I've done similar, but added a step right at the end which disables the automation, which means that you don't need to remember to stop it running the next day!
Mine disables some of my “checking” automations, then discharge, then during the session charge the battery and kick the car off as well, before restarting my other automations at the end.
Another great video Oliver and timely too as I have just received an email about a free session tomorrow. Just on the car charging point, when the last session happened, I noticed the Octopus Intelligent scheduled the charge slot to match the free session...which was nice.
Yes it happened last time but not the times before that so we're not certain whether it's a reliable way of doing that yet. It also would only work for IOG customers but I'm sure more efficient ways of doing this for everyone will emerge if it becomes a permanent event.
Hi, Interesting to see your approach. I live in the south east so I get Octopus power ups quite frequently and they can be of varying length. I used a slightly different approach of creating calendars for each event length. I then have automation and scripts that trigger on the calendar events so no need to worry about forgetting to switch anything on or off. I then set my Zappi to charge, heat pump to heat hot water, and Victron inverter to charge. I also added some logic that checks the battery SOC one hour before the event. If the SOC is above 90% it dumps power to the grid for an hour before the power up. I may have to have a look to see if there is an easy way to create the calendar events from the emails as well.
A few people have mentioned they use calendars. I considered that approach but thought this was a simpler idea for the majority. Nothing wrong with the calendar approach though!
@Nervousfrog101 i would be interested in this approach as i too have a victron system and have added the Victron add on to HA are you able to share as i have been doing this through node red and have got caught out already when the automation ran the next day which wasn't a power up session :(
@@DTech101 My way is not necessarily the most code-efficient way. Step 1: I created calendars for each duration event. Step 2: I created an automation that triggers on an event in each calendar that then triggers an associated script. Stage 3: Create the script. I use an action ‘Modbus: Write register’ to set register 2901 to 1000 and have a 2.5 hour delay then set register 2901 back to 100. This sets the minimum SOC to 100% and then to 10% I do lots of other stuff like trigger a hot water cycle on my heat pump and set the Zappi to fast charge.
One tweak I would make is to have the "reset" actions happen in a different automation once the session has ended (incase you deicde to restart Home Assistant while it's running). You could do this by starting a timer helper in the "start" automation and then using the finished event of the timer as a trigger for the "end" automation. Cheers!
Yup, many tweaks that could be made to this. My method is intended to be purely a very simple way of automating the sessions which is especially suited to beginners and can help them learn how automations work. It can of course be made as complicated as you wish.
Local calendar works well as the trigger which you can also use with an offset to discharge your battery ahead of the session if you need some SOC headspace.
My automation uses the local calendar too. Being able to schedule well in advance makes more sense. In addition I think most people are familiar with calendars so the WAF is high 😉 Good to see other approaches though; I've got separate start and end automations but I'll be using the delay to roll into a single script 🤓
I haven't actually played with those execution modes yet. I am nervous about parallel actions when GivTCP 2.x is involved, but I'm guessing 3 should be better... that's going to be running on the test Pi for a week at least first though!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Sure, basically the AIO set programmed as a do in sequence as you have already. Build a 2nd one for AC3. Then run these 2 run in sequence drag into a do in parallel box. So the 2 strings run together. Can also do in parallel the EVC and hot water. Does the same job, but look neater and may actually run faster. In one long string, you might end up wasting time, only a few seconds, but it all helps. Also 5s delay is fine
Great automation - thank you for sharing! I added a switch at the start of mine to disable Predbat, and at the end to enable it again otherwise I'm not sure the force charge battery will be held, it might just reset at the next Predbat plan refresh.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I've just done that too as it started to hurt my head trying to figure out how to force export the battery before the session. I've now used the import rate override in apps.yaml changing the rate to 0 for the duration of the session, and using your automation to force charge my car (Ohme max charge entity) and run the heat pump to heat my hot water.
I found link on Predbat that used rates_import_override which has worked for me. But I use this (Thanks) for heating my hot water and then I disable the automation at the end via the Automation itself. I need to automate adding the rate info to apps yaml for Predbat!
I have something similar for PowerUps but use the calendar function. I have a powerup calendar and a saving sessions calendar. Setting up ahead of time is probably the only advantage, although more than 24hrs notice is unlikely to happen. Also don't need to remember to switch the automation off which I would definitely do!
Yeah, turning it off afterwards is a big thing to remember! But I figured it would be top of most people's minds with all of the excitement around the session!
absolutely awesome, very usefull, set it to do my immersion heate :) Plus, I've learnt a lot about how to configure home assistant by doing this. BIG Thank you
Thanks this is interesting, I was looking to do something like this but the closest thing i have to a battery bank is the UPS on my servers. Was looking to shut off power to it before the Session then charge it back up during.
If it's a typical consumer UPS then you're unlikely to get much energy into it really, I'd suggest you'd do more damage and wear to the lead-acid batteries in them than you would ever get in the free energy used to charge it. I think your average UPS is less than 0.5kWh, meaning you'd be adding a lot of wear to the battery for the sake of 12p or so maximum...
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Its a little more chunky a APC SUA2200xl, I just upgraded from a 1k one. Currently trying to find where i stashed all the USB cables so i can start monitoring it and I would quite like to link it to HA if i can find a way too. I haven't found a HA integration yet for it but there at least should be some way to get it's stats in the MQTT (I Hope)
I have a question here regarding tariffs (Peak/Off-Peak). If we start importing lots of electricity during peak and off-peak periods, I would have thought that Home Assistant will be logging this as 'paid for' electricity and so the numbers will be off in the Energy card. So do we need to create a separate 'free tariff' to cover for this? Nice work by the way and I will be using it tomorrow between 1 and 2pm.
Correct, Home Assistant will record this as peak energy usage. To get around this, add a third tariff to your utility meter called 'free' and use my automation in this video guide to toggle the tariff to free when it starts and back to peak when it ends, the same as you'd do in my peak/off-peak automations.
Hi - many thanks for your videos - so helpful. Got a question on force changing the GivEnergy battery. I see the Force Change set to X (60 mins for example) is this all I need to do? no need to change mode? Eg the whole house is running from the grid too? Or do I need to pause eco mode (a option in can see via GivTCP)? To added I have a GIV-HY3.6 Inverter
Yup in most cases that’s all you need to do, force charge and it should go back to eco afterwards on its own. There isn’t full consistency of behaviour between inverters unfortunately so you won’t via for certain until you try it!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Hi - many thanks for getting back - I can confirm just the GivEnergy Force control option - then used the yaml edit to add the duration from the helper was all that was needed.
Another very useful and informative video, thank you. It has left me a little confused though as you seem to have found a way to import the free excess energy during these sessions but how is it possible to import energy while you are also exporting solar generation at the same time? I assumed if you are exporting then any consumption comes from this before being pulled from the grid. I am starting my journey having solar recently installed and may soon have batteries added. If i can charge them during a free session and still export my generation then that adds into the justification. Or is it that perhaps you are generating, say, 6kw but your house demand jumps to 20kw so you are importing 14kw. Could you please clarify this for me 😊
You cannot import and export at the same time. If my solar panels are generating, my home will use that power first before importing the extra that it needs. All I'm doing in these sessions is increasing my demand as much as I can - anything over and above what my solar panels are generating is drawn from the grid. Imagine your energy supply like a water pipe, it can't flow in both directions at the same time. You are either drawing from the grid, or you are exporting. Well, you can be doing neither actually if your solar and batteries are meeting your exact requirements!
Thank you. That was my understanding but watching the video this wasn't clear and made me wonder if there was an extra opportunity. Your automation makes perfect sense to still maximise savings by importing as much as you can because your 'normal usage' will most likely be zero. Thanks again 👍
Hey, Love the videos. Ive hunted for this answer and tried using chatgpt but struggling to find the right sensor/service. Im on a flux taffif what what im trying to find is how to automate turning on eco mode. So lets say at 3pm i want it to charge to 40soc if its below this percent then once it reaches 40 it triggers eco mode on so carrys on using the battery. Then between 4-7 if percent is over 40soc discharge. Once 40 is hit again turn on eco so carrys on using the battery rather than the grid. Noticed the battery goes idel if a time frame is set.
What you're asking sounds totally possible, but I suggest joining the GivTCP Facebook group where you can ask your question to a wide audience of people ready to help you.
Thanks, that's very helpful. Could you explain the "\" in {{states(\"input_select.xxxxxx\" | int }} for the delay. I'm learning automations but I've not come across this before.
I use something similar for the power up events, except I have date, start and end time helpers then in the automation which triggers on the start time every day I check the date matches, cancelling the automation if it doesn’t. This means I can setup ahead of time and not have to worry about it. I have a shell script that writes the session details into predbat which manages my battery discharging and charging for me. On the Octopus Integration discussion on these free sessions there’s a useful API that scrapes the Octopus emails and provides the free electricity & power session details via REST to Home Assistant. But despite all that usefulness, since I don’t have an EV, on most sunny days its not worth taking advantage of the free electricity as my solar panels are generating more electricity than I can charge into my batteries. First world problems ….
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech The shell script was the only reliable way I could find of writing precisely formatted YAML onto the end of the Predbat configuration file for the power up session details. Would have much preferred to write directly to the config file via another method !
When I saw the title for this video I was hoping you had figured out how to scrape the email from Octopus Energy and automatically import the start date and time and session length. I am pretty sure it should be possible. I just haven't had the time to sit down and try and work out how.
Someone has already done that if you fancy implementing something a bit more complex: github.com/DJBenson/ha-stuff/blob/main/homeassistant/free_electricity.md?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR28EZa7TY5w2tanhQiHDY5tX82KeFMLAIMeJoUBll-snpRZpLLC-KcB4ps_aem_gSCe88KvdPom7OzDymNfog
Yup, I put it in Powerful mode which heats to 48. I could fiddle with set points at take it up to 60 if I wanted but that's more effort and more to go wrong!
You’d be better contacting Octopus about that rather than me. They can confirm if you are signed up. It also shows you in the app when a session is due.
I have this message in the 'Delay' config after the lastest core update I think: Visual editor is not supported for this configuration Templates not supported in visual editor You can still edit your config in YAML. Anyone elsegot this and what fix did you apply.
That’s normal and correct if you have pasted my template code into the ‘delay’ section of the automation. The user interface can’t display it so you have to view that section as YAML
"Plasma cannon or full sized trainset" 🤣🤣🤣 Out of interest how do you find your GivEnergy EV charger? Good to know it supports automation via HA. I'm tempted but without IOG support, I'd have to move to a less competitive tariff. ...unless of course you've figured out a way to get it going with IOG?
I find the GivEnergy charger absolutely great. I use their web API to control it (there's another video on my channel with a guide on that) because the local control is still unreliable for me (it freezes the charger and I have to power cycle it). In terms of reliability though I just mostly leave it be with a schedule set for off-peak and it does its thing. Occasionally I use the advanced solar divert or daytime manual charging but that's rare. It works when I need it though. The app is a bit clunky - you have to tap on too many things to get to the actual control of the charger in my opinion, but it all works. Yes, IOG is a problem, it's been coming soon for over a year now I think. It's sitting in Octopus's queue and GivEnergy are regularly chasing them for progress.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech many thanks - just went back and watched your original preview/review. As a GivEnergy battery and inverter owner, this all sounds quite familiar - solid HW let down a bit by the SW. As a fellow app developer, I find the app a bit frustrating for day-to-day use too - also quite buggy and doesn't feel like a native app. I want the charger/battery integration, but I also kind of feel a bit reluctant to invest further in the ecosystem. In fairness GE did eventually fix the initial SOC issues my battery had (charge level suddenly collapsing from ~50% to zero) but it took long enough that I lost confidence. I'm toying with the idea of switching to Agile both for import and export, especially if 15p export goes away. At which point the lack of IOG support becomes a moot point.
Thanks so much for the heads-up, a blur is being rolled out right now so hopefully it won't be long. I guess I'll be changing my address then! I'm normally careful catching these things, can't believe I missed this one!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech the address you revealed is not your external IP address so what you revealed shouldn’t be a problem unless there’s a hacker outside your home who has obtained your Wi-Fi password or someone has hacked your firewall. But, yes, it’s probably best to conceal the address anyway. 🙂
First fre session today, thank you for the automation! I tried but unfortunately it stopped so did not get a chance to fully test it. Error: Error rendering data template: ValueError: Template error: int got invalid input 'unknown' when rendering template '{{ states("input_select.free_electricity_session_length") | int }}' but no default was specified
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech input_select.free_electricity_session_lenght in Developer Tools ' States returns the correct value but as template it does not. If I go to Developer Tools ' Template and paste it there it says: TemplateSyntaxError: unexpected char '\\' at 11
It won't work in dev tools templates panel, that interface doesn't like escaped slashes. You have to use single quotes inside: "{{ states('input_select.free_power_session_length') | int }}"
I've done similar, but added a step right at the end which disables the automation, which means that you don't need to remember to stop it running the next day!
Self terminating… I shall test that out!
Mine disables some of my “checking” automations, then discharge, then during the session charge the battery and kick the car off as well, before restarting my other automations at the end.
Great idea, added to my automation now too!
I’ve done exactly the same and it works perfectly, just for reference here is my script. Note that I also added Alexa announcements for the start and finish just in case you wanted to do any cooking or something like that.
The additional line at the end looks like this:
- action: automation.turn_off
metadata: {}
data:
stop_actions: true
target:
entity_id: automation.octopus_free_electricity
mode: single
The entire script:
alias: Octopus Free Electricity
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: time
at: input_datetime.free_electricity_start_time
condition: []
action:
- action: switch.turn_on
metadata: {}
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.hot_water
- data:
value: "100"
target:
entity_id: number.home_energy_gateway_backup_reserve
action: number.set_value
- data:
preset_mode: comfort
target:
entity_id:
- climate.dining_hall_climate
- climate.landing_climate
- climate.master_ensuite_climate
action: climate.set_preset_mode
- data:
message: Octopus free electricity starts now. Fill your boots!
data:
type: tts
action: notify.alexa_media_echo_show_8
- delay:
hours: 0
minutes: "{{ states(\"input_select.free_electricity_session_length\") | int }}"
seconds: 0
milliseconds: 0
- action: switch.turn_off
metadata: {}
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.hot_water
- data:
value: "10"
target:
entity_id: number.home_energy_gateway_backup_reserve
action: number.set_value
- data:
preset_mode: building_protection
target:
entity_id:
- climate.dining_hall_climate
- climate.landing_climate
- climate.master_ensuite_climate
- climate.family_bathroom_climate
- climate.guest_ensuite_climate
action: climate.set_preset_mode
- data:
message: Octopus free electricity has ended. Switch everything off.
data:
type: tts
action: notify.alexa_media_echo_show_8
- action: automation.turn_off
metadata: {}
data:
stop_actions: true
target:
entity_id: automation.octopus_free_electricity
mode: single
Another great video Oliver and timely too as I have just received an email about a free session tomorrow. Just on the car charging point, when the last session happened, I noticed the Octopus Intelligent scheduled the charge slot to match the free session...which was nice.
Yes it happened last time but not the times before that so we're not certain whether it's a reliable way of doing that yet. It also would only work for IOG customers but I'm sure more efficient ways of doing this for everyone will emerge if it becomes a permanent event.
Hi, Interesting to see your approach.
I live in the south east so I get Octopus power ups quite frequently and they can be of varying length.
I used a slightly different approach of creating calendars for each event length.
I then have automation and scripts that trigger on the calendar events so no need to worry about forgetting to switch anything on or off.
I then set my Zappi to charge, heat pump to heat hot water, and Victron inverter to charge.
I also added some logic that checks the battery SOC one hour before the event.
If the SOC is above 90% it dumps power to the grid for an hour before the power up.
I may have to have a look to see if there is an easy way to create the calendar events from the emails as well.
A few people have mentioned they use calendars. I considered that approach but thought this was a simpler idea for the majority. Nothing wrong with the calendar approach though!
@Nervousfrog101 i would be interested in this approach as i too have a victron system and have added the Victron add on to HA are you able to share as i have been doing this through node red and have got caught out already when the automation ran the next day which wasn't a power up session :(
@@DTech101 My way is not necessarily the most code-efficient way.
Step 1: I created calendars for each duration event.
Step 2: I created an automation that triggers on an event in each calendar that then triggers an associated script.
Stage 3: Create the script. I use an action ‘Modbus: Write register’ to set register 2901 to 1000 and have a 2.5 hour delay then set register 2901 back to 100.
This sets the minimum SOC to 100% and then to 10%
I do lots of other stuff like trigger a hot water cycle on my heat pump and set the Zappi to fast charge.
One tweak I would make is to have the "reset" actions happen in a different automation once the session has ended (incase you deicde to restart Home Assistant while it's running). You could do this by starting a timer helper in the "start" automation and then using the finished event of the timer as a trigger for the "end" automation. Cheers!
Yup, many tweaks that could be made to this. My method is intended to be purely a very simple way of automating the sessions which is especially suited to beginners and can help them learn how automations work. It can of course be made as complicated as you wish.
Local calendar works well as the trigger which you can also use with an offset to discharge your battery ahead of the session if you need some SOC headspace.
Nice. Yes an early discharge session can be useful but it’s difficult to make something generic that works for everyone
My automation uses the local calendar too. Being able to schedule well in advance makes more sense. In addition I think most people are familiar with calendars so the WAF is high 😉 Good to see other approaches though; I've got separate start and end automations but I'll be using the delay to roll into a single script 🤓
Brilliant, an example explained. Now i can start to do things once i have fixed something else on my system that is not working
There will always be something to fix in Home Assistant 😄
I did similar, but wrote them in sequential groups, to aid in reading them. Run in parrallel, and run in sequence are 2 new additions in the later HA
I haven't actually played with those execution modes yet. I am nervous about parallel actions when GivTCP 2.x is involved, but I'm guessing 3 should be better... that's going to be running on the test Pi for a week at least first though!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Sure, basically the AIO set programmed as a do in sequence as you have already. Build a 2nd one for AC3.
Then run these 2 run in sequence drag into a do in parallel box. So the 2 strings run together. Can also do in parallel the EVC and hot water.
Does the same job, but look neater and may actually run faster.
In one long string, you might end up wasting time, only a few seconds, but it all helps. Also 5s delay is fine
Great automation - thank you for sharing! I added a switch at the start of mine to disable Predbat, and at the end to enable it again otherwise I'm not sure the force charge battery will be held, it might just reset at the next Predbat plan refresh.
I’ve seen people tweaking Predbat to deal with it automatically, not sure how successful it was though!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I've just done that too as it started to hurt my head trying to figure out how to force export the battery before the session. I've now used the import rate override in apps.yaml changing the rate to 0 for the duration of the session, and using your automation to force charge my car (Ohme max charge entity) and run the heat pump to heat my hot water.
Update: have now used this as an alternative to disabling predbat th-cam.com/video/58QVoVhqvmI/w-d-xo.html
I found link on Predbat that used rates_import_override which has worked for me. But I use this (Thanks) for heating my hot water and then I disable the automation at the end via the Automation itself.
I need to automate adding the rate info to apps yaml for Predbat!
Thanks. Very useful. I wonder if they put trigger in their that toggles it on and off API.... Like they do for the saving sessions...
Hopefully they will put them in the API but it’s not there at the moment
I have something similar for PowerUps but use the calendar function. I have a powerup calendar and a saving sessions calendar. Setting up ahead of time is probably the only advantage, although more than 24hrs notice is unlikely to happen. Also don't need to remember to switch the automation off which I would definitely do!
Yeah, turning it off afterwards is a big thing to remember! But I figured it would be top of most people's minds with all of the excitement around the session!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech can be automated.
I’ve not looked at calendars though.
Thanks Oliver, excellent (as always 🙂)
No worries, I hope it’s useful!
absolutely awesome, very usefull, set it to do my immersion heate :)
Plus, I've learnt a lot about how to configure home assistant by doing this.
BIG Thank you
No worries at all, glad it was useful
Alright, you've captured my attention!
The clickbait writes itself :)
Thanks this is interesting, I was looking to do something like this but the closest thing i have to a battery bank is the UPS on my servers.
Was looking to shut off power to it before the Session then charge it back up during.
If it's a typical consumer UPS then you're unlikely to get much energy into it really, I'd suggest you'd do more damage and wear to the lead-acid batteries in them than you would ever get in the free energy used to charge it. I think your average UPS is less than 0.5kWh, meaning you'd be adding a lot of wear to the battery for the sake of 12p or so maximum...
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Its a little more chunky a APC SUA2200xl, I just upgraded from a 1k one.
Currently trying to find where i stashed all the USB cables so i can start monitoring it and I would quite like to link it to HA if i can find a way too.
I haven't found a HA integration yet for it but there at least should be some way to get it's stats in the MQTT (I Hope)
I have a question here regarding tariffs (Peak/Off-Peak). If we start importing lots of electricity during peak and off-peak periods, I would have thought that Home Assistant will be logging this as 'paid for' electricity and so the numbers will be off in the Energy card. So do we need to create a separate 'free tariff' to cover for this?
Nice work by the way and I will be using it tomorrow between 1 and 2pm.
Correct, Home Assistant will record this as peak energy usage. To get around this, add a third tariff to your utility meter called 'free' and use my automation in this video guide to toggle the tariff to free when it starts and back to peak when it ends, the same as you'd do in my peak/off-peak automations.
Hi - many thanks for your videos - so helpful. Got a question on force changing the GivEnergy battery. I see the Force Change set to X (60 mins for example) is this all I need to do? no need to change mode? Eg the whole house is running from the grid too? Or do I need to pause eco mode (a option in can see via GivTCP)? To added I have a GIV-HY3.6 Inverter
Yup in most cases that’s all you need to do, force charge and it should go back to eco afterwards on its own. There isn’t full consistency of behaviour between inverters unfortunately so you won’t via for certain until you try it!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Hi - many thanks for getting back - I can confirm just the GivEnergy Force control option - then used the yaml edit to add the duration from the helper was all that was needed.
Another very useful and informative video, thank you. It has left me a little confused though as you seem to have found a way to import the free excess energy during these sessions but how is it possible to import energy while you are also exporting solar generation at the same time? I assumed if you are exporting then any consumption comes from this before being pulled from the grid. I am starting my journey having solar recently installed and may soon have batteries added. If i can charge them during a free session and still export my generation then that adds into the justification.
Or is it that perhaps you are generating, say, 6kw but your house demand jumps to 20kw so you are importing 14kw. Could you please clarify this for me 😊
You cannot import and export at the same time. If my solar panels are generating, my home will use that power first before importing the extra that it needs. All I'm doing in these sessions is increasing my demand as much as I can - anything over and above what my solar panels are generating is drawn from the grid. Imagine your energy supply like a water pipe, it can't flow in both directions at the same time. You are either drawing from the grid, or you are exporting. Well, you can be doing neither actually if your solar and batteries are meeting your exact requirements!
Thank you. That was my understanding but watching the video this wasn't clear and made me wonder if there was an extra opportunity. Your automation makes perfect sense to still maximise savings by importing as much as you can because your 'normal usage' will most likely be zero. Thanks again 👍
Hey,
Love the videos. Ive hunted for this answer and tried using chatgpt but struggling to find the right sensor/service.
Im on a flux taffif what what im trying to find is how to automate turning on eco mode. So lets say at 3pm i want it to charge to 40soc if its below this percent then once it reaches 40 it triggers eco mode on so carrys on using the battery. Then between 4-7 if percent is over 40soc discharge. Once 40 is hit again turn on eco so carrys on using the battery rather than the grid. Noticed the battery goes idel if a time frame is set.
What you're asking sounds totally possible, but I suggest joining the GivTCP Facebook group where you can ask your question to a wide audience of people ready to help you.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thank you, I think I may have cracked it. Shall see today at 4pm
Speak to the Geek, awesome video
Thanks!
Thanks, that's very helpful. Could you explain the "\" in {{states(\"input_select.xxxxxx\" | int }} for the delay. I'm learning automations but I've not come across this before.
It escapes the proceeding character, so in this case it lets you put quotes within quotes.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks
I use something similar for the power up events, except I have date, start and end time helpers then in the automation which triggers on the start time every day I check the date matches, cancelling the automation if it doesn’t. This means I can setup ahead of time and not have to worry about it. I have a shell script that writes the session details into predbat which manages my battery discharging and charging for me.
On the Octopus Integration discussion on these free sessions there’s a useful API that scrapes the Octopus emails and provides the free electricity & power session details via REST to Home Assistant.
But despite all that usefulness, since I don’t have an EV, on most sunny days its not worth taking advantage of the free electricity as my solar panels are generating more electricity than I can charge into my batteries. First world problems ….
I tend to avoid putting out tutorials involving shell scripts... those comments can be difficult to helpfully reply to!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech
The shell script was the only reliable way I could find of writing precisely formatted YAML onto the end of the Predbat configuration file for the power up session details. Would have much preferred to write directly to the config file via another method !
When I saw the title for this video I was hoping you had figured out how to scrape the email from Octopus Energy and automatically import the start date and time and session length. I am pretty sure it should be possible. I just haven't had the time to sit down and try and work out how.
Someone has already done that if you fancy implementing something a bit more complex: github.com/DJBenson/ha-stuff/blob/main/homeassistant/free_electricity.md?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR28EZa7TY5w2tanhQiHDY5tX82KeFMLAIMeJoUBll-snpRZpLLC-KcB4ps_aem_gSCe88KvdPom7OzDymNfog
Are you using the Daikin API to boost the water, or ESPAltherma
I'm using the API, I don't have any control at all via ESPAltherma - that's purely for monitoring (I don't trust myself with those relays)
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I totally agree. I am not going to near the relays. I assume the API turns on the immersion.
Yup, I put it in Powerful mode which heats to 48. I could fiddle with set points at take it up to 60 if I wanted but that's more effort and more to go wrong!
How do I automate my electric chair?
You start by turning it off and on again...
I've had the email asking me to sign up for it, which i did. But i've never had an email giving me any scheduled times. 😢
You’d be better contacting Octopus about that rather than me. They can confirm if you are signed up. It also shows you in the app when a session is due.
I have this message in the 'Delay' config after the lastest core update I think:
Visual editor is not supported for this configuration
Templates not supported in visual editor
You can still edit your config in YAML.
Anyone elsegot this and what fix did you apply.
That’s normal and correct if you have pasted my template code into the ‘delay’ section of the automation. The user interface can’t display it so you have to view that section as YAML
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech many thanks, not noticed it before 😊
Hopefully Bottlecapdave will be able to do this via the API like he did for the Saving Sessions
Hopefully just so long as Octopus publish them in the API. They haven't yet but I guess they will if this becomes a long term initiative.
"Plasma cannon or full sized trainset" 🤣🤣🤣
Out of interest how do you find your GivEnergy EV charger? Good to know it supports automation via HA. I'm tempted but without IOG support, I'd have to move to a less competitive tariff.
...unless of course you've figured out a way to get it going with IOG?
I find the GivEnergy charger absolutely great. I use their web API to control it (there's another video on my channel with a guide on that) because the local control is still unreliable for me (it freezes the charger and I have to power cycle it). In terms of reliability though I just mostly leave it be with a schedule set for off-peak and it does its thing. Occasionally I use the advanced solar divert or daytime manual charging but that's rare. It works when I need it though. The app is a bit clunky - you have to tap on too many things to get to the actual control of the charger in my opinion, but it all works. Yes, IOG is a problem, it's been coming soon for over a year now I think. It's sitting in Octopus's queue and GivEnergy are regularly chasing them for progress.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech many thanks - just went back and watched your original preview/review. As a GivEnergy battery and inverter owner, this all sounds quite familiar - solid HW let down a bit by the SW. As a fellow app developer, I find the app a bit frustrating for day-to-day use too - also quite buggy and doesn't feel like a native app. I want the charger/battery integration, but I also kind of feel a bit reluctant to invest further in the ecosystem. In fairness GE did eventually fix the initial SOC issues my battery had (charge level suddenly collapsing from ~50% to zero) but it took long enough that I lost confidence.
I'm toying with the idea of switching to Agile both for import and export, especially if 15p export goes away. At which point the lack of IOG support becomes a moot point.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech ah, I was having problems controlling the charger locally in HA too, so thanks for the pointer to the alternative.
But it’s going to finish late, after all those 15 second delays? 😮🤣
Yup, feel free to adjust the template formula calculating the delay to finish slightly earlier if you want!
Just so you're aware you revealed your DDNS address.. feel free to delete this post once you see it
Thanks so much for the heads-up, a blur is being rolled out right now so hopefully it won't be long. I guess I'll be changing my address then! I'm normally careful catching these things, can't believe I missed this one!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech the address you revealed is not your external IP address so what you revealed shouldn’t be a problem unless there’s a hacker outside your home who has obtained your Wi-Fi password or someone has hacked your firewall. But, yes, it’s probably best to conceal the address anyway. 🙂
Already censored the offending address bar! The local address of a test Pi is still visible in the video…
First fre session today, thank you for the automation! I tried but unfortunately it stopped so did not get a chance to fully test it. Error: Error rendering data template: ValueError: Template error: int got invalid input 'unknown' when rendering template '{{ states("input_select.free_electricity_session_length") | int }}' but no default was specified
Did your session length helper get that entity ID?
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Yes, copy paste from the website
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech input_select.free_electricity_session_lenght in Developer Tools ' States returns the correct value but as template it does not. If I go to Developer Tools ' Template and paste it there it says: TemplateSyntaxError: unexpected char '\\' at 11
You've spelled 'length' wrong, is that your actual entity name or just a copy paste error in this comment?
It won't work in dev tools templates panel, that interface doesn't like escaped slashes. You have to use single quotes inside: "{{ states('input_select.free_power_session_length') | int }}"