Home Assistant beginners

That's what I've got setup but I think it only checks the state of the thermostat at the time when the helper toggle is switched on, not continuously all the while the toggle is on doesn't it?
 
Just jumped on Octopus Intelligent Go, and trying to figure out the best way to stop it using my Givenergy home battery if it decides to charge the car during the day whilst charging my batteries up at the same time.

Set up is Zappi Home Charger, Givenergy batteries. Been using timed charging overnight previously which is obviously a fixed time, but can't seem to figure the best way to change the settings to turn on battery charging at the same time my Zappi is set to boost via the Octopus Go integration which does it all automatically.
 
No need for HA to be involved. On the Zappi there’s a setting that, I think, is called avoid battery drain. That solved it happening for me.

Sunday > Monday there was a national issue with Octopus and myenergi. M > T I set my schedule back up as I didn’t want to risk an empty battery. Last night it charged fine over IO.

Joint the myenergi forum. It’s very active and IO is a hot topic at the moment.
 
Last edited:
Cool thanks, will look into it. Ideally want to do something that'll charge the batteries in the hour/2hour period that IO is activated. found a Mercedes integration last night so going to potentially look at that to say if it's charging outside of the IO period to start force charging the home Batteries too. Already got the 23:30-05:30 schedule in place for charging, but wil take a look at avoid battery drain option.
 
Last edited:
I have a couple of idiot questions so please forgive them.

I'm picking up some Govee lights and would like to run them without having to use another app. I was recommended Home Assistant. I'm vaguely aware of it anyway as being an open source alternative to Hue, Alexa and all that stuff, right?

Ideally I'd want to keep all my stuff out of reach of external internet connections. Is that possible as a plug and play option by using say the Home Assistant Green box? I'm not terribly good at coding or tinkering. I can figure out installing things but when it inevitably breaks I get bored of trying to solve it. So something simple would be best. I'm reluctant to start making VPNs and VMs etc because troubleshooting just goes out the window.

Items I have that I would probably integrate if I went ahead

Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights
Ring Doorbell (I'd love to get this off of Amazon's system but still have the functionality)
A bunch of Hue lights that I don't use much
Hive Thermostat (worried BG will close his down at some point)
Large solar install with Givenergy Batt / Solar Edge inverter
Soon to install AC units around the house

As I understand it I would need:
Home Assistant Green box
SkyConnect for ZigBee products

Is all this possible for a simpleton? Or should I resign to things being externally vulnerable if I want to keep it simple?
 
Last edited:
Yeah should be fine @DampCat. You'll need the Govee LAN Control Addon but you just get from HACS (market place type thing).

It then has all the instructions.

Please note.........I have it setup for my kitchen counter lights and TV backlight (Govee dreamview) and it isn't anywhere near as instant as my Philips Hue stuff.

w1u5RzR.png
 
SoliD said:
Cool thanks, will look into it. Ideally want to do something that'll charge the batteries in the hour/2hour period that IO is activated. found a Mercedes integration last night so going to potentially look at that to say if it's charging outside of the IO period to start force charging the home Batteries too. Already got the 23:30-05:30 schedule in place for charging, but wil take a look at avoid battery drain option.
Click to expand...
I’ve recently setup GivTCP in Home Assistant and batpred (battery prediction) which uses a dozen other tools (solar generation prediction, octopus rates, car cherging details) to predict the cheapest/most beneficial way to run your battery. It’ll charge during cheap slots (or hold if expecting loads of solar the next day) and export if there’s a high export rate e.g. if you’re on agile or there’s a saving session.

It took me an age to setup but it’s quite impressive!
GivTCP: https://github.com/GivEnergy/giv_tcp
BatPred: https://github.com/springfall2008/batpred

There’s a helpful GivTCP Facebook group for tech support but it would be great to hear about others using it here!
 
Last edited:
That's cool will take a look at that. Not so important for me this time of year. Filling the battery every night now with intelligent Go, and I get quite restricted solar output due to shading, and had no optimised charging during the day as only got a phev with a 12kwh battery so only needs about 1hr 45 to charge. But definitely something for the summer months when I move back to flux.
 
SoliD said:
That's cool will take a look at that. Not so important for me this time of year. Filling the battery every night now with intelligent Go, and I get quite restricted solar output due to shading, and had no optimised charging during the day as only got a phev with a 12kwh battery so only needs about 1hr 45 to charge. But definitely something for the summer months when I move back to flux.
Click to expand...
I am finding on Intelligent Octopus Go that when I plug the car into my Zappi (now integrated with IO) Octopus are giving me several extra hours a day off IO slots, ranging from mid morning to 7:30pm onwards.

Like yesterday it gave me 10:30-12 which meant I could refill the car and home batteries at 7.5p before emptying them during the Octoplus session.

Wondering if anyone else is finding the IO slots really generous?

I’m using HomeAssistant to also control my home battery and other smart devices during the IO slots.
 
Last edited:
I've always had it set to finish charging by 05:00, but just changed that to 11:00 and it's given me 09:30-11 today! real bonus as need some extra in the home batteries.
 
SoliD said:
@SBo how are you getting it to recognise when you're being given extra IO slots?
Click to expand...
I use the "Octopus Intelligent Tariff" integration available for HomeAssistant via HACS. It is more extensive than the standard Octopus integration.

"binary_sensor.octopus_intelligent_slot - will be on when your electricity is cheap. This includes when your car is charging outside of the normal Octopus Intelligent offpeak times but NOT when bump charging (unless within off peak hours)"

github.com

GitHub - megakid/ha_octopus_intelligent

Contribute to megakid/ha_octopus_intelligent development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

community.home-assistant.io

Octopus Energy - Intelligent Tariff

@Pete_Matheson Not sure if I fully understand your issue/scenario… If you have your battery set to charge whenever the Intelligent Slot is On, regardless of whether the car is charging or not, you will always get it charging (or, if its 100% full, being idle and not discharging) when you are...
community.home-assistant.io community.home-assistant.io
 
Last edited:
ScoobyDoo said:
Can anyone recommend a cheap 10inch android tablet?

My old samsung tablet has totally died so looking for a cheap replacement as it will only be used for home assistant.
Click to expand...
The go to is usually the fire tablet, either 8" or 10". Used with the fully kisok app it seems to work well. I've never mounted one, just used my fire 8" with this and worked fine.
 
ScoobyDoo said:
Can anyone recommend a cheap 10inch android tablet?

My old samsung tablet has totally died so looking for a cheap replacement as it will only be used for home assistant.
Click to expand...

I am using three refurbished Fire 10 HDs for HA kiosk duties. Sometimes the price is nearly that of a new one but often discounted and I got all mine for £65 to £75 each.

They appear to have a new case/screen glass during refurb so look good, but I did have one with a hardware issue that I had to exchange.
 
I tried a refurbished fire 7 and it was SHOCKING. I think the refurbed model had a hardware fault too as even the stock kindle OS ran like a sluggish slug...

Tbh it's put be off stumping up money to try again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom