Home Assistant

Home Assistant Entities

Homsai is a Home Assistant add-on, and is able to automatically discover all the entities needed for its operation.

In details, Homsai needs to be able to interface with:

• At least one climate entity representing an HVAC device
• At least one sensor entity representing the temperature of an area
• sensor entity which represents the power supplied by the photovoltaic system (in kW or W)
• sensor entity which represents the power absorbed by the home electrical system (in kW or W)
• sensor entity which represents the power absorbed or supplied by the accumulator (in kW or W) (optional)
• sensor entity which represents the power absorbed by the climate system (in kW or W) (optional)
• switch entity which represents the on/off command to the home heat system (optional)

HVAC device

Homsai needs at least one HVAC device to be configured on Home Assistant. An HVAC device is a device for heating or cooling.

Homsai requires the HVAC device to be configured on Home Assistant as a climate entity.

The climate entity must have been associated with an area.

The climate entity must allow setting a target temperature.

The climate entity must have at least one hvac_mode between:

• cool
• heat

If the climate entity also exposes hvac_action then this must be:

• if the device is idle either off or idle
• if the device is currently heating the hvac_action must be heating
• if the device is currently cooling the value of hvac_action must be cooling

Homsai deals with the HVAC device differently depending on whether the hvac_action information is present or not:

• if hvac_action is not present Homsai will try to activate the device with set_hvac_mode (cool / heat)
• if hvac_action is present Homsai will try to activate the device with the set_temperature.

The reason is that some HVAC devices accept the hvac_mode as an on/off command, others as an operating mode (e.g. summer/winter).

Temperature

Homsai needs at least one temperature sensor to be configured on Home Assistant.

Homsai requires that the temperature sensor is configured on the Home Assistant as a sensor entity, and that it is physically located in the same room as the HVAC device.

The sensor entity must have an assigned area, the same as the related climate entity.

If a sensor entity is not present in Home Assistant, it is possible to define a sensor template that extrapolates the temperature from the relative climate entity.

Power supplied by the photovoltaic system

The power supplied by the photovoltaic system is a property necessary for the operation of Homsai and must be presented as a sensor entity, and must represent the reading of a smart meter positioned on the photovoltaic production line.

The sensor must present a data in kW or in W (power).

Any operations on the sensor make the data unreliable, such as presenting a sensor cumulating production and injection to the grid.

The power supplied by the photovoltaic system sensor must return a positive data when the photovoltaic system produces energy, zero otherwise.

The sensor update rate should be at least one reading every 10 minutes.

Power absorbed by the home electrical system

The power absorbed by the home electrical system is a property necessary for the operation of Homsai and must be presented as a sensor entity, and must represent the reading of a smart meter positioned upstream of the home system.

The sensor must present a data in kW or in W ( power).

Any operations on the sensor make the data unreliable, such as presenting a sensor cumulating absorption and injection to the grid.

The power absorbed by the electrical system sensor must never have a value less than zero.

The sensor update rate should be at least one reading every 10 minutes.

Power absorbed or supplied by the accumulator

The Power absorbed or supplied by the accumulator is an optional property for the operation of Homsai and must be presented as a sensor entity, and must represent the reading of a smart meter placed on the power line between the photovoltaic inverter and any accumulator present.

The sensor must present a data in kW or in W ( power).

The sensor of power absorbed or supplied by the accumulator must have:

• a value greater than zero when the accumulator is absorbing electrical energy
• a value less than zero when the accumulator is supplying electricity

If there are more than one accumulator sensor (e.g. one for each battery) it is necessary to define a sensor template on the Home Assistant which returns the sum of the values of all the sensors.

The sensor update rate should be at least one reading every 10 minutes.

Power absorbed by the climate system

The Power absorbed by the climate system is an optional property for the operation of Homsai and must be presented as a sensor entity, and must represent the reading of a smart meter positioned on the power line upstream of all the climatic devices.

The sensor must present a data in kW or in W (power).

The sensor of the power absorbed by the climate control system must never have a value lower than zero.

If there are more than one absorption sensor of the climate system (e.g. one for each split) it is necessary to define a sensor template on the Home Assistant which returns the sum of the values of all the sensors.

The sensor update rate should be at least one reading every 10 minutes.

Home Heat System switch

Home heat system switch is an optional actuator for Homsai operation, it must be presented as a switch entity and must represent the enable (activation) command for the home heat system.

The home heat system switch, if present, is set by Homsai to on when at least one HVAC device must be activated, otherwise it is set to off when no HVAC device is active anymore.

If the home heat system switch logically needs more than one switch to be implemented (e.g. in the presence of an individually controlled circulating pump) it is necessary to define a template sensor or a helper group which combines all switches.