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[1739.94 --> 1742.34] and convert them into kilowatt hours for you,
[1742.34 --> 1744.84] and then produce a new sensor
[1744.84 --> 1748.06] that shows that energy information in kilowatt hours.
[1748.56 --> 1752.00] I have a configuration.yaml entry example in the show notes.
[1752.70 --> 1754.12] Then once you have that,
[1754.70 --> 1757.72] the new energy utilities that are built into Home Assistant
[1757.72 --> 1760.22] will see this device as something it can pull stats from
[1760.22 --> 1762.32] and will start giving you your usage.
[1762.80 --> 1764.98] So I have to go through for each one of my smart plugs,
[1765.24 --> 1766.70] and I have to do this.
[1766.76 --> 1770.56] I have to create this template sensor
[1770.56 --> 1775.12] that takes information from the state of my smart plug
[1775.12 --> 1778.16] and formats it in a way that Home Assistant wants.
[1778.20 --> 1779.56] And I have the examples in the show notes,
[1779.66 --> 1780.76] but I had to go deep
[1780.76 --> 1782.92] because I had to learn a little bit of how templating works.
[1783.00 --> 1786.14] I had to learn about creating new kinds of sensors.
[1787.32 --> 1789.06] It was really quite the journey.
[1789.06 --> 1792.82] I naively expected to just do the update,
[1792.92 --> 1793.74] get energy monitoring,
[1793.98 --> 1795.74] and see my smart plugs report in there.
[1796.14 --> 1797.70] Boy, was I wrong.
[1797.98 --> 1800.34] Sometimes we get a bit spoiled with Home Assistant,
[1800.34 --> 1800.74] don't we?
[1800.76 --> 1801.70] It picks up so much.
[1801.76 --> 1802.42] It does so much.
[1802.60 --> 1804.10] And then occasionally,
[1804.10 --> 1807.24] we actually have to break out some DaVinci code
[1807.24 --> 1808.80] to find out what we actually wanted.
[1809.24 --> 1810.44] I think this is one of those examples.
[1810.94 --> 1812.68] And I felt like there was so much out there
[1812.68 --> 1815.80] that didn't apply since the new energy monitoring
[1815.80 --> 1816.74] was introduced.
[1816.84 --> 1819.50] So like a lot of the help was old
[1819.50 --> 1821.06] and no longer relevant.
[1821.06 --> 1823.68] And because my smart plugs,
[1823.74 --> 1824.02] I guess,
[1824.06 --> 1824.74] aren't as common,
[1825.28 --> 1827.10] there's not as many people
[1827.10 --> 1828.70] that have solved this problem.
[1829.32 --> 1829.74] So I just,
[1830.20 --> 1830.42] yeah,
[1830.54 --> 1830.80] it was,
[1831.02 --> 1833.52] I felt like I was searching niche resources
[1833.52 --> 1835.04] and it took me a while
[1835.04 --> 1836.32] to even just try to figure out
[1836.32 --> 1837.40] the language I need
[1837.40 --> 1838.92] and figure out what the requirements were
[1838.92 --> 1839.56] of Home Assistant
[1839.56 --> 1840.30] and all of that.
[1840.30 --> 1841.52] That is a real problem
[1841.52 --> 1842.94] with projects like Home Assistant
[1842.94 --> 1843.96] that move so fast.
[1844.04 --> 1845.98] I see it a lot with Kubernetes at work as well
[1845.98 --> 1851.64] is that kind of Google entropy of stuff.
[1852.04 --> 1853.38] Like a post,
[1853.60 --> 1853.74] you know,
[1853.84 --> 1856.12] Google will think a year old post
[1856.12 --> 1859.10] isn't too old to surface as the top result
[1859.10 --> 1861.02] when in actual fact in Home Assistant
[1861.02 --> 1862.66] that may as well be 10 years ago.
[1863.24 --> 1863.64] Yeah,
[1863.74 --> 1864.72] that's exactly right.
[1865.34 --> 1865.96] And then,
[1866.10 --> 1866.40] you know,
[1866.46 --> 1866.68] Alex,
[1866.74 --> 1867.78] when I got it all kind of done,
[1868.30 --> 1870.60] I realized it's okay.
[1870.84 --> 1872.34] It's pretty basic at this point
[1872.34 --> 1873.38] because I don't have
[1873.38 --> 1874.94] all of my battery
[1874.94 --> 1876.30] and solar information in there.
[1876.60 --> 1878.56] It really wasn't worth the journey.
[1878.76 --> 1880.72] I actually like the dashboards
[1880.72 --> 1883.38] I created myself better.
[1883.80 --> 1885.34] And I'll have a few links in the show notes.
[1885.34 --> 1887.76] It involved setting up
[1887.76 --> 1889.18] a history stats integration
[1889.18 --> 1891.52] so I could collect historical information
[1891.52 --> 1892.58] about my power usage.
[1893.20 --> 1894.02] And then I used
[1894.02 --> 1895.50] a utility meter integration
[1895.50 --> 1897.86] and that let my
[1897.86 --> 1899.78] virtual energy monitors
[1899.78 --> 1900.32] I'd set up
[1900.32 --> 1901.38] that produce kilowatt hours
[1901.38 --> 1902.66] show up as a utility source.
[1902.78 --> 1902.90] Now,
[1903.58 --> 1905.66] that lets me do all kinds of things
[1905.66 --> 1907.48] like now I have a dashboard
[1907.48 --> 1909.38] that shows me
[1909.38 --> 1910.98] if today
[1910.98 --> 1913.86] my heaters are using more power
[1913.86 --> 1914.84] than they were,
[1914.84 --> 1915.04] say,
[1915.10 --> 1915.68] three days ago.
[1915.72 --> 1916.70] I have a three-day window
[1916.70 --> 1919.18] on my power usage of my heaters
[1919.18 --> 1921.06] and I can kind of tell
[1921.06 --> 1923.98] when I'm kind of using more power