The energy dashboard is great for tracking energy consumption over time (kWh), but I’d love to see a dashboard dedicated to real-time power usage (kW). This would allow me to instantly monitor how much power I’m using and identify which devices are consuming the most at any given moment.
For example, in Belgium, we now have a capaciteitstarief, where electricity bills are partly based on peak consumption. A live power dashboard would make it easier to spot and manage these peaks, helping users avoid unnecessary costs. Beyond that, it’s also useful for optimising solar power usage by quickly identifying and turning off high-power devices when needed.
Currently, I can get a similar view using the Sankey Chart custom card, but it requires manual setup. A built-in solution would make this much simpler and more accessible for everyone.
Sidenote: to ‘predict’ my peak consumption (measured over a 15-minute period), I currently calculate it by adding my current peak power usage with the current power usage multiplied by the remaining minutes in the quarter-hour. This allows me to send me a notification when I’m doing a lot of things at the same time (laundry, ironing , dishwasher…) and forgot about this.
Sankey card is very good for that but manual setup could be quite time consuming and it would also be much better if it keeps itself up to date automatically.
With any kind of power usage I’d also like to see it in all different levels like total - each line/phase - breaker - socket - appliance. The easiest way to build such tree would to have “parent” for every power measurement device/entity.
I’ve setup my own dashboard and used a bunch of mushrooms in concert with the sections layout.
Each has a configurable action set depending on the device (lights turn on an off, laptops sleep, or I hold to get a graph for each). If a device is off or in standby, it’s gray. Otherwise it’s coded to a specific color for each device type. A bit of a pain to setup the first time, but once I have the template it’s a breeze.
I fully agree with the earlier decision for an energy dashboard showing the total amount of consumed power, gas and water. It provides the best basis to understand and manage cost.
Many users use Home Assistant as an EMS (Energy Management System) and unlike what the name suggests, it manages power (not energy). A power management dashboard could form the foundation for optimizing solar consumption, load balancing and home battery management.
Power management is more complicated than most people realize, but I hope Home Assistant can begin with making incremental steps towards becoming the open source EMS.
I am a very efficient user of solar power (some 95% of our daily consumption is self-consumption of solar), but I’ve had no need for the energy dashboard. It’s an ‘after the fact’ thing, which is a little nice to know but doesn’t help with power decisions in real time.
I do use the power flow card (and quite a few automations), but would be much handier using an official ‘power dashboard’.
