EnergyManager Binding

This binding aims to automate the switching of appliances such as a heat pump and electric boiler based on PV surplus.

Conceptual architecture

The binding receives state updates from OpenHAB on items like grid power, storage state of charge, and production power. The EnergyBalancingEngine calculates the net surplus energy available. The SurplusDecisionEngine then utilizes this information to evaluate configured appliances (surplus-output channels) based on their priority, load power, and runtime constraints, and decides which should be switched on or off.

Supported Things

Binding currently supports only one thing, the signalizator thing.

• signalizator: Used to define the files of the installation and makes accessible the channels which signalize the surplus output.

Discovery

No discovery is needed.

Thing Configuration

For the surplus signalizator thing to work correctly, it has to know about the states of items in your installation. Therefore you have to specify item names of items holidng data such as your ESS SOC, ESS power, grid power, and production power. The automation starts only once a certain threshold value of the ESS SOC is reached. You can specify this threshold by setting the minStorageSoc parameter to a numeric value between 0 and 100 or by setting it to a name of the item which will hold the desired value.

If you are using an item to set the value of minStorageSoc or maxStorageSoc, setup a rule, which sends a command which updates it's value after openhab is started. Otherwise it will have no way of knowing of it's value. This has to be done because the binding uses the Event bus to listen to events related to states of items.

signalizator Thing Configuration

Name	Type	Description	Default	Required	Advanced
refreshInterval	integer	Length of the interval between evaluation cycles in seconds.	30	Yes	No
peakProductionPower	integer	Peak production power of the panels in Watts.		Yes	No
minStorageSoc	string	Name of item or numerical value of the min SOC		No	No
maxStorageSoc	string	Name of item or numerical value of the max SOC		No	No
productionPower	string	Name of item containing production power data		Yes	No
gridPower	string	Name of item containing grid consumption (<0) and grid feed in (>0)power		Yes	No
storageSoc	string	Name of item containing the storage SOC		No	No
storagePower	string	Name of item containing the storage power out (<0) or in (>0)		No	No
electricityPrice	string	Name of item containing the current electricity price		No	Yes
initialDelay	integer	Delay after initialization when to start the evaluation cycle in seconds.	60	No	Yes
toggleOnNegativePrice	boolean	Surplus-output channels should send ON on negative price	false	No	Yes
enableInverterLimitingHeuristic	boolean	Enable a heuristic in the calculation of surplus power. Useful for limited feedin.	false	No	Yes
toleratedPowerDraw	integer	Tolerated technical power draw from the ESS or grid by the inverter.	0	No	Yes

Channels

The signalizator lets the user define channels which will be used for evaluation.

Channel	Type	Read/Write	Description
surplus-output	Switch	R	Channel used to specify informations about an appliance.

Channel type surplus-output parameters

This channel is used by signalizator to specify some metadata about he appliance which is switched by it such as its priority, rated power and hysteresis related parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Required
priority	integer	Value specifying the priority of the appliance. Higher value means lower priority. Highest priority items have priority over the surplus.	Yes
loadPower	integer	Rated power of the appliance	Yes
minRuntimeMinutes	integer	Minimal minutes of signaling of availability once channel already sent ON.	No
minCooldownMinutes	integer	Minimal value since last running ended to wait before signaling availability.	No
maxElectricityPrice	integer	Signal surplus availabilty only if the value of electricity is below this value. Only used if electricity price item defined in thing parameters is correctly updated.	No

Full Example

Provide a full usage example based on textual configuration files. *.things, *.items examples are mandatory as textual configuration is well used by many users. *.sitemap examples are optional.

Thing Configuration

Thing energymanager:signalizator:surplus [
                        refreshInterval="30",
                        peakProductionPower=10000,
                        minStorageSoc="65",
                        maxStorageSoc="95",
                        productionPower="gPowerDC",
                        gridPower="FeedInPower",
                        storageSoc="BatterySOC",
                        storagePower="BatteryPowerCharge",
                        electricityPrice="ElectricitySpotPrice", 
                        initialDelay="30",
                        toggleOnNegativePrice="false",
                        enableInverterLimitingHeuristic="true",
                        toleratedPowerDraw="200"
                        ] {
	Channels:
        Type surplus-output : house_boiler
                    [ priority="1", loadPower="2200" ]
        Type surplus-output : house_heatpump
                    [ priority="2", loadPower="2000" ]
        Type surplus-output : pool_filtration_pump
                    [ priority="3", loadPower="500", minRuntimeMinutes="2", minCooldownMinutes="2", maxElectricityPrice="80"]
}

Item Configuration

Switch SurplusBoilerSwitch "Boiler switch signaling enough surplus"
        { channel="energymanager:signalizator:surplus:house_boiler" }
Switch SurplusHeatpumpSwitch "Heatpump switch signaling enough surplus"
        { channel="energymanager:signalizator:surplus:house_heatpump" }
Switch SurplusPoolPumpSwitch "Pool pump switch signaling enough surplus"
        { channel="energymanager:signalizator:surplus:pool_filtration_pump" }