Hello community! I’ve been diving into the world of home automation and energy management, and I wanted to share my recent project and some insights I’ve gained along the way. My goal was to create a dynamic system that prioritizes energy consumption based on predefined rules, ensuring optimal use of available energy, especially from renewable sources like solar panels.
The Setup
I started by defining three main energy consumers in my home: an electric vehicle (EV) charger, a hot water heater, and a heat pump. Each of these devices has different energy demands and operational needs. To manage them effectively, I set up an input_select configuration in Home Assistant, allowing me to assign priorities to each device. Here’s a snippet of how that looks:
yaml
input_select:
prio1_consumer:
name: Priority 1 consumer
options:
- ev charge
- hot water
- heat pump
initial: heat pump
icon: mdi:arrow-up-circle
prio2_consumer:
name: Priority 2 consumer
options:
- ev charge
- hot water
- heat pump
initial: ev charge
icon: mdi:arrow-right-circle
prio3_consumer:
name: Priority 3 consumer
options:
- ev charge
- hot water
- heat pump
initial: hot water
icon: mdi:arrow-down-circle
Authorization and Automation
Next, I needed to ensure that each device could only be activated if certain conditions were met. For example, the heat pump should only turn on if the outdoor temperature is below a certain threshold and there’s sufficient sunlight to power it. I created binary sensors to handle these authorization checks. Here’s an example for the heat pump:
yaml
binary_sensor:
auth_heat_pump:
value_template: >
“{{ is_state(‘switch.heat_pump’,‘off’) and (states(‘sensor.luxtronik_id_web_temperatur_trl’) < states(‘sensor.luxtronik_id_web_temperatur_trl_hz’)) and states.sensor.remaining_pv_light.state | float >= 1.5 and states.sensor.season.state != ‘summer’ and (states.sensor.luxtronik_id_web_mitteltemperatur.state | int < 10 or states.sensor.dark_sky_overnight_low_temperature_0.state | int < 15) }}”
friendly_name: “heat pump authorized”
With the priorities and authorizations in place, I set up automations to turn devices on or off based on real-time conditions. The system dynamically decides which device to activate next, ensuring that the highest priority device with the necessary authorization is always given precedence.
Challenges and Learnings
One of the biggest challenges was ensuring that the system could handle dynamic changes without manual intervention. I also had to troubleshoot a few issues with the sensors not updating correctly, which turned out to be related to the timing of the automation triggers.
This project has been a great learning experience, and I’m excited to see how it evolves as I tweak the rules and add more devices to the system. I’d love to hear from others who have implemented similar systems or have suggestions for improvement!
Happy automating! 