Solar / Battery Charging Optimisation for Home Assistant. This appDaemon application attempts to optimise charging and discharging of a home solar/battery system to minimise cost electricity cost on a daily basis using freely available solar forecast data from SolCast. This is particularly beneficial for Octopus Agile but is also benefeficial for other time-of-use tariffs such as Octopus Flux or simple Economy 7.
The application will integrate fully with Solis inverters which are controlled using any of:
- Home Assistant Solax Modbus Integration
- Home Assistant Core Modbus Integration
- Home Assistant Solarman Integration
Once installed it should require miminal configuration. Other inverters/integrations can be added if required or can be controlled indirectly using automations.
It has been tested primarily with Octopus tariffs but other tariffs can be manually implemented.
Although I'm very partial to both, a better home for anything you might like to contribute would be the Mountain Rescue Team that I am currently a probationer (trainee) with. The Team comprises 40 unpaid volunteers and is on call 24/7 365 days a year in all weathers. You can donate via JustGiving by clicking on this link:
This app is not stand-alone it requires the following:
| Websites | ||
| Solcast Hobby Account | Required | Provides solar PV generation forecasts up to 10 times per day, |
| Add-ons | ||
| HACS | Required | Home Assistant Community Store - used to distribute the app and updates |
| AppDaemon | Required | Python execution environment |
| Mosquitto MQTT Broker | Required | Used to create Home Assistant Entities using MQTT Discovery . |
| File Editor | Required | Used to edit the appdaemon.yaml and config.yaml files. Alternatively you could use Samba Share or Studio Code Server |
| Samba Share | Alternative | Alternative to using File Editor to edit config files. Not convered in this guide. |
| Studio Code Server | Alternative | Alternative to using File Editor to edit config files. Not convered in this guide. |
| Integrations | ||
| Solcast PV Solar Integration | Required | Retrieves solar forecast from Solcast into Home Assistant |
| Octopus Energy | Optional | Used to retrieve tariff information and Octopus Saving Session details |
| Solax Modbus | Optional | Used to control Solis inverter directly. Support for two other integrations is now available (see below). Support inverter brands is possible using the API described below. |
PV_Opt relies on solar forecasts data from Solcast. You can sign up for a Private User account here. This licence gives you 10 (it used to be 50 🙁) API calls a day.
- Install HACS: https://hacs.xyz/docs/setup/download
- Enable AppDaemon in HACS: https://hacs.xyz/docs/categories/appdaemon_apps/
- Install the integation via HACS: https://github.com/oziee/ha-solcast-solar
- Add the Integration via Settings: http://homeassistant.local:8123/config/integrations/dashboard
- Once installed configure using your Solcast API Key from (1) .
- Set up an automation to update according to your desired schedule. Once every 3 hours will work.
This excellent integration will pull Octopus Price data in to Home Assistant. Solar Opt pulls data from Octopus independently of this integration but will extract current tariff codes from it if they are avaiable. If not it will either use account details supplied in secrets.yaml or explicitly defined Octopus tariff codes set in config.yaml.
At present this app only works directly with Solis hybrid inverters using either the Solax Modbus integration (https://github.com/wills106/homeassistant-solax-modbus) or the HA Core Modbus as described here: https://github.com/fboundy/ha_solis_modbus. Support for the Solarman integration (https://github.com/StephanJoubert/home_assistant_solarman) is in test. At the moment writing to the inverter is disabled pending further testing by Solarman users.
- Install the integration via HACS: https://github.com/wills106/homeassistant-solax-modbus
- Add the Integration via Settings: http://homeassistant.local:8123/config/integrations/dashboard
- Configure the connection:
Prefix solis Interface TCP/Ethernet Inverter Type solis IP Address IP of your datalogger TCP Port 502 Protocol Modbus TCP - Check that you have comms with the inverter and the various entities in the integration are populated with data
Follow the Github instructions here: https://github.com/fboundy/ha_solis_modbus
Follow the Github instructions here: https://github.com/StephanJoubert/home_assistant_solarman
-
Click on the button below to add the MQTT integration:
-
Click the Home Assistant My button below to open the add-on on your Home Assistant instance:
-
Click on Install
-
Configure the Add-On as per the documentation: http://homeassistant.local:8123/hassio/addon/core_mosquitto/documentation
-
Either save the MQTT username and password in your
secrets.yamlfile or make a note of them for later.
Both of these add-ons make it easier to edit text files on your HA Install but aren't strictly necessary. Samba Share also makes it easier to access the AppDaemon log files.
The PV_Opt python script currently runs under AppDaemon.
AppDaemon is a loosely coupled, multi-threaded, sandboxed python execution environment for writing automation apps for home automation projects, and any environment that requires a robust event driven architecture. The simplest way to install it on Home Assistantt is using the dedicated add-on:
-
Click the Home Assistant My button below to open the add-on on your Home Assistant instance:
-
Click on Install
-
Turn on Auto update
-
Use
File Editor(or one of the alternatives) to open/addon_configs/a0d7b954_appdaemon/appdaemon.yaml. -
The suggested configuration is as follows. This assumes that you are using
secrets.yamlfor your password information. If not then thesecretsentry can be deleted and theMQTTclient_userandclient passwordwill need to be entered explicitly.secrets: /homeassistant/secrets.yaml appdaemon: latitude: 54.729 longitude: -2.991 elevation: 175 time_zone: Europe/London thread_duration_warning_threshold: 45 app_dir: /homeassistant/appdaemon/apps plugins: HASS: type: hass MQTT: type: mqtt namespace: mqtt # verbose: True client_host: core-mosquitto client_port: 1883 client_id: localad event_name: MQTT_MESSAGE client_topics: NONE client_user: !secret mqtt-user client_password: !secret mqtt-password http: url: http://127.0.0.1:5050 admin: api: hadashboard: -
It is also recommended that you add the following entries to
appdaemon.yamlto improve AppDaemon logging. These settings assume that you have a/share/logsfolder setup usingSamba Share.logs: main_log: filename: /share/logs/main.log date_format: '%H:%M:%S' error_log: filename: /share/logs/error.log date_format: '%H:%M:%S' pv_opt_log: name: PV_Opt filename: /share/logs/pv_opt.log date_format: '%H:%M:%S' format: '{asctime} {levelname:>8s}: {message}' -
Open the AppDaemon Add-On via Settings: http://homeassistant.local:8123/hassio/addon/a0d7b954_appdaemon/info
-
Click on Configuration at the top
-
Click the 3 dots and Edit in YAML to add
pandasandnumpyas Python packages. Note thatnumpyhas to be set to version1.26.4due to an unresolved compatability issue between Home Assistant and2.0.0:init_commands: [] python_packages: - pandas - numpy==1.26.4 system_packages: [] -
Go back to the Info page and click on Start
-
Click on Log. Appdaemon will download and install numpy and pandas. Click on Refresh until you see:
s6-rc: info: service init-appdaemon successfully started s6-rc: info: service appdaemon: starting s6-rc: info: service appdaemon successfully started s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: starting [12:54:30] INFO: Starting AppDaemon... s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully started -
Either click on
Infofollowed byOPEN WEB UIand thenLogsor open yourmain_logfile from the location specified in step (3) above. You should see:13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: AppDaemon Version 4.4.2 starting 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Python version is 3.11.6 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Configuration read from: /config/appdaemon.yaml 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: AppDaemon 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: Error 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: Access 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: Diag 13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: PV_Opt 13:16:25 INFO AppDaemon: Loading Plugin HASS using class HassPlugin from module hassplugin 13:16:25 INFO HASS: HASS Plugin Initializing 13:16:25 WARNING HASS: ha_url not found in HASS configuration - module not initialized 13:16:25 INFO HASS: HASS Plugin initialization complete 13:16:25 INFO AppDaemon: Loading Plugin MQTT using class MqttPlugin from module mqttplugin 13:16:26 INFO MQTT: MQTT Plugin Initializing 13:16:26 INFO MQTT: Using 'localad/status' as Will Topic 13:16:26 INFO MQTT: Using 'localad/status' as Birth Topic 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Initializing HTTP 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Using 'ws' for event stream 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting API 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting Admin Interface 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting Dashboards 13:16:26 INFO HASS: Connected to Home Assistant 2023.11.1 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting Apps with 0 workers and 0 pins 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Running on port 5050 13:16:26 INFO MQTT: Connected to Broker at URL core-mosquitto:1883 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Got initial state from namespace mqtt 13:16:26 INFO MQTT: MQTT Plugin initialization complete 13:16:26 INFO HASS: Evaluating startup conditions 13:16:26 INFO HASS: Startup condition met: hass state=RUNNING 13:16:26 INFO HASS: All startup conditions met 13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Got initial state from namespace default 13:16:28 INFO AppDaemon: Scheduler running in realtime 13:16:28 INFO AppDaemon: Adding /homeassistant/appdaemon/apps to module import path 13:16:28 INFO AppDaemon: App initialization complete
That's it. AppDaemon is up and running. There is futher documentation for the on the Add-on and for AppDaemon
- Make sure HACS "Enable AppDaemon apps discovery & tracking" is enabled - under integrations in HA https://hacs.xyz/docs/categories/appdaemon_apps/
- Go to HACS
- Select
Automation - Click on the 3 dots top right and
Add Custom Repository - Add this repository https://github.com/fboundy/pv_opt and select
AppDaemonas theCategory - Download the app
Once downloaded AppDaemon should see the app and attempt to load it using the default configuration. Go back to the AppDaemon logs and this time open pv_opt_log. You should see:
16:53:23 INFO: ******************* PV Opt v3.0.1 *******************
16:53:23 INFO:
16:53:23 INFO: Time Zone Offset: 0.0 minutes
16:53:23 INFO: Reading arguments from YAML:
16:53:23 INFO: -----------------------------------
16:53:23 INFO:
16:53:23 INFO: Checking config:
16:53:23 INFO: -----------------------
16:53:23 WARNING: forced_charge = True Source: system default. Not in YAML.
16:53:23 WARNING: forced_discharge = True Source: system default. Not in YAML.
16:53:23 WARNING: read_only = True Source: system default. Not in YAML.
Restarts between Home Assistant and Add-Ons are not synchronised so it is helpful to set up an Automation to restart AppDAemon if HA is restarted. An example is shown below and included in this repo as ha_restart_automation.yaml. The wait_template section ensures that key integrations (in this case Solcast and Solax) have numeric values before AppDaemon is started.
alias: Restart AppDaemon on HA Restart
description: ""
trigger:
- event: start
platform: homeassistant
condition: []
action:
- service: hassio.addon_stop
data:
addon: a0d7b954_appdaemon
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: 1
seconds: 0
milliseconds: 0
- wait_template: >
{{(states('sensor.solcast_pv_forecast_forecast_today')| float(-1)>0) and
(states('sensor.solis_battery_soc')| float(-1)>0)}}
continue_on_timeout: true
- service: hassio.addon_start
data:
addon: a0d7b954_appdaemon
mode: single
If you have the Solcast, Octopus and Solax integrations set up as specified above, there should be minimal configuration required.
If you are running a different integration or inverter brand you will need to edit the config.yaml file to select the correct inverter_type. You may also need to change the device_name. This is the name given to your inverter by your integration. The default is solis but this can also be changed in config.yaml.
inverter_type: SOLIS_CORE_MODBUS
device_name: solis
The config.yaml file also includes all the other configuration used by PV Opt. If you are using the default setup you shouldn't need to change this but you can edit anything by un-commenting the relevant line in the file. The configuration is grouped by inverter/integration and should be self-explanatory. Once PV Opt is installed the config is stored within entities in Home Assistant. It you want these over-ritten please ensure that overwrite_ha_on_restart is set to true:
overwrite_ha_on_restart: true
PV_Opt needs to know the size of your battery and the power of your inverter: both when inverting battery to AC power and when chargingh tha battery. It will attempt to work these out from the data it has loaded (WIP) but you should check the following enitities in Home Assistant:
| Parameter | Units | Entity | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Capacity | Wh | number.pvopt_batter_capacity_wh |
10000 |
| Inverter Power | W | number.pvopt_inverter_power_watts |
3600 |
| Charger Power | W | number.pvopt_charger_power_watts |
3500 |
| Inverter Efficiency | % | number.pvopt_inverter_efficiency |
97% |
| Charger Efficiency | % | number.pvopt_charger_efficiency |
91% |
There are then only a few things to control the optimisation process. These have been grouped as follows:
These are the main parameters that will control how PV Opt runs:| Parameter | Units | Entity | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read Only Mode | on/off |
switch.pvopt_read_only |
On | Controls whether the app will actually control the inverter. Start with this on until you are happy the charge/discharge plan makes sense. |
| Optimise Charging | on/off |
switch.pvopt_forced_charge |
On | Controls whether the app will calculate an Optimised plan. If off only the Base forecast will be updated. |
| Optimise Discharging | on/off |
switch.pvopt_forced_discharge |
On | Controls whether the app will allow for forced discharge as well as charge |
| Allow Cyclic | on/off |
switch.pvopt_allow_cyclic |
On | Controls whether the app will allow cycles of alternating charge/discharge |
| Use Solar | on/off |
switch.pvopt_use_solar |
On | Controls whether the app will use the Solcast solar forecast. If set to Off no solar will be used but battery charging can still be optimised for a time-of use tariff. |
| Solcast Confidence Level | number |
number.pvopt_solcast_confidence_level |
Solcast | Selects which the Confidence Level for the Solcast forecast. Levels between 10% and 50% are weighted from the Solcast 10% and 50% forecasts. Levels between 50% and 90% are weighted from the Solcast 50% and 10% forecasts. |
| Optimser Frequency | minutes | number.pvopt_optimise_frequency_minutes |
10 | Frequency of Optimiser calculation |
| Parameter | Units | Entity | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use Consumption History | on/off |
switch.pvopt_use_consumption_history |
On | Toggles whether to use actual consumption history or an estimated daily consumption |
| Consumption History Parameters | ||||
| Load History Days | days | number.pvopt_consumption_history_days |
7 | Number of days of consumption history to use when predicting future load |
| Load Margin | % | number.pvopt_consumption_margin |
10% | Margin to add to historic load for forecast (safety factor) |
| Weekday Weighting | fraction | number.pvopt_day_of_week_weighting |
0.5 | Defines how much weighting to give to the day of the week when averaging the load. 0.0 will use the simple average of the last n days based on load_history_days and 1.0 will just used the same day of the week within that window. Values inbetween will weight the estimate accordingly. If every day is the same use a low number. If your usage varies daily use a high number. |
| Daily Consumption Parameters | ||||
| Daily Consumption | kWh | number.pvopt_daily_consumption_kwh |
17 | Estimated daily consumption to use when predicting future load |
| Shape Consumption Profile | on/off |
switch.pvopt_shape_consumption_profile |
On | Defines whether to shapoe the consumption to a typical daily profile (on) or to assume constant usage (off) |
| Parameter | Units | Entity | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pass threshold | % | number.pvopt_pass_throshold_p |
4p | The incremental cost saving that each iteration of the optimiser needs to show to be included. Reducing the threshold may marginally reduce the predicted cost but have more marginal charge windows. |
| Discharge threshold | % | number.pvopt_discharge_throshold_p |
5p | The incremental cost saving that each iteration of the discharge optimiser needs to show to be included. Reducing the threshold may marginally reduce the predicted cost but have more marginal discharge windows. |
| Slot threshold | % | number.pvopt_slop_throshold_p |
1p | The incremental cost saving that each 30 minute slot of the optimiser needs to show to be included. Reducing the threshold may marginally reduce the predicted cost but have more marginal charge/discharge windows. |
| Power Resolution | W | number.pvopt_forced_power_group_tolerance |
100 | The resolution at which forced charging / discharging is reported. Changing this will change the reporting of the charge plan but not the actual detail of it. |
id_daily_solar: sensor.{device_name}_power_generation_today
alt_tariffs:
- name: Agile_Fix
octopus_import_tariff_code: E-1R-AGILE-23-12-06-G
octopus_export_tariff_code: E-1R-OUTGOING-FIX-12M-19-05-13-G
- name: Eco7_Fix
octopus_import_tariff_code: E-2R-VAR-22-11-01-G
octopus_export_tariff_code: E-1R-OUTGOING-FIX-12M-19-05-13-G
- name: Flux
octopus_import_tariff_code: E-1R-FLUX-IMPORT-23-02-14-G
octopus_export_tariff_code: E-1R-FLUX-EXPORT-23-02-14-G
In this example three alternatives are tested. For each tariff pair the Base and Optimised net cost for yesterday are calculated and saved to an entity called sensor.pvopt_opt_cost_name. The state of this entity is the optimised cost and the base cost is saved as the net_base attribute.
The app always produces a Base forecast of future battery SOC and the associated grid flow based on the forecast solar performance, the expected consumption and prices with no forced charging or discharging from the grid.. The total cost for today and tomorrow is written to sensor.pvopt_base_cost and the associated SOC vs time is written to the attributes of this entity allowing it to be graphes using apex-charts.
If Optimise Charging is enabled, an optimsised charging plan is calculated and writtemt to sensor.pvopt_opt_cost. This will also include a list of forced charge and discharge windows.
The easiest way to control and visualise this is through the pvopt_dashboard.yaml Lovelace yaml file included in this repo. Note that you will need to manually paste this into a dashboard and edit the charts to use the correct Octopus Energy sensors:
This dashboards uses a couple of template sensors and time which will need adding to /homeassistant/configuration.yaml:
template:
- sensor:
- name: "Solis Grid Export Power"
unique_id: solis_grid_export_power
unit_of_measurement: W
device_class: power
state_class: measurement
state: >-
{{max(states('sensor.solis_meter_active_power') | float(0),0)}}
- name: "Solis Grid Import Power"
unique_id: solis_grid_import_power
unit_of_measurement: W
device_class: power
state_class: measurement
state: >-
{{max(-(states('sensor.solis_meter_active_power') | float(0)),0)}}
sensor:
- platform: time_date
display_options:
- 'time'
- 'date'
- 'date_time'
- 'date_time_utc'
- 'date_time_iso'
The dashboards also depend on the following Frontend components from HACS:
- template-entity-row
- bar-card
- card-mod
- Stack In Card
- layout-card
- apexcharts-card
PV Opt is designed to be pluggable. A simple API is used to control inverters. This is defined as follows:
Each inverter type is defined by a string in the config.yaml file. This should be of the format: BRAND_INTEGRATION for example SOLIS_SOLAX_MODBUS.
PV Opt expects one module per inverter brand named brand.py which includes drives for all integrations/models associated with that brand. For example solis.py includes the drivers for SOLIS_SOLAX_MODBUS, SOLIS_CORE_MODBUS and SOLIS_SOLARMAN
Each module exposes the following:
The module exposes a single class InverterController(inverter_type, host). The two required initialisation parameters are:
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
inverter_type |
str |
The inverter_type string from the config.yaml file |
host |
PVOpt |
The instance of PV Opt that has instantiated the inverter class. This allows the class to, for instance, write to the main log file simply be setting self.log=host.log and then calling self.log() |
The InverterController class must expose the following:
| Attribute | Key | Type | Description | Example from SOLIS_SOLAX_MODBUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
.config |
dict |
This dict contains all the names of all the entities that PV Opt requires to run plus a few other parameters that are common to all inverters. Some entries must be an entity_id: keys for these itesms start with id_. Others may be enitity_ids or numbers. entity_ids should ideally include {device_name} to allow for the subsititution of a defined device name where appropriate. |
||
maximum_dod_percent |
str / int |
Maximum depth of discharge - nay be an entity_id or a number | number.{device_name}_battery_minimum_soc |
|
update_cycle_seconds |
int |
Time in seconds between HA updates | 15 | |
supports_hold_soc |
bool |
Flags whether the integration supports holding a fixed SOC | true |
|
id_battery_soc |
str |
entity_id of Battery State of Charge |
number.{device_name}_battery_soc |
|
id_consumption_today |
str |
entity_id of Daily Consumption Total |
sensor.{device_name}_house_load_today |
|
id_grid_import_today |
str |
entity_id of Daily Grid Import Total |
sensor.{device_name}_grid_import_today |
|
id_grid_export_today |
str |
entity_id of Daily Grid Export Total |
sensor.{device_name}_grid_export_today |
|
.brand_config |
dict |
This dict contains all the names of all the entities that this brand/integration requires. These are only exposed for logging purposes and to allow the plug-in to use methods from the main app that use query entity_ids such as .get_config(entity_id) . A limited number of examples are given as this will vary for each plug-in. |
||
battery_voltage |
str / int |
Battery voltage for converting power to current - nay be an entity_id or a number | sensor.{device_name}_battery_voltage |
|
id_timed_charge_start_hours |
str |
entity_id of Timed Charge Start Hours |
number.{device_name}_timed_charge_start_hours |
|
id_timed_charge_start_minutes |
str |
entity_id of Timed Charge Start Minutes |
number.{device_name}_timed_charge_start_minutes |
|
id_timed_charge_end_hours |
str |
entity_id of Timed Charge End Hours |
number.{device_name}_timed_charge_end_hours |
|
id_timed_charge_end_minutes |
str |
entity_id of Timed Charge End Minutes |
number.{device_name}_timed_charge_end_minutes |
|
id_timed_charge_current |
str |
entity_id of Timed Charge Current |
number.{device_name}_timed_charge_current |
|
.status |
dict |
This dict reports the current status of the inverter | ||
charge |
dict |
Dict of the Timed Charge Status with the following keys: active: bool, start: datetime, end: datetime, power: float |
||
discharge |
dict |
Dict of the Timed Discharge Status with the following keys: active: bool, start: datetime, end: datetime, power: float |
||
hold_soc |
dict |
Dict of the Hold_SOC Status with the following keys: active: bool, soc: int |
The InverterController class must expose the following:
| Method | Parameters | Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
.enable_timed_mode() |
- | None |
Switches the inverter mode to support timed changing and discharging |
.control_charge() |
enable: bool |
None |
Enable or disable timed charging |
start: datetime, optional |
Start time of timed slot (default = don't set start) | ||
end: datetime, optional |
End time of timed slot (default = don't set end) | ||
power: float, optional |
Maximum power of timed slot (default = don't set power) | ||
.control_discharge() |
enable: bool |
None |
Enable or disable timed discharging |
start: datetime, optional |
Start time of timed slot (default = don't set start) | ||
end: datetime, optional |
End time of timed slot (default = don't set end) | ||
power: float, optional |
Maximum power of timed slot (default = don't set power) | ||
.hold_soc() |
soc |
None |
Switch inverter mode to hold specified SOC (if supported) |
The following methods may be useful for the inverter to call. If self.host is initialised to host they can be called using self.host.method(). As PV Opt is a sub-class of hass.HASS it includes all the AppDAemon methods listed here: https://appdaemon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/AD_API_REFERENCE.html
| Method | Parameters | Returns / Decsription |
|---|---|---|
self.host.log |
string |
Write string to the log file. |
level: str, optional |
Optionally set the error level (default = INFO) |
|
self.host.get_state() |
entity_id |
Home Assitant state of the entity |
attributes: str, optional |
If attributes is set the attribute rather than the state is returned. If attribute is set to all a dict of all attributes is returned. |
|
self.host.set_state() |
state |
Set the Home Assitant state of the entity and optionally the attributes. Returns a dict of the new state |
entity_id: str |
||
attributes: dict, optional |
||
self.host.entity_exists() |
entity_id: str |
bool that confirms whether an entity exists in Home Assistant |
self.host.call_service() |
service: str |
Call service in Home Assistant |
data: dict, optional |
Data to be supplied to the service e.g. for writing to the Solis Modbus registers: data={"hub": "solis", "slave": 1, "address": 43011, "value": 15} |
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent