Unable to Filter Out Neighbor Inverters from Home Assistant via UID

[akyol03]

I’m facing a challenge and could use some help. Because my EMA router automatically syncs the UIDs (inverters) from my neighbors as well, I also see their data in the Home Assistant energy dashboard. To maintain accurate monitoring, I regularly have to remove the neighbors' inverters through UID management in the EMA Manager.

I also tried removing the inverters/entities using the AppSystem ECU Reader, but that didn’t help either.

As a last resort, I attempted to filter the inverters directly in the file
/homeassistant/custom_components/apsystems_ecu_reader/sensor.py,
but that hasn’t worked either. Maybe I'm not doing it the right way.

Does anyone have a tip or solution for this?

mijn_inverter_uids =
[ "703000160916", "703000162160", "703000161660",
"703000162211", "703000920178", "703000156007", "703000160150" ]

Add inverter binary sensors

inverters = coordinator.data.get("inverters", {})
for uid, inv_data in inverters.items():
if uid not in mijn_inverter_uids:
continue
sensors.append(APsystemsECUInverterBinarySensor(coordinator, ecu, uid, inv_data))

Add inverter sensors

inverters = coordinator.data.get("inverters", {})
for uid, inv_data in inverters.items():
if uid not in mijn_inverter_uids:
continue
# further processing...

[HAEdwin]

Hi @akyol03, This is not really an integration issue so I moved it to the discussions.

Wow, my first question is, how did you get the UIDs of the neighbors? The inverter UIDs do not profile via WiFi, only via Zigbee. You must have added the UIDs to the ECU at some point by manually adding the UIDs or scanning the UIDs.

The integration only reads what the ECU has in the configuration. I think it would be best to remove the UIDs from the ECU by starting the AP on the ECU and removing the inverters via the EMA Manager (or ECUapp). It will then take a while for EMA to take over the configuration.

[akyol03]

vertalen naar nederlands:
Hi @HAEdwin, I have a suspicion as to why my neighbors' UIDs are being scanned automatically. We bought a newly built terraced house, and everyone received the same type of solar panel from the construction company. Normally, there's a box on the roof that monitors all the solar panels and sends data. Since that box broke, I received my own App systems router. Unfortunately, on this router (EMA App Manager), I can see all the UIDs, even those of my neighbors, but in the EMA app I only see my own UID.
Now I have to manually remove my neighbors' UIDs every 3 to 4 days via Inverter configuration (ID-Beheer). That's why I need a different solution.

[HAEdwin]

It seems that the inverters registered in EMA automatically connect to your ECU. EMA (APsystems) or the installer may have done a replace device on the original EMA account that brought the inverters together on the ECU that broke. Your new ECU may then be the replacement. I think it is inappropriate to adjust the integration code for this, it is possible... but with every update of the integration you will lose your own adjustments. If I were you I would find out which EMA account the installer was on and/or ask the installer to disconnect your ECU from the other inverters. If that does not work, then submit a support ticket to APsystems.

[akyol03]

Hi @HAEdwin, thanks for your response.

The installer handles solar panel installation as a side business alongside their primary activities. When the original rooftop router (ECU) broke, it took them five months to respond. As a temporary solution, they gave me a new router for inside the house. However, it’s now been a year, and they still haven’t resolved the issue with the rooftop unit.

Because of this, I would prefer to apply a filter myself to prevent my router from picking up the neighbors’ inverters. Could you please help me with this?

[HAEdwin]

The collection sensors (Current Power, Lifetime Energy, Today Energy, Inverters, Inverters Online) you will have to ignore and replace with custom sensors. You then could disable and hide the unwanted sensors and switches. This way the source code always remains standard and you don't have to worry about updating the integration. Does this sound like a plan?

For example configuration.yaml could have added:

template:
  - sensor:
      - name: "yalcins_current_power"
        unit_of_measurement: "W"
        state_class: measurement
        device_class: power
        state: >
          {% set ch1 = states('sensor.inverter_703000160916_power_ch_1') | float(0) %}
          {% set ch2 = states('sensor.inverter_703000162160_power_ch_2') | float(0) %}
          {{ ch1 + ch2 }}

Expand this to fit all your inverters and build the other sensors. But there might be smarter solutions.

Still, I can't imagine that the other residents wouldn't want to know if their solar panels are still working. The installer must not lose the inverter IDs, otherwise every house will have to climb onto the roof to write down the inverter numbers :)

[akyol03]

Hi @HAEdwin ,

I contacted the supplier via email, but unfortunately — as expected — they don’t really understand the issue.
I don’t expect they can offer any meaningful support. They mentioned that the EMA Manager app displays all inverters in the nearby area, unfortunately.

I tried your suggested code in configuration.yaml, but it only shows the power (W), which cannot be used in the Energy Dashboard.

I would greatly appreciate your help with a piece of code that filters out the neighbors’ inverters. I’m willing to manually adjust it after each update if necessary.

Could you help me with this?

[HAEdwin]

The key lies with the EMA account of the installer. They are able to remove your Inverters so that you can add them to your own account. The installer should not remove them as "replaced". Disappointing that APsystems support cannot help you.

A filter can be applied to the incoming inverter data but this will not change the totals of the ECU such as Current Power or Today energy (needed for the energy dashboard), these are calculated internally in the ECU. In addition to filtering, the values ​​of your own inverters must then be recalculated, which requires too many adjustments in the code. Home Assistant is perfectly capable of creating its own sensors, that seems to me the easiest way. I'll try to provide you a sample you could use later today.

[c0mplex1]

@akyol03
If you create a sensor as suggested by HAEdwin and add this sensor to a Utility Meter, you can reproduce the "Today Energy" entity and add it to your energy dashboard.
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/utility_meter/

[HAEdwin]

Step1:
Open configuration.yaml and add these three lines:

# Custom sensors to provide entities for filtered inverters
sensor: !include sensors.yaml
utility_meter: !include utility_meter.yaml

Step 2:
Create the file named sensors.yaml in the same folder as configuration.yaml and add these lines:

# this sensor (sensor.current_power) provides the total power in watts from the inverters.
- platform: template
  sensors:
    current_power:
      friendly_name: "Current Power"
      unit_of_measurement: "W"
      value_template: >
        {{ 
          states('sensor.inverter_703000160916_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000160916_power_ch_2') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000162160_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000162160_power_ch_2') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000161660_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000161660_power_ch_2') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000162211_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000162211_power_ch_2') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000920178_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000920178_power_ch_2') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000156007_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000156007_power_ch_2') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000160150_power_ch_1') | float(default=0) +
          states('sensor.inverter_703000160150_power_ch_2') | float(default=0)
        }}
      device_class: power


# This defines an integration sensor (sensor.lifetime_energy) that calculates the lifetime energy produced in kWh.
- platform: integration
  source: sensor.current_power
  name: "Lifetime Energy"
  unit_prefix: k
  round: 2

Step 3:
Create the file named utility_meter.yaml in the same folder as configuration.yaml and add these lines:

today_energy:
  source: sensor.lifetime_energy
  cycle: daily
  name: Today Energy

Now restart Home Assistant and the entities will be added (after 10 minutes the graphs will become visible as well).

• sensor.lifetime_energy (kWh)
• sensor.today_energy (kWh)
• sensor.current_power (W)

How it works;

• utility_meter.yaml takes the ever increasing sensor.lifetime_energy and breaks it up every new day in order to get the sensor.today_energy
• sensors.yaml first calculates sensor.current_power which is being used by the integration sensor.lifetime_energy
• Configuration.yaml references to the newly created yaml files to keep things well organised

Document the sensors so that you keep track of why the are there.
Hope this works for you, the energy dashboard works fine as well in my sandbox environment.

The new sensors will cover for the invalid sensors (marked red) the other sensors can be optionally created (marked blue):

[HAEdwin]

@c0mplex1 use of the utility_meter integration build into HA is also a working solution and maybe easier.

[akyol03]

@HAEdwin thanks!, I will test and monitor it for 2–3 days and will give feedback on whether it's working.