An even easier way is to use the Octopus integration and the API for live price data. Then in the energy dashboard when setting your electricity import sensor select "use an entity with current price" and select the "Current Rate" entity from the Octopus integration. This has the advantage of automatically updating if you change tarrif and when the prices change each quarter. I've been on Cosy for 3 months and HA reports with in a few pence of my actual billed amount.
I setup my energy dashboard when I was on Flux using this same process off your earlier video on Energy tariffs, and then adapted it when I moved to Agile so I now have a hybrid approach. As Gary Chivers suggests, using the ‘Current Rate’ entity from the Octopus integration is simpler than manually typing the rate in AND has the advantage that when the rates change they change in the energy dashboard automatically and the correct (old) rate stays in the dashboard - if you manually type the rate in then when the rates change the energy dashboard prices your old consumption on the new rates 😮. You can still combine this entity with your tariff switching approach to see different time of day kWh consumptions and spend (eg Cosy,Flux, Go). You have to use this method for tariffs like Agile and Tracker, and is what I do (and I have a separate ‘free’ tariff for Octopus Power-up’s). In the video you glossed over getting the import data, saying “from the energy meter”. If you have a Hildebrand glow then this is one approach, or an Octopus Mini supplies it via the Octopus Integration, but I’ve found the simplest approach is to use the import entity on your inverter. Mine reconciles very close to my Octopus meter readings, and also requires no extra hardware 👍
I was concentrating more on energy in the dashboard rather than costs, so I did gloss over it a bit for the sake of trying not to make the video too long. I use the Octopus Energy integration to track the costs though just as you say so I should probably have spent a minute to go over that too. And there are many ways to get the energy data - I use Hildebrand too, but you could use the Mini (nice and free if you are on Octopus) or a solar / battery inverter or any other device monitoring it. I did make a number of assumptions in this video I know... perhaps I shouldn't have!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Lots of ways to do things in Home Assistant, and gives things for us to comment about! I have an Octopus Home Mini now but it arrived after I’d already been using the energy dashboard with my inverter feeding import data in, so I just left the inverter entity in place than the home mini as otherwise I’d have lost the previous history in the dashboard. Also probably a bit of latency in the OHM sending up to Octopus and then pulling back down again to HA whereas the inverter is polled every 20 seconds. Not that latency would affect the energy dashboard of course
Hi Oliver, Firstly Thank You for all your helpful videos / scripts etc. I've set up helpers to track my costs on flux, based on the automations that's on your website. However, when I try to find the helper in the dashboard they are not showing? I have all of the Octopus TCP links, and the Grid Import Helper that I created previously. But the Energy Import / Export with the 3 different rates do not show in the options - they were created in HA more than 24 hours ago and they are all showing movement / data coming into them. Any ideas why?
Hi, I couldn't say for certain, but the two most common issues people experience are (1) not waiting for the sensors to populate with data or (2) accidentally using power sensors instead of energy sensors. I suggest you double-check all the steps from my blog post about this, including Step Three! :) www.speaktothegeek.co.uk/2024/03/octopus-smart-tariffs-and-home-assistants-energy-dashboard/
As mentioned in the video this concept doesn’t work for Agile. You can easily add energy monitoring to the dashboard and track the costs using the Octopus Energy integration but there’s no concept of peak/off-peak/etc with Agile
I’m on IOG using the Ohme charger. This doesn’t have full integration with Octopus, so my dispatching entity only shows off-peak as 23:30 to 5:30, irrespective of the schedule that Ohme/Octopus comes up with. Given that I never elect to boost charge at peak rate, it’s safe to say that whenever the Ohme is delivering power, it’s off-peak. So I use a power meter to automatically flip to offpeak when Ohme is charging (or it’s currently off-peak hours). Works pretty well!
Great stuff, thanks! Could you please add the fixed night low rate time to the Intelligent Go automation? i.e. so that low rate is selected between 2330-0530 OR when car is charging. Cheers!
Sort of, basically the same sensor (with 'intelligent dispatching' in the name) but it will be part of the Ohme device in the Octopus Energy integration instead of the Zappi as shown in the video. The sensor is basically associated with whichever device you enabled for the intelligent tariff (so for Tesla owners this might be the Tesla itself showing as a charger)
Yeah, it's different with Ohme chargers, not as straightfwd as Zappi... I can't use the above mentioned sensor( or eqv), because Octopus "assigns" IO slots randomly during the day, so even tho they're not "activated", that sensor above will still see them and think low rate is in use. I use "power draw" in combo with "car charging" from Ohme to determine when car is actually being charged. I will just add the nighttime slot to that automation. "Should" work :) @@SpeakToTheGeekTech
Hi Oliver. I used your instructions for setting up IOG and it has been working fine except for a couple of weeks. I do have a couple of days though when instead of recording the off peak tarrif at 23:30 HA for some reason stays on the Peak rate. Rights itself the next day but it’s baffling why it should do that randomly. Have you noticed this in any other setups? Thanks.
There have been a few occasions where the Octopus API has stopped working over the last week or so causing the intelligent sensor not to update. This happened yesterday too. Unlikely anything is wrong with your automation, it’s probably related to Octopus issues.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech No worries. The Octopus data (usage and cost) is correct from them so it’s just a quick correction for my spreadsheet. Just baffling 😁. Thanks for your quick reply and helpful videos.
Keep you eye on the intelligent dispatching sensor which should turn on when your energy is off-peak. If that’s not changing then that’s your clue that Octopus are having issues.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks for the tip. It’s happened twice since I started the automation two weeks ago. This morning and last Saturday. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Great video - thanks although I primarily want to track costs and we don't have any third party integration for most of our utilities in Australia. In fact I can't even get direct access to my utility meter data and have to resort to using CTs from a Harvi. Question - having set it up is it then possible to change those time periods for weekends and public holidays as they differ in Australia?
It's entirely possible to do as you would like, however it starts to get a lot more complicated. Your automation to switch tariffs must be configured to switch at the specific time periods you require, so you'd set up tariffs such as normal-peak, normal-offpeak, publicholiday-peak, etc... To detect when public holidays are you'd need to use the workday sensor (www.home-assistant.io/integrations/workday/), and you'd have to trigger the automation at all possible times and date combinations. Your ask is very niche, a lot of work and I wish you the best of luck!
Hi, I want to automate (in Home assistant) a forced export of my GivEnergy battery between two set times in the evening. I want to switch from Eco mode to Timed Export mode at 17:30, and then from Timed Export back to Eco at 22:30. I can do it manually from Home Assistant by using the GivTCP Mode. However, when I try to automate in Home Assistant (using the simple When, Then do screen), the drop-down list under 'Then do' only allows me to change mode to 'next option' rather then to 'Eco' or 'Timed export'. I've tried using the YAML editor, but don't know know enough about the syntax. Any suggestions?
Your action needs to be "call service" and the service is called "select.select_option". Choose your forced export entity and the value must be the time to export for in quotes, and it must be one of the pre-defined values. For example "30" for 30 minutes.
This video is specifically about energy, not power, so assuming you have mixed those units up? Your GivEnergy inverter should have an entity named along the lines of sensor.givtcp_xxxxxxxxxx_import_energy_total_kwh which you can use as the source for the utility meter. I'd suggest making sure it is on a daily cycle too.
Follow this great video and all setup now. Is there any reason you chose to have the utility meters (off peak and peak) not reset daily? Interested to understand the implications if any
Personally my own utility meters in my own installation are set to reset daily. For the functionality of the energy dashboard however it doesn't really matter because it uses long term statistics for the data. On the one hand daily reset is an added complication to the tutorial, on the other hand it does give you more flexibility to change the source sensor entity in the future without messing up the day's data too much for the day you make that change.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Is it possible to change it to reset daily? I couldnt find it in configuration.yaml or and I couldnt edit the reset frequency in Helpers
Also, and sorry about this, I am pretty new, can we create a way of calculating savings compared to basic flex and other alternative tarrifs? It would be nice to know what my solar system is actually saving on a day by day and onward basis
Hello, I followed your video to the letter this time, and I managed to get the peak/off peak working, however the values recorded in HA don’t seem to match up with Octo-Aid (another app I use to track things). I.e peak usage according to that is 26.51 and off peak 261kwh. But for same period in HA it shows 4.54 peak, 217off peak? Gas is off a little as well. Any thoughts as to why this could be as the octo aid links to the smart meters API same as the bottle cap Dave integration I use on HA?
I couldn't be certain sorry but it might be that the Octopus API is delayed in the energy data it provides to you and therefore doesn't reflect the actual energy consumed during the half-hour period that Home Assistant calculated. Are you using an Octopus Home Mini? If not then that would 100% explain it because the API on its own is not good enough for rapid energy data. I use a Hildebrand Glow IHD/CAD and that is perfect for real-time power and energy.
Thanks for this video. I have left it for 24 hours but the utility meters do not come up to select as a source in the Energy Dashboard configuration. I have checked that they are in kWh. They are derived from the same SolarEdge entity as I am using already which does come up as a choice.
Hi, I've done the process many times on many installations and only very occasionally it plays up. The only way I've found around that is to create a new utility meter with the required tariffs but using a different name (so it gets a new unique entity name), and then updating the automation to switch the new utility meter. But, most of the times when people have asked me about this not showing up in the energy dashboard it's usually because a step has been missed somewhere.
Thanks for the reply. I set up new Utility Meters but the same result. All I can do is wait a bit longer to see if the utility meters show up eventually. They are obviously not being recognised as energy units even though their source is.
No sorry, tracker is like Agile and there’s no concept of peak or off-peak. To add to the dashboard it’s a very cutdown version of what I’ve shown here. You create a utility meter to wrap your energy sensor, no tariffs, and add to the dashboard! To track costs just attach the Octopus Energy current rate entity to the energy sensor when you add it to the dashboard. It’s no different to tracking a standard tariff, very basic setup.
Thanks again for the tutorial however after installing the Octopus Integration, as you instructed, "devices" shows the two devices BUT in my case it's "electricity meter" and "charger". The charger is Tesla Wall Connector (supposedly "dumb") whereas the controlling unit should be the Tesla car?? Should I re-register Octopus IO before doing anything further? (I'm on OIG)
The 'charger' device should actually be your car and that's where the binary_sensor for intelligent dispatching should be located. Whichever device you registered with Octopus for use with intelligent control is the only one that is capable of appearing here because Octopus wouldn't know about anything else.
I have just spoken with someone I know who has that same setup as you. The car appears in the Octopus integration named 'Charger', but it is the car and that's where the sensor is for certain.
And because the associated article isn't live yet, here's the automation just in case you need it: alias: Import Energy Tariff Change - Intelligent Octopus Go description: "" trigger: - platform: state entity_id: - binary_sensor.octopus_energy_intelligent_dispatching from: "off" to: "on" variables: tariff: offpeak - platform: state entity_id: - binary_sensor.octopus_energy_intelligent_dispatching from: "on" to: "off" variables: tariff: peak condition: [] action: - service: select.select_option target: entity_id: select.energy_import_intelligent_octopus_go data: option: "{{ tariff }}" mode: single
Hey, trying to get a you tuber I have been watching to share their octopus referral code so I can enter it on my switch, I have you Sarah go green, Evman, etc and its like pulling teeth lol
I am just about to jump into the murky world of Home Automation. Your videos have inspired me to take the leap. Here goes, zima board in one hand, home automation for Dummies in the other.....and 'how to' videos from 'Speak to the Geek', what could possibly go wrong?!
Exactly what I need for octopus IO in HA. Thanks for sharing!
Glad it helped!
An even easier way is to use the Octopus integration and the API for live price data. Then in the energy dashboard when setting your electricity import sensor select "use an entity with current price" and select the "Current Rate" entity from the Octopus integration. This has the advantage of automatically updating if you change tarrif and when the prices change each quarter.
I've been on Cosy for 3 months and HA reports with in a few pence of my actual billed amount.
That will work for keeping track of cost, but it wouldn't separate out each rate into a separate item in the graph/table.
but it won't add your daily charges
I setup my energy dashboard when I was on Flux using this same process off your earlier video on Energy tariffs, and then adapted it when I moved to Agile so I now have a hybrid approach.
As Gary Chivers suggests, using the ‘Current Rate’ entity from the Octopus integration is simpler than manually typing the rate in AND has the advantage that when the rates change they change in the energy dashboard automatically and the correct (old) rate stays in the dashboard - if you manually type the rate in then when the rates change the energy dashboard prices your old consumption on the new rates 😮. You can still combine this entity with your tariff switching approach to see different time of day kWh consumptions and spend (eg Cosy,Flux, Go). You have to use this method for tariffs like Agile and Tracker, and is what I do (and I have a separate ‘free’ tariff for Octopus Power-up’s).
In the video you glossed over getting the import data, saying “from the energy meter”. If you have a Hildebrand glow then this is one approach, or an Octopus Mini supplies it via the Octopus Integration, but I’ve found the simplest approach is to use the import entity on your inverter. Mine reconciles very close to my Octopus meter readings, and also requires no extra hardware 👍
I was concentrating more on energy in the dashboard rather than costs, so I did gloss over it a bit for the sake of trying not to make the video too long. I use the Octopus Energy integration to track the costs though just as you say so I should probably have spent a minute to go over that too. And there are many ways to get the energy data - I use Hildebrand too, but you could use the Mini (nice and free if you are on Octopus) or a solar / battery inverter or any other device monitoring it. I did make a number of assumptions in this video I know... perhaps I shouldn't have!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Lots of ways to do things in Home Assistant, and gives things for us to comment about!
I have an Octopus Home Mini now but it arrived after I’d already been using the energy dashboard with my inverter feeding import data in, so I just left the inverter entity in place than the home mini as otherwise I’d have lost the previous history in the dashboard. Also probably a bit of latency in the OHM sending up to Octopus and then pulling back down again to HA whereas the inverter is polled every 20 seconds. Not that latency would affect the energy dashboard of course
Hi Oliver, Firstly Thank You for all your helpful videos / scripts etc.
I've set up helpers to track my costs on flux, based on the automations that's on your website. However, when I try to find the helper in the dashboard they are not showing?
I have all of the Octopus TCP links, and the Grid Import Helper that I created previously. But the Energy Import / Export with the 3 different rates do not show in the options - they were created in HA more than 24 hours ago and they are all showing movement / data coming into them.
Any ideas why?
Hi, I couldn't say for certain, but the two most common issues people experience are (1) not waiting for the sensors to populate with data or (2) accidentally using power sensors instead of energy sensors. I suggest you double-check all the steps from my blog post about this, including Step Three! :) www.speaktothegeek.co.uk/2024/03/octopus-smart-tariffs-and-home-assistants-energy-dashboard/
I am on Agile and would be interested in a similar video for Agile.
Thanks
As mentioned in the video this concept doesn’t work for Agile. You can easily add energy monitoring to the dashboard and track the costs using the Octopus Energy integration but there’s no concept of peak/off-peak/etc with Agile
I’m on IOG using the Ohme charger. This doesn’t have full integration with Octopus, so my dispatching entity only shows off-peak as 23:30 to 5:30, irrespective of the schedule that Ohme/Octopus comes up with. Given that I never elect to boost charge at peak rate, it’s safe to say that whenever the Ohme is delivering power, it’s off-peak. So I use a power meter to automatically flip to offpeak when Ohme is charging (or it’s currently off-peak hours). Works pretty well!
That's a shame - I didn't know anyone with an Ohme charger when I put this together so I confirmed functionality with a Zappi and a Tesla Model 3.
Great stuff, thanks! Could you please add the fixed night low rate time to the Intelligent Go automation? i.e. so that low rate is selected between 2330-0530 OR when car is charging. Cheers!
It is in there - it's automatically dealt with by the 'intelligent dispatching' sensor. There's a whole section discussing that in the video
Oh, ok... With the Ohme chargers, I guess I need to use a different sensor then. Thanks for answer :)@@SpeakToTheGeekTech
Sort of, basically the same sensor (with 'intelligent dispatching' in the name) but it will be part of the Ohme device in the Octopus Energy integration instead of the Zappi as shown in the video. The sensor is basically associated with whichever device you enabled for the intelligent tariff (so for Tesla owners this might be the Tesla itself showing as a charger)
Yeah, it's different with Ohme chargers, not as straightfwd as Zappi... I can't use the above mentioned sensor( or eqv), because Octopus "assigns" IO slots randomly during the day, so even tho they're not "activated", that sensor above will still see them and think low rate is in use. I use "power draw" in combo with "car charging" from Ohme to determine when car is actually being charged. I will just add the nighttime slot to that automation. "Should" work :)
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech
Hi Oliver. I used your instructions for setting up IOG and it has been working fine except for a couple of weeks. I do have a couple of days though when instead of recording the off peak tarrif at 23:30 HA for some reason stays on the Peak rate. Rights itself the next day but it’s baffling why it should do that randomly. Have you noticed this in any other setups? Thanks.
There have been a few occasions where the Octopus API has stopped working over the last week or so causing the intelligent sensor not to update. This happened yesterday too. Unlikely anything is wrong with your automation, it’s probably related to Octopus issues.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech No worries. The Octopus data (usage and cost) is correct from them so it’s just a quick correction for my spreadsheet. Just baffling 😁. Thanks for your quick reply and helpful videos.
Keep you eye on the intelligent dispatching sensor which should turn on when your energy is off-peak. If that’s not changing then that’s your clue that Octopus are having issues.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks for the tip. It’s happened twice since I started the automation two weeks ago. This morning and last Saturday. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Great video - thanks although I primarily want to track costs and we don't have any third party integration for most of our utilities in Australia. In fact I can't even get direct access to my utility meter data and have to resort to using CTs from a Harvi. Question - having set it up is it then possible to change those time periods for weekends and public holidays as they differ in Australia?
It's entirely possible to do as you would like, however it starts to get a lot more complicated. Your automation to switch tariffs must be configured to switch at the specific time periods you require, so you'd set up tariffs such as normal-peak, normal-offpeak, publicholiday-peak, etc... To detect when public holidays are you'd need to use the workday sensor (www.home-assistant.io/integrations/workday/), and you'd have to trigger the automation at all possible times and date combinations. Your ask is very niche, a lot of work and I wish you the best of luck!
Hi,
I want to automate (in Home assistant) a forced export of my GivEnergy battery between two set times in the evening. I want to switch from Eco mode to Timed Export mode at 17:30, and then from Timed Export back to Eco at 22:30. I can do it manually from Home Assistant by using the GivTCP Mode. However, when I try to automate in Home Assistant (using the simple When, Then do screen), the drop-down list under 'Then do' only allows me to change mode to 'next option' rather then to 'Eco' or 'Timed export'. I've tried using the YAML editor, but don't know know enough about the syntax. Any suggestions?
Your action needs to be "call service" and the service is called "select.select_option". Choose your forced export entity and the value must be the time to export for in quotes, and it must be one of the pre-defined values. For example "30" for 30 minutes.
Great video. I see that you are a GivEnergy user. Which entity would you use to create the utility meter for the grid power?
This video is specifically about energy, not power, so assuming you have mixed those units up? Your GivEnergy inverter should have an entity named along the lines of sensor.givtcp_xxxxxxxxxx_import_energy_total_kwh which you can use as the source for the utility meter. I'd suggest making sure it is on a daily cycle too.
Follow this great video and all setup now. Is there any reason you chose to have the utility meters (off peak and peak) not reset daily? Interested to understand the implications if any
Personally my own utility meters in my own installation are set to reset daily. For the functionality of the energy dashboard however it doesn't really matter because it uses long term statistics for the data. On the one hand daily reset is an added complication to the tutorial, on the other hand it does give you more flexibility to change the source sensor entity in the future without messing up the day's data too much for the day you make that change.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Is it possible to change it to reset daily? I couldnt find it in configuration.yaml or and I couldnt edit the reset frequency in Helpers
@@mdeakin Not that I'm aware of. You'd need to delete the helper and recreate it again with the same name.
Also, and sorry about this, I am pretty new, can we create a way of calculating savings compared to basic flex and other alternative tarrifs? It would be nice to know what my solar system is actually saving on a day by day and onward basis
I'll put it on my ideas list for the future
Does this mean that we can set our battery to charge on Octopus intelligent go as a trigger for those moments when it flips over to a cheap hour?
Yes
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Ok, that is a worthwhile project and one I will have to add.
Hello, I followed your video to the letter this time, and I managed to get the peak/off peak working, however the values recorded in HA don’t seem to match up with Octo-Aid (another app I use to track things). I.e peak usage according to that is 26.51 and off peak 261kwh. But for same period in HA it shows 4.54 peak, 217off peak? Gas is off a little as well. Any thoughts as to why this could be as the octo aid links to the smart meters API same as the bottle cap Dave integration I use on HA?
I couldn't be certain sorry but it might be that the Octopus API is delayed in the energy data it provides to you and therefore doesn't reflect the actual energy consumed during the half-hour period that Home Assistant calculated. Are you using an Octopus Home Mini? If not then that would 100% explain it because the API on its own is not good enough for rapid energy data. I use a Hildebrand Glow IHD/CAD and that is perfect for real-time power and energy.
I do use a mini as it happens. The period I quoted energy use is over 6 days though not 1/2 hour.
Thanks for this video. I have left it for 24 hours but the utility meters do not come up to select as a source in the Energy Dashboard configuration. I have checked that they are in kWh. They are derived from the same SolarEdge entity as I am using already which does come up as a choice.
Hi, I've done the process many times on many installations and only very occasionally it plays up. The only way I've found around that is to create a new utility meter with the required tariffs but using a different name (so it gets a new unique entity name), and then updating the automation to switch the new utility meter. But, most of the times when people have asked me about this not showing up in the energy dashboard it's usually because a step has been missed somewhere.
Thanks for the reply. I set up new Utility Meters but the same result. All I can do is wait a bit longer to see if the utility meters show up eventually. They are obviously not being recognised as energy units even though their source is.
Can you please do a video on how to integrate Tracker into Home Assistant?
No sorry, tracker is like Agile and there’s no concept of peak or off-peak. To add to the dashboard it’s a very cutdown version of what I’ve shown here. You create a utility meter to wrap your energy sensor, no tariffs, and add to the dashboard! To track costs just attach the Octopus Energy current rate entity to the energy sensor when you add it to the dashboard. It’s no different to tracking a standard tariff, very basic setup.
Thanks again for the tutorial however after installing the Octopus Integration, as you instructed, "devices" shows the two devices BUT in my case it's "electricity meter" and "charger". The charger is Tesla Wall Connector (supposedly "dumb") whereas the controlling unit should be the Tesla car?? Should I re-register Octopus IO before doing anything further? (I'm on OIG)
The 'charger' device should actually be your car and that's where the binary_sensor for intelligent dispatching should be located. Whichever device you registered with Octopus for use with intelligent control is the only one that is capable of appearing here because Octopus wouldn't know about anything else.
I have just spoken with someone I know who has that same setup as you. The car appears in the Octopus integration named 'Charger', but it is the car and that's where the sensor is for certain.
And because the associated article isn't live yet, here's the automation just in case you need it:
alias: Import Energy Tariff Change - Intelligent Octopus Go
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.octopus_energy_intelligent_dispatching
from: "off"
to: "on"
variables:
tariff: offpeak
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.octopus_energy_intelligent_dispatching
from: "on"
to: "off"
variables:
tariff: peak
condition: []
action:
- service: select.select_option
target:
entity_id: select.energy_import_intelligent_octopus_go
data:
option: "{{ tariff }}"
mode: single
Great! That makes sense I guess so I'll continue with the setup
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech
What about agile?
Discussed in the video...
Hey, trying to get a you tuber I have been watching to share their octopus referral code so I can enter it on my switch, I have you Sarah go green, Evman, etc and its like pulling teeth lol
Mine is crisp-moth-619 and is of course the best one to use :)
I am just about to jump into the murky world of Home Automation. Your videos have inspired me to take the leap. Here goes, zima board in one hand, home automation for Dummies in the other.....and 'how to' videos from 'Speak to the Geek', what could possibly go wrong?!
Haha nice, good luck!