Handling electricity dynamic pricing - Flex D

Nice thread. I wanted to implement some automatic fetching, but to be honest, it is very simple the way I implemented it: simply with 2 virtual switches. One for a morning and one for the afternoon peak events. I flip the corresponding switch manually when it is announced, and then it triggers rules in Rule Machine at specific times

The VSS: things are all Virtual Switch for Scenes. Each switch triggers what I call a scene, which is just another rule in Rule Machine. The rule sets thermostats, shuts off (or turns on) switches, etc.

1 Like

HYDROQC GITLAB Yes I saw this too. I was thinking installing it on HA and use HADB to import it in HE but a direct solution would be preferable.

I know that @nclark wrote an app to take advantage of Hydro Quebec dynamic pricing : Thermostat Scheduler [RELEASED] - #398 by nclark

This is really crazy that there is no public API.

I have an Ecobee thermostat, If only Hydro Quebec would partnered with them : they have a built in way of managing It : https://www.ecobee.com/en-ca/eco-plus/community-energy-savings/

Sinope is doing It with Éco SinopĂ© | SinopĂ© Technologies EN but I don't think there is a way to integrate the GT130 hub with Hubitat.

1 Like

I installed the HYDROQC integration to my HA and imported it to HE using HADB. It gives several info which are not very usefull but the relevant ones are there.

Yes indeed, Griddy's model was one that actually had more at risk BECAUSE of the structure of the power market in TX.

BUT interestingly, one of the big arguments used to support Smart Meters in many TX municipalities was inconsistently offered after the arguments were won, approvals were granted, and the meters were allowed to be put in.

That is, "giving the customer a break on electricity pricing because you would know exactly how much they were using peak vs off peak". As most know, "Off Peak" power, ESPECIALLY that which is generated between 10pm and 5am, is generally a HALF PRICED commodity.

But instead of all the big players making that a simple Easy Button option for consumers right from the start of the program...they concocted a cornucopia of combo pricing options that made picking providers, plans, and usage profiles very confusing for most folk.

In my mind, the promise of "cheaper power by shifting usage" never came to the market in the straight forward offering it should have. This would have benefited everyone (maybe not the gimmick prone power marketers)....the generators as far as not needing to rush to ramp up capacity, and the consumers ....REALLY getting a deal..... IF they could shift more power use to Off Peak. It's too bad it's not easy to "store" AC Cooling generated at night...for the next bloomin hot TX afternoon!

1 Like

Wow thanks so much for this information!! Nice tool Gcal :+1:

Je suis content d'avoir trouvé ce topic de Québécois pour les Québécois !! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::call_me_hand:

2 Likes

You could have a bulb over the electric dryer, dim red during peak time, bright white during off peak.

Has anyone looked into using cold outside air (with a heat exchanger) to reduce your refrigerator and maybe your freezer usage?

1 Like

I would like to point out that in Québec, where heating is almost exclusively electric, all the energy consumed by electric devices in winter ultimately end up in heat. Reducing their usage will reduce the amout of heat they disperse which will have to be compensate by the heating system, resulting in a net 0 effect on the electricity bill.

So in that particular situation, freezer, frige, light etc. does not cost anything to run in winter. The 2 that are wasting are the dryer and hot water. Because both are discarding heat outside.

1 Like

Hum, yes and no. Heat rises, that’s why heaters are usually near the ground, I don’t need to heat my ceiling and attic from the lights on the ceiling. Heating behind the fridge does not really help heating the air, which is what matters for comfort. That’s also why heaters are typically on a wall, with no obstruction, so that the heat circulates. Also, electronics and such are really inefficient heaters, only a fraction of the energy they use becomes heat. If the biggest portion of their energy use is wasted, such as an idle computer, a TV that is on for nobody to watch, lights that are on for nobody’s use, they really are wasting energy.

He was just responding to an aimless comment that added absolutely nothing to this topic...
This tool is useful to Quebecers but it seems to bother a lot of people who are not involved! :man_shrugging:

Energy does not disapear. It dissipate into heat no matter what you use it for in the first place (thermodynamic principles). That is why there is a big fan on computer CPU. And no the heat behind the frige does not stay there. It is warmer because it is constantly replenished by the compressor. If it stayed there the temperature would increase indefinitely :fire:

Evidently if someone is using another type of heating system (fossil fuel, heat pump) what I said earlier does not hold true.

@marcmale je voudrais mentionner que @mboisson est un québécois et utilise hilo. :wink:

1 Like

@ymerj ca on appel ca un poisson!! :rofl: :rofl:

:thinking:

@mboisson two of my thermostats fail and I decided to go with hilo to replace them because of the price. I beleive you are using those.

Are you integrating them into Hubitat and if so, how? Do you go with the home assistant hilo integration?

Hey,
No, the reverse engineered integration of Hilo into HA is nowhere near stable enough for me to trust it with thermostats. I only use it to read the meter. The reading of the meter fails every few weeks, but the thermostats directly in Hubitat are almost flawless, so long as the thermostats themselves don’t get stuck. It happened about 3 times in two years that one of my 11 thermostats got stuck on reporting always the same power (the actual heating/idling kept working), which was quickly fixed by a breaker on/off cycle.

I integrated the Stelpro thermostats directly into Hubitat. I wrote a Zigbee driver for it, which is available through HPM or GitHub

I don't know if they change their policy since you got yours because now the use of the hilo hub is mandatory as well as having their supplied devices hook up to it. So this won't allow me moving them to Hubitat directly. :frowning_face:

The rules have not changed, I have a different reading interpretation than you ;). I do have the Hilo hub, and it does read my meter. I do have the thermostats and they are wired to the house’s electric circuit. There’s just no connection between the Hilo hub and the thermostats. And so far, so good well into my second year.

Of course, #thisisnotlegaladvice

1 Like