option to create sensors without source entity

[Mariusthvdb]

Hi,
Trying to get to the bottom of my home powerusage, I am now left with a few real life devices that dont have an actual entity/device in Home Assistant. Think of my Doorbell trafo (old school) or other physical devices attached to 240V. I have measured those with my metering device, and like to add them with a fixed power usage, and have Powerful do the other maths, creating device_energy and device_power sensors

I can not follow the config flow, because it requires a source entity. I might be able to find an always on device_tracker in HA to fake some, but that feels very hacky.

Couldn't you create an additional scenario in Powercalc to create a virtual sensor without actual HA device?
thanks for considering!

[bramstroker]

You can use the daily fixed mode for this. Just supply the W or kWh you measured and how long the device is on per day.
In your case the trafo is always on so you can leave this empty and supply the amount of W for example 5.

[bramstroker]

Also the virtual power sensor mode allow for a sensor.dummy as a source sensor, but this is not selectable in the config flow yet.

[Mariusthvdb]

thanks! Ive got that working indeed, with the daily mode.

Just know there still is the oddity of entering a value with a decimal, and the selector indicating red. Ive filed an issue for that long time ago in Frontend, but the team seems to ignore those....

sensor.dummy ;-) that would need to allow multiple instances too in that case.

heck, his cant be ignored:

I am allowed to enter that value on the template like {{0.3}} and succeed the flow, but the power sensor that is created is unavailable, the energy sensor is showing ok...

I am aware this isnt going to save me millions of euros. but it would still be nice to have below 1W sensors

[bramstroker]

I see, actually I can fix this. Currently I have used NumberSelector and that one just does not allow for decimals to be entered. I will change this to same selector as used with power at the virtual sensor mode.

yes sensor.dummy will allow multiple instances but you need to supply an unique_id otherwise you will get an error.

[Mariusthvdb]

nice! thanks for that.

did you see my point on the below 1 w? 0.3 to be exact ;-)

[bramstroker]

yes will also have a look into that. The daily energy sensor is designed to work with decimals, so also sub 1 values should not be an issue. See #979

[Mariusthvdb]

thx!

[Mariusthvdb]

btw, not sure if this is the same issue, but I just made a set of sensors for my outside motion sensors, each consuming 0.5 w like:

and that too creates an unavailable power sensor, and an energy sensor showing fine, albeit 0.0000kWh ofc

This error originated from a custom integration.

Logger: homeassistant
Source: custom_components/powercalc/helpers.py:13 
Integration: Powercalc (documentation, issues) 
First occurred: 09:55:49 (3 occurrences) 
Last logged: 11:07:43

Error doing job: Task exception was never retrieved
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/config/custom_components/powercalc/sensors/power.py", line 334, in initial_update
    await self._update_power_sensor(entity_id, new_state)
  File "/config/custom_components/powercalc/sensors/power.py", line 387, in _update_power_sensor
    self._power = await self.calculate_power(state)
  File "/config/custom_components/powercalc/sensors/power.py", line 435, in calculate_power
    power = await self._power_calculator.calculate(state)
  File "/config/custom_components/powercalc/strategy/fixed.py", line 63, in calculate
    return await evaluate_power(self._power)
  File "/config/custom_components/powercalc/helpers.py", line 13, in evaluate_power
    return Decimal(power)
decimal.InvalidOperation: [<class 'decimal.ConversionSyntax'>]

in the log

HA says its a fine template:

[bramstroker]

Could you create a separate issue for this please?
Power sensor for the daily energy mode was added in later stage and it is only created when you have set it up with uom Watt and no on_time specified (or 24 hours). It should also work for your configuration, but I suspect I do not look at the value template yet, but only value when creating the power sensor.

[Mariusthvdb]

sure, give me a second

[Mariusthvdb]

see: #980

[CloCkWeRX]

Ah nice. @Mariusthvdb - want to share a bit more of your setup on #964 ?