Getting started
Setting up Power Insight has three parts: create the hub, add your devices, and choose which sensors to create. This page walks through all three.
Power Insight is a hub integration. One config entry represents one energy mix (one home / one grid connection). Inside it you add one device per grid connection, PV system, battery, and consumer.
1. Create the hub
When you add the integration you are asked for two things:
Name
A short name for this energy-mix configuration, for example "Home" or "Office". Used as the device name in Home Assistant.
Sensor preset
Pick a starting point for which sensors Power Insight creates. Each preset builds on the previous one — you can always change this later in the integration's Options.
| Preset | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Minimal | Distribution ratios (%), power-source attribution, and financial-return sensors. A lightweight overview of your energy mix. |
| Recommended | Adds distribution power (W), charging-source attribution, and running totals for export compensation, costs and savings. The sweet spot for most installations. |
| Extended | Also adds real-time cost, savings and export-compensation rate sensors (€/h or $/h) plus levelized cost sensors. Cost sensors need a live price entity on your grid adapter; levelized sensors need lifetime production and cost values per device. |
Not sure which to pick? Recommended is a great starting point for most homes: it covers the sensors people use most without adding complexity you may not need yet.
2. Add your devices
After the hub is created, open the integration and use the Add device button to add each part of your energy mix. Four device types are available:
- Grid connection — your import/export meter. Exactly one grid connection is required per energy mix; costs, savings, and distribution are all measured against the grid.
- PV system — a solar inverter / array.
- Battery — a home battery / storage system.
- Electrical consumer — an appliance, EV charger, heat pump, etc.
Without a grid connection Power Insight cannot calculate anything, and it will raise a repair issue asking you to add one. Add your grid connection before (or right after) your other devices.
Each device asks for a power entity and a few type-specific fields. Which fields are required depends on the sensors you enabled — for example, cost sensors need a price entity and levelized sensors need lifetime values. See the per-device pages:
Power Insight expects: Grid — positive = import, negative = export; PV / battery — positive = producing/discharging, negative = consuming/charging. If your sensor uses the opposite sign, turn on Invert power direction. See Sign conventions.
3. Fine-tune the sensors (options)
Open the integration's Configure / Options at any time to change which sensors exist. You can:
- Apply a preset to every device at once, or
- Choose Custom to configure each device type individually (combined, grid, PV, battery, consumers).
Turning a sensor off disables it in Home Assistant but does not delete it, so its history is preserved and it comes back the moment you re-enable the option.
See Sensors, presets & options for the full reference, and the Entity reference for every sensor Power Insight can create.
4. (Optional) Seed accumulated totals
Accumulated total sensors (e.g. Total cost savings) start counting from
zero. If you are adopting Power Insight partway through the year and want to
carry over a historical total, use the
power_insight.set_value service.