Hi everyone! I wanted to share my recent experience with integrating energy monitoring into my smart home setup. It’s been a journey, but I’m thrilled with how everything came together. 
I’ve been using ESPHome for a while now, and I must say, it’s a fantastic platform for DIY projects. Recently, I decided to monitor my gas usage more effectively. I set up a D1 Mini to read my gas meter, which was a breeze thanks to the ESPHome configuration. However, I ran into a small hiccup: every time the device rebooted, it would reset the counter, which wasn’t ideal. I explored saving data to the device’s flash, but that wasn’t sustainable due to limited write cycles.
Then, I stumbled upon the idea of storing the data in Home Assistant (HA) instead. It made perfect sense! Using HA’s variables and an on_boot action, I could have the D1 Mini retrieve the latest reading whenever it restarted. This way, there’s no data loss, and everything stays consistent. The setup involved a bit of tweaking, but the result is seamless. I couldn’t be happier with how it works now. 
For anyone looking to do something similar, I’d recommend exploring HA’s integration capabilities. It’s incredibly powerful and user-friendly, even for those who aren’t coding experts. The community support is also amazing—there are so many resources and forums where you can find help and share experiences. 
If you’re working on a similar project or have questions about ESPHome or HA integrations, feel free to reach out! I’d love to hear about your setups and help where I can. Happy tinkering! 