Tibber Pulse MQTT – Local MQTT integration with optional AWS IoT bridge (HACS)

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1

I want to share Tibber Pulse MQTT, a HACS integration for Home Assistant that provides fully local access to Tibber Pulse data via MQTT, with optional forwarding to Tibber Cloud (AWS IoT).

Supported devices

  • Tibber Pulse ( P1, HAN, KM)
    Tested with Pulse firmware using MQTT with protobuf payloads

Technical overview

  • Tibber Pulse publishes data to a local MQTT broker (e.g. Home Assistant Mosquitto)
  • Payloads are:
    • Protocol Buffers (protobuf)
    • zlib‑compressed
  • Messages are decoded locally in Home Assistant
  • Energy values are mapped using OBIS codes where available

The integration works fully locally and is not dependent on:

  • Tibber Cloud
  • Tibber API
  • Internet connectivity

Optional MQTT bridge to Tibber Cloud

For users who want to keep the Tibber app, firmware updates, and cloud‑based features (e.g. EV charger load balancing), an optional two‑way Mosquitto bridge can be configured:

  • Local Mosquitto ⟷ AWS IoT
  • Uses Pulse device‑specific mTLS certificates
  • MQTT v3.1.1 over TLS (port 8883)
  • Topics:
    • <device-id>/publish (local → AWS)
    • <device-id>/receive (AWS → local, required for firmware updates)

Local operation remains functional regardless of whether cloud bridging is enabled.

Setup complexity vs. robustness

This solution is slightly more complex to set up than the official Home Assistant Tibber integration.
The reasons are:

  • Local MQTT configuration on the Pulse
  • Certificate extraction
  • Optional MQTT bridge configuration

However, this added complexity provides a more robust and predictable solution:

  • No dependency on Tibber APIs or cloud availability
  • No rate limits or API changes
  • Lower latency and deterministic data delivery
  • Continues working even during internet outages
  • Cloud connectivity becomes an optional add‑on, not a requirement

Installation

Available directly in HACS → Integrations
Search for Tibber Pulse MQTT, install, restart Home Assistant, then add via
Settings → Devices & Services

Documentation

The README includes:

  • Official HACS installation instructions
  • Step‑by‑step Pulse configuration for local MQTT
  • Detailed certificate extraction (app‑based method)
  • Complete Mosquitto bridge example (local ↔ AWS IoT)
  • Recommended Home Assistant user setup for Mosquitto

GitHub repository:

Feedback and testing reports are welcome.

3

So this is approved by Tibber?

If not, please remove the word “official”.

4

Removed. The wording refereed to official in HACS, as in listed in HACS, not official by Tibber. But I get the confusion and removed it.

1 Like
6

new release v0.3.3

Fixed

  • Fixed External MQTT connection crashes with OSError: Int or String expected caused by invalid or improperly saved host/port values. (#9)
  • Fixed crash when receiving MQTT messages due to callbacks being handled from the MQTT thread instead of the Home Assistant event loop.

Improved

  • MQTT host is now validated and normalized before connecting.
  • MQTT port is now safely converted to an integer (handles values like 1883.0).
  • ExternalMQTTClient now correctly uses the Home Assistant event loop when dispatching incoming messages.