Tracking energy consumption: state_class: total_increasing is unreliable?

Configuration
1

Hi Peeps,

I’ve have stitched all my energy readings from my Shelly devices into groups so I can track energy use by category…and normally this works really well. However, from time to time I will get a MASSIVE jump in consumption as something somewhere has a fit. I’ve been waiting for another instance of this problem so I could ask for help…and now we are away for a week one has happened in my absence.

This is what we would normally see:

Normal Energy
Normal Energy1198×292 37.5 KB

Note that the “Services” energy is about 1kWh - this is normal.

And this is what happens when one of the aggregating template sensors has a brain fart:

Energy Totals
Energy Totals1130×258 23 KB

For some reason it suddenly decides that we’ve used >20kWh on energy! If I look at the sensor you can see that there was a sudden drop:

Energy Drop
That drop is also ~20kWh so I think the sudden drop (e.g. from a shelly resetting or some other glitch) has somehow come across as consumption.

My config for this piece is as follows:

# Services - we exclude the washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher here as we count these separately. 
- sensor:
  - unique_id: bathroom_towel_energy
    name: "Bathroom_Towel_Energy"
    unit_of_measurement: "kWh"
    device_class: energy
    state_class: total_increasing
    state: "{{states('sensor.bathroom_towel_rail_energy') | float | round(2) }}"
    availability: "{{ states('sensor.bathroom_towel_rail_energy') | int(default=-100000) > -100000 }}"

- sensor:
  - unique_id: bathroom_fan_energy
    name: "Bathroom_Fan_Energy"
    unit_of_measurement: "kWh"
    device_class: energy
    state_class: total_increasing
    state: "{{states('sensor.bathroom_extractor_fan_energy') | float | round(2) }}"
    availability: "{{ states('sensor.bathroom_extractor_fan_energy') | int(default=-100000) > -100000 }}"

- sensor:
  - unique_id: ensuite_towel_energy
    name: "Ensuite_Towel_Energy"
    unit_of_measurement: "kWh"
    device_class: energy
    state_class: total_increasing
    state: "{{states('sensor.ensuite_towel_rail_energy') | float | round(2) }}"
    availability: "{{ states('sensor.ensuite_towel_rail_energy') | int(default=-100000) > -100000 }}"

- sensor:
  - unique_id: ensuite_fan_energy
    name: "Ensuite_Fan_Energy"
    unit_of_measurement: "kWh"
    device_class: energy
    state_class: total_increasing
    state: "{{states('sensor.ensuite_extractor_fan_energy') | float | round(2) }}"
    availability: "{{ states('sensor.ensuite_extractor_fan_energy') | int(default=-100000) > -100000 }}"

- sensor:
  - unique_id: services_energy
    name: "Services"
    unit_of_measurement: "kWh"
    device_class: energy
    state_class: total_increasing
    state: >
      {% set ensuite_fan = states('sensor.ensuite_fan_energy') | float %}
      {% set ensuite_towel = states('sensor.ensuite_towel_energy') | float %}
      {% set bathroom_fan = states('sensor.bathroom_fan_energy') | float %}
      {% set bathroom_towel = states('sensor.bathroom_towel_energy') | float %}
      {{(ensuite_fan + ensuite_towel + bathroom_fan + bathroom_towel) | round(2)}}
    availability: >
      {{ 
        is_number(states('sensor.ensuite_fan_energy')) and
        is_number(states('sensor.ensuite_towel_energy')) and
        is_number(states('sensor.bathroom_fan_energy')) and
        is_number(states('sensor.bathroom_towel_energy'))
      }}

As I understand it the use of state_class: total_increasing is what should stop that sort of behaviour…but no… :frowning:

Any ideas as to what I could do / change to prevent these sort of problems? It happens randomly (every few weeks / months) to any of my energy aggregators, but it can also happen to single devices such as the washing machine.

It’s bound to be something simple on my end but I have not been able to figure it out…

Thanks!