Utility Meter with template source not adding up

Configuration
1

Hello,
Hopefully someone more enlightened than I can work this out.

I have a template sensor that calculates my current spend on electricity:

Here we sum the imported electricty at peak and off peak rates, then add the daily standing charge. (£0.4938p)

    - name: "Octopus Daily Cost"
      unit_of_measurement: £
      state: >
        {{ (((states('sensor.octo_go_import_peak') | float * 0.4013) + (states('sensor.octo_go_import_offpeak') | float * 0.075) + 0.4938) | round(2))}}

This seems to return the correct value and so I intended to feed to two utility meters to track the daily and monthly spend:

##### Octopus Go - Cost Meters
  octo_go_daily_cost:
    source: sensor.octopus_daily_cost
    name: Octopus Go Daily Cost
    cycle: daily    
    
  octo_go_monthly_cost:
    source: sensor.octopus_daily_cost
    name: Octopus Go Monthly Cost
    cycle: monthly

It is the value of the utility meters that I’m unsure about. Can anyone suggest why, when the source to the utility meters is £0.68 presently, the meters are reporting £0.19?

Both are rising steadily, but I would have expected the meter to start with the standing charge cost (£0.49) and increase with the subsequent usage. Have I misunderstood?

Screenshot 2022-10-09 at 00.53.39
Screenshot 2022-10-09 at 00.53.391848×1004 142 KB

2

Yes you have.

The utility meter only accumulates change of the source sensor.

You can use the utility_meter.calibrate service to set an initial state.

3

Thanks, I didn’t know of that service, would there be a recommended trigger or just timed at midnight to to call the service?

Is there an option to reset the utility meter to something other than 0 in the config? That would be handy.

4

Thank you soooooooo much!!! You’ve helped me solve something that’s been pestering me for months which I’ve been constantly returning to every so often to figure out a solution.

Since getting my electricity and gas smart meter installed I’ve been really struggling with this one. Before when I had a CT clamp I was able to just make a template sensor which was simple enough.

{{ electricity_cost_sensor + (0.29 * now().day) | round(2) }}

When I got the smart meter and the total cost for the day already included the standing charge I was delighted to drop the template sensors. However then I came to find/figure out that the utility meter only updates when there is a delta to the previous value as supposed to always updating with the current state at the given time intervals set.

This isn’t an issue with the electricity however for gas I have far more days when I use zero gas and this results in the daily gas cost just sticking at the standing charge cost. Which as we know the utility meter does not pick up and my totals just stay at the previous days values.

Thanks to your suggestion of using the utility_meter.calibrate service it sparked a solution in my head. Just before midnight if the imported gas volume is zero I can use that service call to update the utility meters with the standing charge.

alias: Utility Meter - Gas Standing Charge Correction
description: >-
  Correct gas weekly and monthly utility meters with standing charge when zero
  gas used for the day
trigger:
  - platform: time
    at: "23:57:00"
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.smart_meter_gas_import_vol_today
    state: "0.0"
action:
  - service: utility_meter.calibrate
    data:
      value: >-
        {{ (states('sensor.gas_cost_weekly') |float(0) +
        states('sensor.smart_meter_gas_import_standing_charge') | float(0)) |
        round(2) }}
    target:
      entity_id:
        - sensor.gas_cost_weekly
  - service: utility_meter.calibrate
    data:
      value: >-
        {{ (states('sensor.gas_cost_monthly') |float(0) +
        states('sensor.smart_meter_gas_import_standing_charge') | float(0)) |
        round(2) }}
    target:
      entity_id:
        - sensor.gas_cost_monthly
mode: single

Very much appreciated for helping give me that spark for what was needed to solve this one.

1 Like