start until the battery is fully charged and it may be beneficial to recharge the battery during the off-peak period in the winter months to ensure there is power for the peak hours. Firstly I have to get the Home Assistant working for the two tariffs as your tutorial. At the moment the automation works ie there are numbers and it switches at the right times but the Energy dashboard has got a bit messed up, can it be reset to original install?

The easiest way to tidy up the energy dashboard is to create new utility meter helpers with different names and add those to the dashboard, removing your old ones. The dashboard won't display data for sensors that are not added to it (even historical ones).

Give it a couple of hours for the new tariff sensors to populate with data. Until they have actual data in them the dashboard can't select them

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech same for me, I'll give it a few hours! thanks for the great video

I couldn't be certain, but you need to make sure your peak and off-peak automation is running at the correct times first - check your automation traces to debug it, and also confirm that the utility meter's energy meters for peak and off-peak are containing the correct data and only incrementing when the appropriate tariff is active.

Sounds like your automation isn't running, I would suggest looking at the traces for the automation and see why it says it's failing.

Agile would be near impossible because there is no peak or off-peak. Best it could do is track the cost which is as easy as adding the current rate entity as the cost tracking option under the grid settings. Cosy and Flux are possible, I’ll put that on my to do list

Yup, edit the automation to add a condition that the tariff only changes if it's a week day to start with. You may need to tweak the triggers to deal with the start of a weekend and set it to off-peak.

The utility meters take their units and class from their source device. If your source device isn’t energy (lots of people try and use power which won’t work) then they won’t be selectable. You could always wrap your energy sensors in a template sensor with the correct class and unit of you need to.

There is an 'individual devices' section where you can add specific items for it to track. They appear right at the bottom of the energy dashboard. It won't track costs there, you'd need to create your own sensors to do that. As long as it has an energy sensor, you can add it in Settings > Dashboards > Energy

There's no straightforward easy way to deal with that at the moment. Lots of people have published various different ways to automate based on Agile but there are so many factors affecting how it can be used that nobody has yet, to my knowledge, sorted that for the masses. It is possible, but it requires a lot of coding in the automation and as I don't have an Agile tariff myself (and don't intend to) then it's not something I will be covering at the moment.

That's because you need to wrap the energy sensor, Current Consumption Electricity, not the power one.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thank you for your reply. I've deleted everything and started again and this time I've used the Current Consumption Electricity for the "Energy - Grid Import" helper. But when I get to the 'Add Consumption' section, I still don't see the "Energy - Grid Import" in the Consumed Energy drop-down. Any ideas, please?

@@simonotter Firstly have you waited 24 hours and confirmed that Energy - Grid Import actually has data in and is in the correct unit (kWh)? If that's not working then there's a bigger issue you need to fix. Got to troubleshoot the source sensors rather than looking at the final step really. It might be that your sensor is still stuck on kW instead of kWh because of using the wrong source sensor originally, so perhaps try and create it again with a different name such as Energy - Grid Import 2. Wait 24 hours and check that it's populating with data before adding to the energy dashboard.

You could create the additional utility meter for peak/off-peak without affecting your existing one. If you then remove the existing one from the energy dashboard and replace with the new peak/off-peak ones then the dashboard will only show the new ones, but the total of the two will equal that of the old one (and the totals in the table will be summed up the same). If you didn't like it you can easily swap the dashboard back to the old sensor and no data will have been lost, it'd be as if you'd never changed it. Personally I still use this peak/off-peak method as it's a lot more useful than just having one lump of energy reported.

I was thinking a second utility meter might be an idea. Guessing the on/off peak and second new utility meter will only have data from today onwards rather that the past

Correct, it would only display from now on so it wouldn't display historical stuff.

Although you could create a dummy energy sensor in YAML and use that as the source sensor for your old utility meter. That way it would retain its existing history but not increment any more. You can then leave it in the energy dashboard and it would display all its history for you, but going forward your new utility meter would display peak and off-peak separately. Stops double accounting of data while retaining the history!

I think I know what you mean but my brain hurts ;) I created the utility meters but neither the peak or off peak entities appear in the list when I try to add them as grid consumption in the energy dashboard. Gonna chalk that up to a ‘leave it over night and it will probably fix itself’ sort of thing. Thanks for the videos, they are great

You can’t take data out of the energy dashboard, but you can create sensors to calculate the values you need. For example with PV generation today, find your cumulative PV energy sensor, create a Utility Meter helper and use the PV energy as its source, then set the cycle to daily.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech You've pointed me down the right path there, and I've been able to create helpers to track the data I want now - thank you!

I couldn't say for certain, but the first place you need to look is at the automation to figure out why it isn't working. If you edit your automation you should be able to view 'Traces' which gives you a flow chart layout of the steps in the automation, and which decisions were made and why. You can check that the automation is running, when it ran, and why it might not have met a particular condition.

No, there is no concept of peak or off-peak with Agile.

Have the sensors had chance to populate with data, and are the units of the new peak and off-peak sensors in kWh?

I think that it stores the tariff data alongside the historic data that it has collected, so if you change it then it only affects future costs. But I haven’t tested this so need to confirm that!

I might do another video for non-standard tariffs in the future, but for now try this. Create tariffs on your utility meter called 'flux', 'peak' and 'day' create two new time-only helpers called input_datetime.flux_energy_start and input_datetime.flux_energy_end, input_datetime.peak_energy_start, input_datetime.peak_energy_end then use this automation instead. You set when the flux and peak periods are in the helpers, then the automation defaults to the 'day' tariff during the other periods: alias: "Energy: Peak and Offpeak Tariffs" description: "" trigger: - platform: time at: input_datetime.peak_energy_end variables: tariff: day - platform: time at: input_datetime.peak_energy_start variables: tariff: peak - platform: time at: input_datetime.flux_energy_end variables: tariff: day - platform: time at: input_datetime.flux_energy_start variables: tariff: flux action: - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.energy_grid_import data: option: "{{ tariff }}" mode: single

And yes you are correct, if you use the Glow display you could track when the tariff changes happen and switch between the tariffs automatically. I have tried that and it does work, and I use the reported prices in my energy dashboard to track the costs too. However, most people don't have that ability so I made this automation more universal.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Hi. So I've now got my PV/Battery install in place and Flux Import/Export tariff in place. Just looking to implement the above, and when creating the YAML, I get this: "Message malformed: expected a dictionary for dictionary value @ data['trigger'][1]['variables']" Would welcome thoughts on how've I've failed as a "user" :) Cheers. [perhaps a full article on your web site on creating a dedicated way to implement cost tracking for both import and export on these Flux tariffs?].

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Hi. Me again. Figured it out. Need to indent "tariff: peak" under "peak_energy_start" I guess, it's "rinse & repeat" for the export side of things. I'll give that a go, and likely break everything! Cheers.

@@rolandashdown4903 You don't have to repeat the automation for flux export as the rates change at the same time as the import rates. Define the export utility meter with the same 3 tariffs as for the import, and extend the automation to update the export meter at the same time as the import meter: action: - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.grid_import_today data: option: "{{ tariff }}" - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.export_today data: option: "{{ tariff }}"

As it is this would work with the fixed off-peak hours. To add in the bonus hours you would need another automation to detect that (using a sensor from the Octopus Energy integration) that triggers the change to off-peak/peak just like the time-based automation I've provided.

Go take a look at the sensor entities themselves (Settings > Devices & Service > Entities (tab)). Find sensor.energy_grid_import_peak first to make sure it exists and if it does, open it up and look on its info tab to make sure it has a numeric status (not 'unknown' or 'undefined'). If it doesn't yet have any data, give it an hour and check again. Depending on how much energy you are using right now will affect whether these sensors populate. For the off-peak sensor, you might have to wait until tomorrow for it to populate with data.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thanks! Was seeing the same thing as Dominik. That makes sense

One extra thing I had to do - for some reason, I had to hit "fix statistics" in the developer tools>statistics area for one of the stats.

@@jmadawg thanks that did the trick!

I didn't need to do this. Did Home Assistant give you a reason alongside the Fix Statistics button at all? It usually gives you a reason, such as if the unit of measurement has changed.

It should be kWh (energy) not W (power)

Yes, but you need to create two automations instead. Decide what time you want the automation to trigger in the day and use that as the trigger, for example 00:00. Then in the conditions you create a time condition that only applies on the week days, Finally the action will be to set the tariff to 'peak'. Copy that same automation for off-peak, changing the days in the time condition and the action to 'offpeak'. You should end up with something like this for the peak: alias: "Tariff Change: Peak" description: "" trigger: - platform: time at: "00:00:00" condition: - condition: time weekday: - mon - tue - wed - thu - fri action: - service: select.select_option data: option: peak target: entity_id: select.energy_import_daily mode: single

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I got it. Thanks for your prompt reply!!!!

Yeah a new automation, almost exactly the same as the one I show in the video but instead of using times (or you can do it in addition to time triggers), you just use the state of the binary sensor. Assuming it is ON when off-peak, something like this: alias: "Energy: Peak and Offpeak Tariffs" description: "" trigger: - platform: state entity_id: - input_boolean.off_peak_started to: "on" variables: tariff: offpeak - platform: state entity_id: - input_boolean.off_peak_started to: "off" variables: tariff: peak action: - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.energy_import_daily data: option: "{{ tariff }}" mode: single

Many thanks for your prompt response and excellent reply. It looks just what I need. I need to put a little time into fully understanding YAML. Thanks & look forward to your forthcoming videos. Paul

Hello there, Im also on Intelligent, where would I put my binary off-peak sensor?@@SpeakToTheGeekTech

Yes it's entirely possible, but it's not hassle-free. You'd need to start by creating a second utility meter just to track eco7, an automation to control the switch between peak/off-peak, then you'd need to create a 'number' helper to store the cumulative cost, and then create a automation that runs at 23:59 every night to calculate the total cost of your energy using those eco7 sensors multiplied by the rates you would pay and increment the helper with that new value. That number helper would then track your total cost with a jump once per day.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech perfect - thank you!

I've never tried export, sorry. In theory it should be the same though, just make sure that the sensors have data in before you try to add them to the dashboard

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks for responding, looks like it can't handle 3 tariff's in an export meter. Not an issue as the low export tariff never gets used anyway as its the charging window for the battery/car etc. Having created a 2 tariff meter it let me add it within 5 mins and seems to be working. Will check the automation to set the tariff over the next 24 hours to see if it is ok. Thanks again, really helpful video's as ever and really good explanations. Have purchased you a coffee to say thanks...keep up the good work.

Sounds exactly the same on a day to day basis. When it switches to summer just adjust the costs manually unless you have an integration from your energy supplier that provides you with the costs

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks! It would be nice if I could create 2 sets of time helpers (one for summer and one for non-summer). And then that would trigger the peak and offpeak time helpers you have which in turn trigger the peak and offpeak utility meter helpers.

@@shreyasdube Yup you should be able to do that very easily. Just condition in your actions that checks for the time of year so as it knows whether it needs to run or not.

You should double-check you've actually selected an energy (kWh) sensor as the source for the utility meter. If the peak and off-peak sensors are showing kW, they'll have picked that up from the source sensor and it sounds to me like you might have accidentally selected a power sensor as your utility meter source.

If you're using Glow, did you follow my guide? (www.speaktothegeek.co.uk/2023/02/glow-smart-meter-display-and-home-assistant-configuration-tutorial/). If so, the configuration you pasted in creates the sensors required. Look at the configuration, the second sensor "Smart Meter Electricity: Energy Import" should create an entity called sensor.smart_meter_electricity_energy_import. That's the one that I wrap in a utility meter with peak and offpeak tariffs in this guide here.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Hi Oliver. I followed everything exactly in both videos, but when I try to add the new meters to the energy dashboard they're not listed. If I examine the meters created automatically by the helper, the Energy Grid Import peak & offpeak have a state uom of kW (not kWh) so they can't be used as Grid Consumption in the Energy Dashboard. This is bizarre because the sensor.smart_meter_electricity_energy_import has uom of kWh. I tried editing the states in Developer tools. I also tried to create two new template sensors from the meters with uom of kWh. But I can't get anything to appear in the Dashboard drop down menu. Hmm.

Sounds like HA has got itself stuck. I reckon you should create new source sensors but with a slightly different name, so for example sensor.smart_meter_electricity_energy_import could be repeated as sensor.smart_meter_electricity_energy_import2. Then create a new Utility Meter from the v2 sensor, also making sure that the new Utility Meter name is different to before. My guess is you may have accidentally set it up originally using the power sensor as a source, and now it's remembering that.

You need to make sure that the utility meter you have created has all three tariffs in it, and that each sub-meter for each time period is being populated with data appropriately. If that’s not happening then the wrong data will appear in the dashboard. It can only report on what it knows from the entities you supply

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thanks for the reply. They're all there. Something just isn't matching to apply the switch to the different tariff.

Share the YAML of your automation, the names of all of your tariffs, and what you think the logic is you’re attempting to achieve with your automation and I’ll see if I can spot the issue

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech here's the automation yaml. What file can I look at to find the definitions for the utility meter and the tariffs? I can only find them through the UI. alias: "Energy: Day, Night and Peak" description: Switch tariff on the time trigger: - platform: time at: input_datetime.nightrate_energy_end variables: tariff: day - platform: time at: input_datetime.dayrate_energy_end variables: tariff: night - platform: time at: input_datetime.nightrate_energy_start variables: tariff: night - platform: time at: input_datetime.peakrate_energy_end variables: tariff: day - platform: time at: input_datetime.peakrate_energy_start variables: tariff: peak action: - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.energy_grid_import data: option: "{{ tariff }}" mode: single

@@5h4mr0Ck Which tariff are you trying to automate for, is this Cosy? There's definitely an issue with your logic here because both dayrate_energy_end and nightrate_energy_start are probably exactly the same, or at least you are treating them the same. If you have three tariffs, you pick one as default (so 'day') and just track the times of the other two periods. So night rate start and finish, peak start and finish. The end times for both of those set it back to day. I can't be certain that's the issue but it is a starting point! to check the tariff entities, Settings > Devices & Services > Entities. Filter by energy_grid_import and you should see three, one for each tariff.

That’s not a known fault, the method shown in this video works perfectly for me still. The only way data would get mixed up is if you have the automation configured to toggle the tariff at the wrong times.

Apologies I’m not trying to suggest it was a fault, just I spotted a couple of other comments from people experiencing the same. I followed the instructions as you state and I’m seeing the off peak import and costs in the peak. Yet the entities that I’ve populated state a start/end time of 23.30-5.30am for the off peak, and the automation was copy/pasted.

Have you confirmed the tariff on the utility meter is 100% changing at the correct times? Check the entity state history to confirm it.

Also, if you are doing this for IOG (which I assume you are based on the offpeak hours you have mentioned) then you need to do things a bit differently to deal with the additional ad-hoc hours. I actually have a video coming out next Saturday on that, or it's available right now for channel members.

Re did it now it works. Excellent. Thanks. What would be good is if you can do a video on how to add in standing charge costs

Yes it's entirely possible to do this and I know of others doing this. There are several ways, but the way I plan to do this is using an Octopus Energy integration which provides a binary sensor that turns on when there's an active additional charging session. That would then switch the tariff automation to off peak when enabled. I don't have Intelligent Octopus Go yet but as soon as my charger is compatible I'll be making a video to show how I do this.

Thank you again for the hint, I do have the Octopus integration, I will try to learn a bit of yaml to create an automation.

Have a look at this page here which is what I plan to use when the time comes bottlecapdave.github.io/HomeAssistant-OctopusEnergy/entities/intelligent/

Ooooh and thank you very much for the donation!

This is untested, but it's the same process only more long-winded! When you create your utility meter add the following tariffs: - peak - standard - dip1 - dip2 If you wanted to track dip1 and dip2 as just a single blob then just have a single 'dip' tariff instead but you still need separate time helpers... - input_datetime.peak_energy_start - input_datetime.peak_energy_end - input_datetime.dip1_energy_start - input_datetime.dip1_energy_end - input_datetime.dip2_energy_start - input_datetime.dip2_energy_end It's important to make sure that there's a slight gap between the cosy end and peak start times, or they'll overlap. So set dip2_energy_end to 15:59 and peak_energy_start to 16:00 for example. And then the automation will assume it's tracking the 'standard' rate unless it's within one of the time windows set by the helpers: alias: "Energy: Octopus Cosy Tracker" description: "" trigger: - platform: time at: input_datetime.dip1_energy_start variables: tariff: dip1 - platform: time at: input_datetime.dip1_energy_end variables: tariff: standard - platform: time at: input_datetime.dip2_energy_start variables: tariff: dip2 - platform: time at: input_datetime.dip2_energy_end variables: tariff: standard - platform: time at: input_datetime.peak_energy_start variables: tariff: peak - platform: time at: input_datetime.peak_energy_end variables: tariff: standard action: - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.energy_grid_import data: option: "{{ tariff }}" mode: single

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks! This helps a lot, I was heading in the right direction!

Couple of things to try - use the cumulative energy rather than energy today sensors inside your utility meters. Also make sure you've used energy sensors not power sensors as the utility meter sources, and also waited for the utility meters to start populating with data before you add them to the dashboard.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I think it could be the fact I haven’t used any grid energy yet due to me using battery since setting up the utility meters.

That would do it...

The utility meters need time to populate with data. Keep your eye on them and once they have values then they're ready. Depending on when peak and off-peak kicks in for you is when the peak and off-peak utility meters will populate.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech having the same issue. Will give it overnight and see if it gets data!

You need to leave it long enough for the sensor to populate with data. For an off peak sensor that won’t happen until you’ve used some off peak energy.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thanks I’ll wait until tomorrow says not defined for both so I m guessing it has to run a few hours during peak to get the data

Most likely one of a couple of things: have you checked that the new utility meters are populating with data? They need to be left for long enough to show some import energy data. Have you checked that the sensors are showing in the correct units (kWh)? This question is asked a lot in these comments and it's normally one of those that's the cause.

Thanks for your comments, the data is working okay on my dash board, I see from your comment that the reading needs to be in kWh and I have check this, the the grid CT sensor I am using is in kWh but for some reason when I looked at the Grid Import peak and off peak sensor’s they are showing readings in Kw and not kWh. I have to say not sure why this changed, is there something I can do in the yaml code to make read in kWh?

No, it sounds like you have used the incorrect source sensors when creating them - easily done. Your only real option is to delete those utility meters and create new ones but with different names (otherwise they'll pick up the same units as before because they'll be stuck in the database for a bit!). You must pick the energy sensors as their source.

I did what you said and it has worked, thank you so much for your and guidance

Have the helpers started populating with data and do they have the correct units (kWh)? Until they have data in the dashboard won't see them. Also, there's been a bit of an issue wrapping the daily sensors from recent reports so you can try wrapping the all-time energy sensors instead to see if they work instead.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thanks, they have now so I’ll have another go and check the units.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech they have the correct units and there is data, but when I search for them in the drop down list they’re not present. Is there any way to clear out the many many Octopus tariff options!?

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Does it matter that the sensor the new helpers are using is the sensor already used to monitor grid import? It's all coming from my inverter. However, at the moment it is not able to distinguish between peak and off-peak. That's what I really want to keep track of.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Hi, afraid I'm no further with this. What do you mean by wrapping sensors? Sorry, that just doesn't mean anything to me.

Sorry, never actually experienced this issue myself but several people keep mentioning it in these comments. The usual fixes are either that they've been set up incorrectly (power instead of energy), or Home Assistant didn't like them at that moment in time... re-creating them with a different name sometimes works. In extreme examples creating a cleaner 'energy template' sensor in YAML to wrap your existing energy sensors before then wrapping those new template sensors in a Utility Meter has also worked.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks for the quick reply. Have checked in dev tools that both (peak and offpeark) import sensors have kWh as unit of meaurement, and are both in the device class "energy". Will try recreation, thanks

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Recreating everything worked, thanks. I also followed your newer video for the octopus set ups. Also if anyone reading this is struggling to delete the old helpers and sensors, open an incognito mode tab and the delete button appears.

When you look at the data in sensor.energy_grid_import_peak what are the units showing as?

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks, they are both kWh.

That's odd then, I don't know what's going on with that. If both new utility meters are showing data and the units are in kWh then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to add them to the dashboard. Have you tried a different device / web browser to make sure it's not a browser cache issue?

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Just tried mobile and same, when I go to add a consumption entity to the energy dash the new peak and offpeak are not available. I could possible understand it for the peak as we use very little but offpeak we have over 5kWh. Thanks.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Just to update you. My DB corrupted after a backup. I didn't notice till later in the day so just left it running a new db. I just checked and now I can add the Energy meters!! Thanks.

Have you checked that sensor.energy_grid_import_peak has data in its history, and that the unit is in kWh? You won’t be able to add energy grid import directly to the energy dashboard but you should be able to add the peak and offpeak sub entities once they have data in them. Have you also checked that the associated automation is running ok in the traces for it?

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Automation working ok as you can see the timeline changing from peak to offpeak. I can add the sensor (shelled) direct to the Electricity Grid consumption and that shows usage in kWh. This is the same sensor im using with Energy - Grid Import. But I cannot add Energy - Grid Import to the consumption

But what about the peak and offpeak entities? There should be two dedicated entities for peak and offpeak energy - are those being populated with kWh energy data?

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech there is data in there but it’s does not say what the value is

That is your issue then, the utility meter isn’t picking up the kWh unit from the source sensor. I don’t know why that is, but it might be that you’ll need to create a template sensor of device_class energy, unit of measurement kWh, and wrapping your source sensor. Then use that new sensor as the source for a utility meter. If the sub-sensors created for each tariff are not showing as kWh, the energy dashboard will not be able to use them.

I think I have this working. I used some different names for my import tariffs and this seems to have fixed the problem.

That was going to be my first suggestion. If you set up the utility meters before the source sensors have populated with data and a unit then the utility meters also don't pick up a unit. Difficult to fix (although possible in developer settings), but easier to create new ones with a different name.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks for the response! My latest issue is the meters don't record different data over a day. All data is logged on one tariff e.g day and then doesn't show any data on say flux or peak. When I look at the automations they don't show any sign of triggering after they are created. Any suggestions?

You’ll need to debug the automation concentrating on the triggers and conditions. There’s not much more I could suggest with the detail you’ve provided sorry

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech The traces come up with the following: Stopped because an error was encountered at 27 July 2023 at 21:58:40 (runtime: 0.05 seconds) Option not valid for select.energy_grid_import All the tariffs listed in the automation match the tariffs in the meter.

Yes that’s entirely possible to do by adding actions to the automation I’ve provided. Or if you’re using Octopus Energy then the Octopus Energy integration from bottlecapdave already provides you with that binary sensor which does the same thing.

Or your automations that want to know if it’s peak or off-peak can just trigger based on the current active tariff value on the utility meter with no need for anything else

​@@SpeakToTheGeekTechI'll keep puzzling. On straight ECO7 here. By using a single Toggle to reference rather than individual Automations, means its straightforward to amend as changing one, changes all. Great video. Cheers

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech any thoughts why on the drop down on the Electricity Grid isn't showing the Energy - Grid Import option to select? I followed your guide, set up Time Helpers, created Utility Meter Helper then copied the YAML to a new Automation. I have added the entities to dash board and seeing: Energy - Grid Import - peak Energy - Grid Import offpeak (535w) Energy - Grid Import peak (468w) Clicking Add Consumption the list doesn't offer the new meter.. I've check the entities and the Two rates are device class 'power' with Energy - Grid Import classed 'energy'.

​@@leet3707 It sounds like you might not have followed the guide correctly, sorry. If your units are w (watts) then you have wrapped a power sensor not an energy sensor (kWh - kilowatt-hours or watt-hours). Check your source sensor is an energy sensor (kWh) not a power sensor (w / kW) or it won't work.

Have you made sure that the new helper sensors have data being populated? It can take a couple of hours for that to happen. And for the issue of not being able to type in the peak/offpeak tariff names into the Utility Meter configuration, there was a bug in Home Assistant released just after I made that video that prevented this but checking just now in the latest version it appears to have been fixed.

Yes I have data populating for the peak rate at least, not been running long enough for the off peak rate yet, but the energy dashboard consumption options still won’t allow the peak to be found/selected or saved if entered manually. For the moment I’m having to split usage using the GivTCP Day and Night entities, but the cost calculation doesn’t update at all, maybe that will change with more time. Also updated the HA installation to the latest core yesterday (2023.4.5) and to 10.0 of the Operating System.

And for the peak energy sensor that is working, when you check the data is it displaying the unit as kWh?

No,it’s recording in Watts rather than KWh, could that be the cause of the issue? Maybe I need to try using the Glow device’s sensor.smart_meter_electricity_energy_import entity rather than the octopus smart meter entities instead.

That will 100% be the cause of the issue - you need to use energy sensors as the source of your utility meter (kWh) not power entities (watts). Power is the live reading, energy is power used over time and what is recorded in the energy dashboard.

Agile doesn't have peak or off-peak pricing so it doesn't really fit with that sort of tariff.

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I had a feeling. Never mind

How do you mean sorry? Once data is in the energy dashboard, the data period is defined by the filters at the top of the dashboard. If you mean you have a single energy sensor that is continuously counting upwards, then you can create a 'Utility Meter' helper with that sensor as an input, and you can choose the cycle period of whatever you like (hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly...)

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech reset monthly counter on the 25th day of every month??...my energy Bill is set to the 25th to the 25th..

To my knowledge you can't yet change the 'month' displayed in the energy dashboard to a custom cut-off. But, you can create a monthly-cycle utility meter with a 'meter reset offset' configured as needed: www.home-assistant.io/integrations/utility_meter/

Oh wow! Thank you so much!

I have a different video about that ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nf90zUbDkd0.html

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech yes - realised I commented on the wrong video - but I'd also misunderstood something about the way the helpers work. Apologies - I'll delete the original comment to save confusing anyone else!

Wow, thank you very much, that is very kind of you

Wow thank you, that is very generous of you :)

@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Well your video was very helpful, Can you give other home assistant bits of advice happy to pay for it just have a couple of things I can not figure out

I don't do consultancy I'm afraid, but if there are subjects that I've not yet covered in my existing videos then please let me know and I'll consider them for future videos.