Energy, entity with power usage by value that can be related to devices (cost tracking)

Hi,

since energy usage and transparency is a major topic currently I had an epiphany!

I have a couple of light bulbs. Those have different power usage by brightness (obviously).
To get actual power usage value it is unpractical to install power meters everywhere.

idea - simple explanation:
We could calculate the power consumption by “time switched on” * “power-factor”
(power factor would taken from a ‘proxy’-entity - the proxy relates to an specific attribute of the end-device)
The idea is to introduce ‘proxy’-entities. One can then relate those entities to his end-devices.
proxy should also have a certain category (ligth / elelctric heating / …) for later analysis.

For instance:
‘proxy-bulb-entity’ => bulb1,bulb2,bulb3, bulb4
The attribute for power-calculation is ‘brightness’ (from the bulbs, or led-strips)

EXAMPLE: I measured for mine:

  • 100% brightness => 9,3W
  • 75% => 5,3W
  • 50% => 2,7W
  • 5% => 0,7W
  • switched off by zigbee but available: 0,35W

= 4 hours * 5,3W(75%) * 7 days/week * 4 weeks => 0,15 kWh per month by bulb

bottomline: Everyone would get more granular costs by the end of the month about the areas of power usage. Light for me was still a blackbox.

One could then also calculate: TV is running (with 65W standard) for 4 hours => costs
or PS5 with 150W … (without the need to install actual power meters)

Even simplified for washing machine: if your measure the power and water consumption for a certain program once you would have a basis. Just install a counter by washing program and sum up the monthly and yearly costs (and usages)

I personally think this would be a huge step to use your own data smartly.

thanks a lot for considering this in any way.

best regards
Udo

Is this what you mean? Powercalc - Virtual power sensors - #465 by Stephan_Burgwal

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