Solar panel installation. Which Inverter?

Feature Requests
41

The closest I could get is with a sensor that changes label and icon, but it won’t change the icon’s colour.

energy

sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      energy_import_export:
        friendly_name: "Energy"
        value_template: "{% if (states('sensor.envoy_current_energy_production') | int - states('sensor.envoy_current_energy_consumption') | int) > 0 %}Exporting{% else %}Importing{% endif %}"
        icon_template: "{% if (states('sensor.envoy_current_energy_production') | int - states('sensor.envoy_current_energy_consumption') | int) > 0 %}mdi:arrow-up-box{% else %}mdi:arrow-down-box{% endif %}"

The glance card allows you to define a theme, so maybe that could be a way to change the colour.

42

absolutely brilliant!! (damn the toaster draws a lot of power)

image

3 Likes
43

This thread is great, I didn’t think about using icon_template! But wouldn’t you rather have the actual “net” value with the icon? Here’s what I’ve built:

image
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The stats at the top are all template sensors using the methods defined in this thread, except instead of just displaying “Importing”/“Exporting” I’m calculating the value for each aggregation point.

The top set of stats (and top chart) is from the Sense module, the bottom set of stats (and bottom chart) is from the Envoy.

I like seeing the cross-over of production vs. consumption and what time of day that happens as well as the cleanliness of the solar production in the sense chart. You can see that yesterday was very clear, today there have been some clouds disrupting the production a little.

I love data. :robot:

4 Likes
44

Followed your directions precisely, mine’s looking kinda off:
Capture

Do you have any advice? Particularly the arrow direction.
Thank you so much for your contribution.

45

So, what were the actual sensor values at that point in time and do they make sense? Did the solar panels produce 50W at the time, or consumed 50W at the time?
I am using version 0.0.13 at the moment - maybe something has changed how positive/negative values are interpreted?

46

Thank you for the response. This may be helpful, here’s another view:

29%20AM
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47

Thanks, yes that view is indeed more helpful.

“Current Consumption” should never be a negative value - except maybe if you had a battery or generator that exports electricity to the grid. Normally this value represents the sum of all the energy consumers in your household. If you get this (negative) value straight from your solar inverter, then you probably need to create a template sensor which turns this into a positive number, and then use that sensor’s value in the power wheel.

48

I am soon installing solar panel PLUS a Tesla battery.

Anyone has this type of installation?

49

To close the loop on this: My inverter was not properly reporting consumption which is why the arrows were wonky. Thanks again for your help a few months ago.

1 Like
50

Hi Dave,
since I’m also a Fronius user, here’s some thoughts on how I integrated those into my intelligent consumption system: Photovoltaics (PV) + battery + hass = maximize auto-consumption

1 Like