I have just taken over a Fronius Primo Inverter and installed a Smart Meter (coming from an Enphase system) and I am trying to work out their data naming conventions. It seems to have changed over the years based on the searches I have done in this forum and the HA documentation.
Some of them make sense but others are not friendly. I assumed consumption meant consumption - but no - it appears to just mean “consumption imported from the grid”. Are my interpretations correct? This is their names and my understanding of what it is telling me. I have also included the friendly names I am giving the sensors.
Inverter: Primo 5.0-1 (1) Energy Day: Solar Energy Generated Today – “wh” (sensor.Solar Energy Daily)
Primo 5.0-1 (1) Energy Year: Solar Energy Generated this year – “wh” (sensor.Solar Energy Annual)
Primo 5.0-1 (1) Total Energy: Solar Energy Generated all time – “wh” (sensor.Solar Energy)
Primo 5.0-1 (1) ac Power: Current power generation -“W” (sensor.Solar Power)
Smart Meter:
Smart Meter 63A-1 Real power: Instant Power –“W” – negative = export; positive = import
Smart Meter 63A-1 Real energy consumed: Grid Import All Time – “wh” (sensor.Grid Import Energy)
Smart Meter 63A-1 Real energy plus: Grid Import All Time – “wh” - same as above (sensor.Grid Import Energy)
Smart Meter 63A-1 Real energy produced: Solar Energy Exported All time – “wh” (sensor.solar export energy)
Smart Meter 63A-1 Real energy minus: Solar Energy Exported All time – “wh” - same as above (sensor.solar export energy)
Also - I am trying to create a sensor for current consumption (W) and then a few energy consumption sensors. The latter will be okay, but after sunset, the production power sensor goes off line and I need that to work out my current consumption. (production minus export plus import) The template sensor just becomes unavailable. Any thoughts?
Hi there, consumption and and plus are the same for me. Maybe because mine is in Consumption path. But you can test your interpretation by comparing the data with your normal energy meter I think.
For the custom sensors, the Primo doesn’t have a battery right? So to save power it will go to standby mode and maybe that is why you don’t get data anymore.
I am not sure what you want to achive with the custom sensor, but can’t you use the “real power” sensor from the energy meter?
My meter is on the supply side, so “real power” gives me the flow to and from the grid (ie: plus & minus), not net consumption. I need the production to calculate my consumption.
I’ve had a play with RESTful sensors and they remain “available” so that gets around the issue. Also, the Solarnet sensor in the Fronius integration remains available when the production is zero, so it comes down to how fast I want the reporting. The Solarnet sensor updates every 10 seconds, so that will probably do.
There’s an interesting issue with the energy consumption data in that the all-time production data from the inverter updates on a much slower cycle (every 10 to 15 minutes). So if you use that to calculate daily or weekly energy consumption in a template sensor the results are wildly inaccurate, because the import and export data updates at a much faster rate, giving you a negative consumption, then a sudden jump which overstates your consumption.
I know there’s ways around that negative/positive, but it’s easier just to take the annual production figure which updates much faster. It’s just an odd quirk that caught me out.
Yes it is under the Solarnet sensor - consumption power (W), but I was looking for something that didn’t rely on the internet and was hoping a RESTful solution would give me the speed and reliability I want. I still have some issues, so it looks like Solarnet is where I go.
I think the core integration relies on the RESTapi from the inverter locally, so not really relying on the internet.
But for speed you can get the data by modbus. I get the power data ever 2 seconds.
