SolarDelta

Home Assistant custom integration that compares solar production with a device’s consumption and exposes percentage sensors per entry.

Highlights:

• Grid‑unaware coverage sensors (does not take into account other loads): use Solar and Device power only.
• Grid‑aware coverage sensors (takes into account other loads): additionally incorporate a Grid power sensor.
• Flexible grid inputs:
  • Single net grid power sensor (positive = export, negative = import), or
  • Separate positive‑only sensors for Import and Export (net = Export − Import; negatives are clamped to 0).
• Three persistent averages (session, year, lifetime) for both grid‑unaware and grid‑aware coverage.
• Per‑average gating: averages pause when required inputs are missing (unknown/unavailable).
  • Grid‑unaware requires Solar to be available.
  • Grid‑aware requires both Solar and Grid to be available (Grid = net or Import+Export).
  • Both also require Device power > 0 and status allowed.
• Immediate session reset: reacts instantly to Reset entity changes, even when a scan interval is configured.
• Rounding: values are shown with 1 decimal, except exact 0% or 100% (no decimals).
• Units (W vs kW) are normalized automatically.
• Negative values:
  • Solar/Device: negative readings are treated as 0.
  • Grid single sensor: negatives are allowed (import), positives allowed (export).
  • Grid separate sensors: both Import/Export are clamped to a minimum of 0, then net is Export − Import.

Use cases:

• Designed for solar coverage tracking (e.g., EV charging), but can be used for any device with measurable power draw.

Table of contents

• Highlights
• Use cases
• Sensors created per entry
• Configuration (via UI)
• Behavior
  • How it works
  • Grid semantics
  • Unknown/unavailable handling
• Average sensors (persistent)
  • Active duration attributes (on each average sensor)
• Services
• Changing settings later
• Installation
• License

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Sensors created per entry

Grid‑unaware (Solar + Device):

• solardelta {name} coverage
• solardelta {name} avg session
• solardelta {name} avg year
• solardelta {name} avg lifetime

Grid‑aware (Solar + Device + Grid):

• solardelta {name} coverage grid
• solardelta {name} avg session grid
• solardelta {name} avg year grid
• solardelta {name} avg lifetime grid

Notes:

• The two “coverage” sensors are non‑persistent (instant values).
• The six “avg …” sensors are persistent across restarts and updates.

Configuration (via UI)

Two‑step setup flow:

Step 1

• Name: a custom label; entities will be named “solardelta {name} …”.
• Use separate grid import/export sensors: checkbox
  • Off (default): you will select one net Grid power sensor in Step 2.
  • On: you will select two sensors (Import and Export) in Step 2.

Step 2 (fields shown depend on the checkbox)

• Solar power sensor: select your solar production sensor (sensor).
• If “separate grid sensors” is Off:
  • Grid power sensor: net grid, Positive = export, Negative = import (sensor).
• If “separate grid sensors” is On:
  • Grid import power sensor: positive‑only import (sensor).
  • Grid export power sensor: positive‑only export (sensor).
• Device power sensor: select your device’s consumption sensor (sensor).
• Status entity: an entity (sensor or binary_sensor) representing the device status.
• Status match: a string to match against the status entity’s state (case‑insensitive); “none” disables status checking.
• Reset entity: an entity (sensor or binary_sensor) that triggers a session‑average reset.
• Reset match: a string to match against the reset entity’s state (case‑insensitive).
• Scan interval (seconds): 0 = disabled (event‑driven only); > 0 adds periodic recalculation at the given interval.

Validation:

• If separate grid sensors are enabled, both Import and Export sensors are required.
• If disabled, the single net Grid sensor is required.

Behavior

How it works

• When EV (or other device) power consumption is detected and the device status matches the predefined status string (optional), computing coverage and averages starts.
• When EV power is 0W (or has a negative value) or status string does not match, computing stops.
• Push updates: listens to changes of Solar, Grid (net or separate), Device, Status, and Reset entities.
• Optional polling: if scan interval > 0, it also recalculates on that schedule.
• Session reset detection is immediate on Reset entity state changes, regardless of scan interval.

Grid semantics

• Single net Grid sensor: positive = export (sending to grid), negative = import (taking from grid).
• Separate sensors: the integration computes net grid internally as Export − Import (both inputs expected to be positive‑only, negatives are clamped to 0).
• Grid‑unaware coverage uses only Solar and Device.
• Grid‑aware coverage uses Solar and inferred home load from the power balance: Solar − HomeLoad = Grid ⇒ HomeLoad = Solar − Grid.

Unknown/unavailable handling

• Unknown/unavailable readings are treated as missing (None), not as zero.
• Instantaneous coverage sensors show 0% when inputs are missing.
• Averages pause according to per‑average gating:
  • Grid‑unaware averages pause if Solar is missing.
  • Grid‑aware averages pause if Solar or Grid (net or either Import/Export) is missing.
  • Both require Device > 0 and status allowed; otherwise they pause.

Average sensors (persistent)

• solardelta {name} avg session:
  • Time‑weighted average; holds (pauses) when gating conditions drop.
  • Resets when the Reset entity’s state transitions from any known non‑target to the configured Reset match. Detection is immediate.
• solardelta {name} avg year:
  • Time‑weighted average; holds (pauses) when gating conditions drop.
  • Auto‑resets at the start of a new year (local time).
• solardelta {name} avg lifetime:
  • Time‑weighted average; holds (pauses) when gating conditions drop.
  • Never resets automatically.

Grid‑aware averages behave the same way but compute from the grid‑aware coverage and pause if Grid is missing.

Persistence details:

• Each average stores accumulated coverage×time, active time, and last timestamp in Home Assistant’s storage.
• Persistence keys are derived from the entry’s display name; renaming the entry starts fresh under a new key.

Active duration attributes (on each average sensor)

• active_seconds: the total elapsed “active” seconds contributing to the average.
• active_time: human‑readable format (DD:HH:MM) of the same duration.
• Only increases while gating conditions are allowed and resets with the corresponding average reset.

Services

Per‑entry dynamic services are registered when each entry loads. Replace {entry_slug} with the slugified entry name (lowercase):

• solardelta.reset_avg_session_{entry_slug}
• solardelta.reset_avg_year_{entry_slug}
• solardelta.reset_avg_lifetime_{entry_slug}
• solardelta.reset_avg_session_grid_{entry_slug}
• solardelta.reset_avg_year_grid_{entry_slug}
• solardelta.reset_avg_lifetime_grid_{entry_slug}
• solardelta.reset_all_averages_{entry_slug} (resets all six averages above)

Notes:

• These dynamic services don’t show input fields in the UI. Call them with no data.
• “Reset all” resets grid‑unaware and grid‑aware averages together.
• Warning: The only way to restore data after a reset is to restore from a Home Assistant backup/snapshot taken before the reset.

Changing settings later

• Use “Configure” on the integration to change sensors/strings, grid mode (single vs separate), and the scan interval.
• The Name cannot be changed after initial setup. If you need a different name, delete the entry and create a new one (or adjust friendly names if you want to keep stored data).

Installation

• Through HACS: add a custom repository: KriVaTri/solardelta
• Or copy the custom_components/solardelta folder into your Home Assistant configuration directory.
• Restart Home Assistant.
• Settings → Devices & Services → “Add Integration” → SolarDelta.

License

MIT