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[1479.36 --> 1479.72] Yeah, maybe.
[1480.40 --> 1483.60] Maybe the Zuck didn't give somebody the smoked meats they were after.
[1484.58 --> 1487.24] I've been a little too distracted to really pay attention, though.
[1487.34 --> 1490.60] I got sucked into the rabbit hole of energy monitoring.
[1490.84 --> 1492.42] Right, yeah, because you're back home now,
[1492.48 --> 1495.40] so you've actually got some free time instead of just driving all day.
[1495.98 --> 1498.16] And Home Assistant, while I was on the roads,
[1498.20 --> 1499.76] I didn't have a chance to really look at it,
[1499.94 --> 1501.86] added energy monitoring support,
[1501.86 --> 1506.24] where you can actually, like, get some good stats and whatnot in Home Assistant
[1506.24 --> 1509.96] and identify batteries and utility sources
[1509.96 --> 1512.80] and even, like, you know, fuel consumption costs
[1512.80 --> 1514.56] if you want to monitor that.
[1515.58 --> 1517.50] So I thought, okay, I got to try this.
[1517.94 --> 1521.30] And I have a couple of Z-Wave smart plugs that do energy monitoring.
[1521.60 --> 1523.20] I've never really used that.
[1523.56 --> 1527.52] So that is sort of the route that I looked at this like,
[1527.58 --> 1531.82] well, why don't I try to see if I can get my existing smart plugs to work?
[1532.30 --> 1535.32] And for listeners that don't remember, I have two setups.
[1535.50 --> 1539.70] I have a home automation setup in my RV, which is pretty extensive.
[1540.10 --> 1542.84] And then I have, like, a mini version at the studio.
[1543.66 --> 1548.22] It's like a smaller instance of Home Assistant.
[1548.48 --> 1550.12] It runs on the Home Assistant Blue.
[1550.46 --> 1553.62] And in a way, it's often kind of like a good testing ground
[1553.62 --> 1554.90] because it's so much simpler.
[1555.10 --> 1557.40] There's just, there's less entities to go through
[1557.40 --> 1558.42] and all that kind of stuff.
[1558.52 --> 1561.18] And I noticed after the update,
[1561.86 --> 1563.98] to the Home Assistant Blues version of Home Assistant,
[1564.08 --> 1566.22] which comes out at the same time everybody else does,
[1567.12 --> 1569.50] that I just had energy monitoring.
[1569.66 --> 1572.48] Like my Belkin Wemo plugs that I happen to have
[1572.48 --> 1573.68] that I only use here in the studio
[1573.68 --> 1576.34] were just reporting their energy usage.
[1576.88 --> 1579.32] And Home Assistant had like a little diagram
[1579.32 --> 1580.92] of where power was going
[1580.92 --> 1582.94] and how much power had been used that day.
[1583.08 --> 1586.32] And I thought, wow, that looks great.
[1586.32 --> 1589.60] I'd love to have that at home where I actually care about my power
[1589.60 --> 1591.42] and all of that kind of stuff, I thought to myself.
[1591.84 --> 1594.22] So I go home and I don't have any of that.
[1595.04 --> 1597.74] My plugs are monitoring their draw.
[1598.08 --> 1600.26] They're seeing how many watts are being used.
[1600.76 --> 1602.30] But Home Assistant couldn't care less.
[1602.38 --> 1603.54] Like if I bring up the sensor,
[1603.66 --> 1606.10] yeah, it knows how many watts are being used.
[1606.52 --> 1608.68] But when I go to configure an energy device,
[1608.74 --> 1610.56] it's just whatever, bro.
[1610.80 --> 1612.36] There's no device that's giving you any stats.
[1612.36 --> 1615.74] For some reason, I've just got this picture of Home Assistant
[1615.74 --> 1620.36] being like this beavis and butthead style character
[1620.36 --> 1623.14] sat on a couch in the corner with a backwards baseball cap
[1623.14 --> 1624.52] and a cigarette in the other hand going,
[1624.94 --> 1626.94] whatever, bro, I don't care.
[1627.14 --> 1627.88] Yeah, you can't have that.
[1628.30 --> 1628.94] I don't care.
[1629.54 --> 1631.56] And so to me, it's like, okay, there's something wrong.
[1631.64 --> 1634.18] Obviously, these devices are like not giving Home Assistant
[1634.18 --> 1635.72] the information you need.
[1635.76 --> 1637.12] But when you go into the developer tools
[1637.12 --> 1639.10] and you look at the state attributes
[1639.10 --> 1640.36] and the states it's sending back,
[1640.36 --> 1644.64] it's clearly saying this is the amount of power being consumed.
[1644.96 --> 1648.42] It's in the watts format and it is this many watts.
[1648.56 --> 1650.98] Like it's easily readable by the human eye.
[1651.06 --> 1653.46] And I'm thinking to myself, what's going on here?
[1653.50 --> 1655.18] Why can't I see this power draw?
[1655.50 --> 1658.42] And I want to not only get an overview of my power draw,
[1658.48 --> 1660.66] but I want to start building automations that say,
[1660.78 --> 1663.62] hey, when two appliances, when these two smart plugs,
[1663.70 --> 1665.64] because I can just say these two together,
[1666.34 --> 1667.20] they're on one circuit.
[1667.20 --> 1667.80] I know that.
[1667.80 --> 1671.36] So when these two smart plugs both have a draw over 500 watts,
[1671.92 --> 1673.46] turn off the heater smart plug.
[1673.56 --> 1674.26] Always turn it off.
[1674.32 --> 1675.70] So that way the wife can turn on the toaster.
[1675.98 --> 1677.96] And when it starts drawing a thousand watts,
[1678.08 --> 1680.20] it turns off the heater that's drawing 800 watts.
[1680.52 --> 1682.56] And that's essentially what I want.
[1682.62 --> 1684.82] And if anybody has a blueprint or a good advice
[1684.82 --> 1686.48] on how to set that up, please let me know.
[1686.98 --> 1688.58] Ultimately, that's what I'm trying to get to.
[1688.70 --> 1689.74] I haven't gotten there yet.
[1689.74 --> 1693.92] But what I did do is I managed to get my damn energy monitored.
[1693.92 --> 1696.52] And it took quite a journey, I have to say,
[1696.58 --> 1701.14] because ultimately you have to get the data in the format
[1701.14 --> 1702.42] that Home Assistant wants.
[1702.84 --> 1706.96] So first, you got to have Home Assistant 2021.8 or newer,
[1707.20 --> 1711.52] and you need a smart plug or an energy monitoring device,
[1711.52 --> 1713.42] like one of those clamp devices or a Shelly
[1713.42 --> 1716.54] that reports in kilowatt hours.
[1716.54 --> 1720.14] All my plugs report in watts,
[1720.94 --> 1724.22] as in watts currently being consumed.
[1724.98 --> 1727.00] Home Assistant wants kilowatt hours,
[1727.22 --> 1729.42] and then it'll do all the math for you from there.
[1729.78 --> 1733.24] So what you have to do is you have to get an integration
[1733.24 --> 1735.54] called integration.
[1735.96 --> 1737.44] It's a math integration,
[1737.44 --> 1739.94] which will take the watts