[APP][Pro] Power Price

Power Price - Your companion for calculating usage & costs



Power Price is there to calculate & give insights on the usage and costs for any device.
It’s design to work with fixed, dynamic or switching energy prices based on day & time.

1.⁠ ⁠Create a Power Price virtual device
2.⁠ ⁠Choose the type of measuring you would like (kWh, W, m3, GJ, l, g, oz, gal, ft3)
3.⁠ ⁠In settings of the device you can optionally set the preferred currency, display of time & update device on price change
4.⁠ ⁠Use the device action cards to start, update (when tariff changes) & stop measuring of a usage session
5.⁠ ⁠The session outcome will be stored in the device and can be used inside flows with the device capabilities or see data via Homey Insights.


Useful links


Contributions
If you appreciate this app, contribute to future development by making a paypal contribution

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:computer: In collaboration with @martijnpoppen

See for more apps link below :point_down:t2: or just open the pull down.

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To-do list:


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Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Can I use Power Price with every device?
Answer: The devices that can be measured by Power Price need to have the energy meter capability (kWh/W/m3/GJ, l, g, oz, gal, ft3), this will be given as data value in the start/update/stop action cards.
F.e. Energy socket with meter or a P1 meter

Q2: I have dynamic tariffs, can I use Power Price?
Answer: We created this app with dynamic tariffs in mind. Therefore we have added a update session action card. This will calculate the price for the duration until price change, so the total price will be correct.
This feature can also be used with high/low tariffs that switch based on day/time combination.
Of course you can always use the app with fixed prices, then you can ignore the ‘update session’ card

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Example flows

Day session measuring the daily usage of P1/Gas or Water meter

Start/Stop(/Update) when measuring device is turned on/off

Washing machine

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New app update (:green_square: LIVE: 2.0.0.):

1. NEW: Changed App name to Power Price (instead of Usage Mate) for a better app description



If you find any issues, send a report via the mobile homey app

More - apps - Power Price - settings wheel right top - send diagnostic report (put your email in the input field to make it easier)


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What type of device you need to use the flow above? For example, I can’t find Energy_tarif label in any of my devices. Can this be used with washing machine connected to smart power plug?

@Jari_Peuhkurinen energy_tariff is a custom variable in homey which I made

I don’t have a flexible tariff so made a variable in homey

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Okay. Thank you. If / when you have time, could you make an example flow to a machine what is connected to smart plug.

Hi @Jari_Peuhkurinen

I created a sample flow based on an energy socket. Text is semi in :netherlands: so hopefully it’s all clear.

Devices like Washing machine or dryer are a bit more difficult (but not impossible), since you need to check the minimal and maximum (Watt) values of the device in order to see if they are really running or just idling in their program. Since this can differ from machine to machine best to look at a washing session with the smart meter.

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Thank you very much. Had to use google translate, but work now! :slight_smile:

For this to work with smart plug, you need to have plug that offers required values. For example, with Aqara plugs flow does not work, but with HomeWizard plug it works. Or I am doing something wrong :smiley:

Aqara plug also support power measuring, so that will work as well. The action cards need 2 values kWh tariff & energy (meter value of smart plug or any other device that keeps kWh values)

Can you show me an screenshot maybe on what error you are facing?

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This is the flow I used with Aqara. You can see the values it gives when finished. Only duration is correct. Costs and usage don’t match. When I used this flow with HomeWizard plug it worked perfectly.


I see what u mean, looking at my own devices I see one of the aqara plugs isn’t updating its energy value. This seems an issue with the aqara device or app. Maybe it’s a known issue: [APP] Aqara & Xiaomi Smart Home - Simplify your life with a smarter home

At least the used power was displayed correctly when I monitored the power usage while machine was on.
Also the energy was displayed in insights after machine has finished, but it didn’t match the information Power price app gave.

But yes, I think it has something to do with aqara since other plug worked like a charm.

Do you mean that the power usage is displayed correctly in the Power Price device during runtime? Or the aqara power socket?

Did you check if the correct energy variable is used in all flow cards?
I noticed that clicking in Homey web ui sometimes select the wrong variable. Then it could be that the difference is calculated from 2 different devices.

Aqara shows energy and power usage in insights correctly during the washing cycle.

There are only two variable that Aqara offers. I tried with both, didn’t change the result.

The final variables are from P1 meter (not Aqara device), because its the only device that offers #last session costs, duration and usage.

Looking at this data, it seems that the socket is measuring data as expected. Looking in detail it only measures 0.1 or 0.25 kWh of usage during sessions.

For PowerPrice you need to configure the energy variable (kWh meter). This will calculate usage from start to finish.
power variable is measuring Watt consumption during runtime, good for insights.

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New app update (:green_square: LIVE: 2.0.1):

OPT: Make seconds in duration optional

Now it’s possible to enable/disable the display of seconds for the device duration. When having days/hours/minutes available. When a device has less than 1 minute duration it will always show the seconds duration time.
You can find the new setting per device in the advanced settings section.

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Continuing the discussion from [APP][Pro] Power Price:

My Power Price is not able to pick a virtual device,that step is not showing when installing a PP device, what do I wrong? I reinstall PPrice and reboot the H2023 nothing helps