Hi,
I have the idea of using energy harvesting smart devices throughout the house, all connected with home assistant.
What are your long time experiences, with which energy harvesting products, that work together with home assistant?
My first tries are with enocean and more specific mostly FTKEs from eltako. I have the following products in use for 1 year now:
- 1 ENOCEAN Gateway-USB-Stick
- 1 Eltako FRP70-230V Repeater
- 9 Eltako FTKE-rw Funk Sender - they tell me if a door or window is open or closed. FTKEs generates the power for wireless telegrams itself when the lever is pressed, therefore there is no battery, no connecting wire and no standby loss.
All 9 FTKEs were working perfectly for 8 months, until Aug 2022. In september I have added automations to home assistant including the FTKE sensors to get an email if we left the house and something is still open and then I was very much aware if a window/door sensor was reporting wrongly. Before it was just a sensor displayed in lovelace. Again some months later, Nov 2022, I recognize that some more devices do not report consistently correct.
Eltako replaced the 2 from august, no problem. But I feel this could get a repeated problem, maybe also a general problem with energy harvesting products, that highly depend on local energy creation.
My analysis is:
the FTKEs have a lever and when pressed, make a click sound and then I see that a telegram is send. (checked via Fam USB+Laptop right next to the FTKE sender). The older the FTKEs get I assume the less good this mechanic works. Here FTKE-rw » Eltako eltako writes “for more than 100,000 switching cycles, replaceable compression spring.”
With new FTKEs (that I got replaced by eltako) it’s like that - slowly or fast closing the lever with my finger on different positions of the lever always trigger a click, and I always see the telegram.
With the other 7 ones (older then 1 year) 1 does not make a click at all any more (no telegram send). Another 1 only clicks if I do a fast fingertip, best on the top of the lever to create a fast movement and trigger the mechanic.
I have also bought an enocean Motion & Light Sensor FABH65S, unfortunately I can’t get it working with Home Assistant (seems not compatible). So I can’t judge how reliable the sun energy harvesting is working.
Maybe I got just 4 bad products. In short term (first 8 months) I have a very good experience with the FTKEs and also other people report that: Amazon.de. But I am curious about 1+ years experiences of any kind of energy harvesting products.
Best regards Martin