Consumer

A consumer represents an electrical load — an appliance, EV charger, heat pump, etc. Power Insight tracks how much power it draws and where that power comes from.

Add it with Add device → Consumer.

Under development

Consumer support is still being built out, and more consumer sensors are planned.

Settings

Name

For example "Rooftop" or "Heat pump". Used in the device and sensor names.

Power sensor

Sensor that reports this device's power in W, kW or MW. Negative = power drawn by the consumer. Most smart plugs report their draw as a positive value — turn on Invert power sign for those.

Invert power sign

Turn on if your sensor uses the opposite sign.

Power sources / Powered by

Whole mix — the power comes from all sources in proportion to what they supply.

Specific devices — only from the sources you select below, e.g. a battery that charges from solar only.

The sources that power this consumer. Only used with Specific devices.

Default: Whole mix. Choose Specific devices for a load your energy manager runs on particular sources — for example a smart plug that only switches on with excess solar. The grid and your PV systems are selectable.

The selection describes what you expect your energy manager to do, not a hard limit. If the consumer draws more than its selected sources supply — say it is set to solar only but keeps running after the sun goes down — that power is still counted, as coming from your other sources, and the watts show up in the restriction_deficit attribute of its operating-cost sensors. See When a device draws from outside its sources.

Reconfigure prompt

When you remove a grid or PV device this consumer is restricted to, Power Insight raises a repair issue asking you to reconfigure the consumer.

A consumer has no cost, price, or lifetime fields of its own — its cost is derived from the mix of sources currently supplying it (grid / solar / battery).

Sensors

Turn these on in the integration's Options → Consumer sensors. The choice applies to every consumer.

Where its power comes from

Source mix right now

One sensor per source in your home — the grid, each PV system and each battery — named after it, e.g. Power share from Rooftop. They answer "what is the heat pump running on right now?": say 55 % solar and 45 % grid, or the same split in watts.

The watts add up to the consumer's draw. While your meters disagree they can come out slightly below its own meter — see Metering imbalance on the whole home.

Sensor	Unit	Turn on with
Power share from <source>	%	Power sources (%)
Power from <source>	W	Power from each source (W)

Source mix over time

Running totals of how much energy came from each source — "312 kWh of solar and 540 kWh from the grid" — and the lifetime mix that makes (37 % solar, 63 % grid). For a daily or monthly mix, put the Energy from … sensors behind a utility meter.

The removed devices sensors only appear after you remove a source; they keep the energy it supplied so the totals don't shrink.

Sensor	Unit	Turn on with
Energy from <source>	kWh	Energy from each source (kWh)
Energy share from <source>	%	Energy sources (%)
Energy from removed devices	kWh	Energy from each source (kWh)
Energy share from removed devices	%	Energy sources (%)

Consumption share

This consumer's slice of everything your home consumes right now.

Sensor	Unit	Turn on with
Consumption share	%	Consumption share (%)

Don't add Energy from … to the Energy dashboard

These sensors split energy the consumer's own meter already counts. Adding them next to that meter counts the same energy twice.

Cost and savings

Operating cost

What running this consumer costs, based on where its power comes from. With Standard, grid power costs the live grid price and your own solar and battery power is free. With Levelized, your own power is priced at the lifetime cost per kWh of the device that supplied it.

Sensor	Unit	Turn on with
Operating cost rate	EUR/h	Cost method: Standard
Levelized operating cost rate	EUR/h	Cost method: Levelized
Total operating cost	EUR	Total costs
Total levelized operating cost	EUR	Total costs + Levelized

Avoided cost

What this consumer did not pay the grid because your solar or battery powered it. The from … sensors split that by PV system and battery (the grid has none: it is what was avoided).

Your PV systems and batteries report the same money as their own savings, so don't add the two together.

Sensor	Unit	Turn on with
Avoided cost rate	EUR/h	Savings method: Standard
Total avoided cost	EUR	Total savings
Avoided cost from <source>	EUR/h	Avoided cost by source
Total avoided cost from <source>	EUR	Avoided cost by source + Total savings
Total avoided cost from removed devices	EUR	Avoided cost by source + Total savings

restriction_deficit attribute

With Power sources set to Specific devices, both operating-cost rate sensors carry a restriction_deficit attribute: the watts the consumer is drawing from outside its selected sources. See When a device draws from outside its sources.

What happens when you remove a source

The consumer's Energy from … sensor for that source is disabled, keeping its history; delete it yourself if you no longer want it. Its final value moves into Energy from removed devices, so the consumer's totals don't lose it.

Energy from removed devices has no state class: it steps up once at each removal, and that energy is already in the old sensor's history, so long-term statistics would count it twice. A total that was not counting when its source was removed (option off, or entity disabled) has nothing to keep.