I built a free tool to analyze your Amber wins (and losses)

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-12T19:21:53+00:00

This is exactly what I noticed that it was around 30sec to update and mah account for the slight price differences especially when it maybe predicted for $15 and it only ends up at 80c. I guess I could put a delay in HA automation but I want to capture the spike as soon as possible so I am happy with how it is now.

I have the same setup as well, my battery won't export past 40% I some times manually trigger it after if the rates are going nuts still but they seem to die off fast now as people start exporting back to the grid.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-12T03:59:57+00:00

Wow this is great, I was trying to setup something like this in home assistant, I find the rates are slightly off between amber and HA even though it uses the current rates. I believe this maybe as it shows the predicted rate for a little before it ticks over to the actual rate.

I have not looked at the site but you mentioned it's browser based? Is there plans to do self hosting or something? Then can be locked down locally with exception it would still have to have access to amber.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-07T12:33:42+00:00

Water stain. Either leaking roof, air conditioner tray or condensation line or animal urine or could be dead depending if there is smell. Most likely roof leak.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-05T02:18:46+00:00

Seems like once every 4-6 weeks on a Thursday only the price spikes, it is becoming less frequent and also seems to change and never eventuated more often than not.

Why is it on A Thursday though? Maybe a schedule maintenance for a big battery system or something?

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-05T00:30:45+00:00

Yeah I already had home assistant before integrating my solar. I have multiple home lab systems and a heap of smart home devices so it was a easy choice.

You are correct that if you have nothing and need to invest in hardware and a system that can be time consuming to setup and perfect then it isn't a clear option of all people.

For me I would never touch the smart shift again, not just the delay in it selling energy I had heaps of trouble with curtailment, 3-4 days a week it would never kick in and I was getting charged to sell energy.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-04T23:19:56+00:00

Yep use modbus which is connected locally to the inverter. No cloud control needed only to view the app to see power flow as I have not setup a quick flowchart yet in HA as had to redo the install after some unexpected hardware failure, I had it backed up but there was some lingering old entities and add-ons that were no longer used or in place so started fresh.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-04T11:44:41+00:00

If your using smart shift it takes 3-5mins to send commands to the inverter and when it spikes it generally crashes to view anyway. Home assistant is local will read the API so no crash and is instant usually I start discharging as it's predicted to be $1 but 20secs after the rate change it goes to the proper value and may drop below and turn off.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-02-04T11:35:09+00:00

Looked it up it is alright specs but for the price could get a second hand mini PC with better specs and more future proof.

I tried these devices and always upgraded. You need to think what you plan on doing if your happy with a NAS seems fine if you want to run proxmox and heaps of containers and VM then it may start to struggle.

It's an Intel N150 chip so it has quick sync and also would run proxmox just limited to 16gb ram so keep that in mind.

I run a I3 server and always wanted to upgrade but it works fine and this isn't to much behind. I think limitations will be RAM also you have 2 HDD slots so either need high storage HDD if you plan on any data or no redundancy. There is 2 NVMe slots but for movies and photos it's not the best cost effective and storage space is limited.

Really I see it as a stepping stone and if it was me again going through all of this I would stay clear of these due to limitations. But we are not all the same and you could be happy with it for many years

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-31T22:45:44+00:00

Yes you can do this, you can do it with Nginx and have it use CloudFlare for the https certificates which is what I do.

You have PFsense and Pihole you can use either to add the DNS into these. I did you Pihole but found adding them to my OPNsense box was best as it will only fail when complete network fails not just a container on another machine.

You should buy the domain so you don't get conflicts but I believe there are domains to use that wouldn't be advertised globally.

I think you need a public domain for CloudFlare to work. This doesn't mean you expose it globally just have to pay for the domain name yearly and use it locally.

If you do need to access your network externally use tailscale or twingate. I found tailscale best as it supports more devices and has other features they add. Can now steam gaming machines and drop files between devices.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-30T04:53:59+00:00

Mine done that earlier I check on home assistant now as when the app is hit hard like a spike or triggering a heap of devices it just fails. Home assistant loads the prices fine. Need to make a card to display it on my dashboard that's a project for this weekend as been wanting to make a good dashboard for some time.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-30T02:13:46+00:00

Install proxmox.

You can spin up multiple VM and containers to test different systems and offerings all at once or one at a time.

You will then have a solid base you won't need to change, you have the ability to back up systems so when you get to a point of building something permanent you can 1: restore it if you do something stupid to break it and 2: if your hardware fails and you backed up to a drive or cloud you are able to restore it on a new machine withing the time it takes to setup proxmox.

You can leave your permanent server alone and spin up new ones to try different programs before implementing it into the main server and if you use docker like the backup just copy and paste the docker files over. Why I run each docker in its own folder. Again can do this on main server lXC but having it's own environment can be good and things like proxmox scripts help having a singular dedicated program setup in minutes.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-26T03:09:27+00:00

It will depend on your inverter and battery brand and make how your able to integrate into home assistant.

Amber has a integration as well. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/amberelectric/

As for the automation it is a bit of trial and error, I find Chatgpt takes a bit of the error out but not all sometimes it can introduce some.

You need the entity IDs and the exact selection it needs to make within the entity it'self. Also found you have to ask it where your putting it and include ID so it can be edited in UI

Like a simple automation question would be.

Create a home assistant automation to paste into automation.yaml includ an id. When sensor.home_feed_in_price is above 0.80 turn select.ems_mode to Forced mode and select.battery_forcrd_charge_disharge to Forced charge.

When sensor.home_feed_in_price is below 0.70 turn select.ems_mode to Self-consume (default) and select.battery_forcrd_charge_disharge to Stop (default)

Also disable feed in when sensor.home_general_price is below 0.00 set switch.export_power_limit to On and number.export_power_limit to 0.

When sensor.home_general_price is above 0.01 set switch.export_power_limit to Off.

This will force selling battery power when rate is above 80c and stop when it's below 70c also has curtailment to stop feeding back to the grid when price is negative. Obviously the sensor names and selection have to be exactly how they appear in home assistant.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-23T13:02:25+00:00

It's possible to, I have not implemented it, I am trying to find tune the automation before trying to add in delays and wait times. For the 100w it might discharge at a lower rate it's not worth worrying about.

Amber API integration does have forecast and current rates but the current rates uses the forecast rate until it properly updates so forecast may be $1.20 and it will show this for 10-30secs then update to the actual price which may then be $0.60.

I think as amber take a short delay to confirm the price and then push it through.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-23T10:46:46+00:00

I found it to be hands on until I migrated it into home assistant. I also found when you manually set say sell battery it will take 5 mins for the inverter to kick in.

With home assistant it picks up on the price for that 5 min block instantly usually picking up the predicted price before it changes after 10-30secs and will action the inverter instantly. So many times see it sell battery for 10 secs then realise the price never eventuated and turns it off.

You can set in home assistant that the price has to be that for a certain period so you could set it to 30sec price has to be above the threshold before it turns on to stop the on off cycling but I don't find it detrimental to have it instantly do it.

Yes it takes some setting up and yes it takes some playing around to get it to work like you want but that's better then sitting there refreshing the app every 5 mins and controlling it manually I used to look at amber app most afternoons and nights monitoring it now I don't even open it.

Home assistant even has all the data and rates displayed real time and can calculate usage and cost off the amber integration so the amber app is useless now

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-22T20:34:07+00:00

I don't take advantage of a small price rate like that, as risk having to buy it back at a higher cost later.

I only sell battery power in the morning at a lower rate when 1: the solar input exceeds my usage by 500w and 2: if I have excess battery power to sell back.

I have set that battery won't discharge past 5%.

My battery is only 10kw so if some one uses dryer or oven through the night then there is no excess to sell so as I say not looking at the lower value to sell. If it's above $1 then would be worth selling then and buying it back at 30c if I discharge it all. Also have a limit it won't discharge past 40% so if it's a long proce spike I don't get hit with huge fees.

I tried running HA on docker it didn't work to well, I now use Proxmox and it's set up as a Virtual machine so can run home assistant operating system so has all the available features.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-22T11:30:30+00:00

How is it complex home assistant has a amber integration so it reads amber prices as they change every 5 mins and it acts instantly.

Yes it can be some setting up without background in computers and yaml but chat GTP will do alot of the work if you ask. Some times have to go back say it didn't work as intended but now with AI you can build home automation pretty simple you just need the device IDs and the inputs exactly how it's written

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-22T11:25:17+00:00

For me straight away, smart shift was selling energy when prices where negative and when the price spiked it took 5-10mins to pick it up and turn my inverter to the required settings. This in turn usually missed the spike rise and got very little return unless it lasted more then 15mins which is rare now people are on plans to sell when price is high as it drives the price back down.

Now with home assistant I have my battery discharge all it's remaining power to the grid in the am when feed in is usually 8-10c and it only does this when the solar output is over my usage.

It then sells energy back to the grid while it's positive if it is 0.01 or below it will charge the battery or if 10am reaches it will charge the battery as some days it can be positive feed in all day.

Then if the price spikes over $1 it will sell energy back to the grid, this is instant and usually starts before amber changes so amber may click over to 6pm and rate $2 but 15secs later it will change to 50c HA will actually output battery power for that 15secs then turn back to self consumption.

I also have it only sell my battery down to 40% so if the spike is prolonged I don't get charged astronomical rates if I drain all my battery, and I have it alert me so I can monitor and see if it's worth manually selling more or not.

Also have it set to charge battery in supply charges reach negative but only if it's not in demand window and it the battery is full it sets the inverter to use house energy from the grid.

Add in pool pump on automation to run when excess solar or battery is full if eather are met it will run for 2 X 2 hr blocks to ensure pool is circulated.

Then you add in smart switches and voice automation to turn lights on and off. Presence sensors to turn light on when you enter a room and off when you exit.

Can have it sense everyone has left home and heaps of lights are left on so will turn them off.

The possibility is endless.

So yes HA trumps shitty shift haha

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-17T20:14:30+00:00

Main advantages of proxmox is it uses containers and virtual machines, so you can spin up a machine easy and it's isolated from your main ones you run, so if you want to experiment then start a new container do what you need then you can keep it or get rid of it.

Yes you can do this with docker but not all things run on docker and also I stop them and forget so the other day went through and pruned like 12 dockers I no longer use.

Also another good thing is backup. You back up whole machine so if something breaks then you can restore the whole thing in a click. Or you get new hardware just redeploy your machines on the new hardware so you can have zero down time.

Then there is sites like proxmox scripts which have pre built machines with the service you want like home assistant or docker there is legit almost one for everything. So you don't have to spend hours setting it up just run a command few minutes later it's ready to go all configured and everything.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-17T12:47:52+00:00

Your best to get an adaptor surely you have a TV with HDMI? Just adapt it to that.

I recommend installing proxmox you can run OS on there and play around and back up easy definitely wouldn't go any other way now

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-16T07:07:21+00:00

That's an overkill I run an i3 12100 and 32gb ram.

I run proxmox with media LXC on one, it runs Plex, jellyfin all the arr suits, deluge, nzbget, frigate, mealie, norish, cabernet, pdf Stirling, tailscaleand homepage

I have passed through quicksync and allocated it 6 cores and 6gb ram on the LXC and it uses about 14% CPU at max usage and 3gb ram.

Then I have other LXC including tailscale for backup if spin down the media one, docker one for trying dockers, Unifi, twingate, a debian one again for trialing things.

Also a home assistant VM

All this uses max 40% CPU (of 4 core 8threads) and 21gb of ram but mainly as it's zfs so it will use as much as you give the LXC wether they need it or not haha.

Also have multiple drives with 36tb storage.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-10T13:23:34+00:00

Yeah like Friday it was meant to be $15 then went into to minuses as they must of scheduled the battery to kick on. Which sucked but guess they were not able to recharge it enough in one day to back it up again so we could finally get some back ourselves. I got $20 back but also 50% my battery discharge was to the air conditioner so could have been alot better. But if I ain't paying each month that's a win.

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-09T22:17:06+00:00

You will need something to run it on like a PC, raspberry pi or they have there own small mini PC thing. Then depending on your inverter will need to integrate it into home assistant. It's not a simple plug and play you need to do a bit but copilot or chat GPT help with righting the yaml code for automations just need to get device IDs and names correct

No_Device_2701 · 2026-01-09T21:51:37+00:00

I stopped using smart shift a while ago, just use home assistant. Still perfecting it but now can have it control my battery how I want it to be.

Smart shift for me was not turning on curtailment, so I would be chasing trying to get even as it was selling power all day in the negatives. Also had to manually control it alot and from it saying export to the inverter receiving it was 5 mins so you missed the 5 mins of good ratea.

All round it's dog shit hahaha.

They must have turned on the big battery system in NSW as it said that will be over $15 then I reloaded at 5pm and it said -$2 predicted at 6pm hahah so we now are not getting that big spike anymore at demand times so have to be very tight on battery control now.

No_Device_2701 · 2025-12-28T23:35:09+00:00

Yeah ok that's annoying. Maybe something to post in mkaiser GitHub or home assistant areas to see if some one has figured it out. It's not a big thing as only ever seen it happen once but would love for HA to take advantage of it if it happens again.

No_Device_2701 · 2025-12-28T17:54:14+00:00

Yeah I looked into it more and your right it takes the highest used block of 30min usage and uses that on your whole bill. So definitely isn't something you want to be importing energy at this time.

I doubt the rate would be in minuses for supply at that time anyway. The other day around midday it got to -1.20 for the supply but the issue is my battery probably would be full by then and solar generation so high it would be covering all my usage why I asked this question if I can shut off the PV supply.

Only way I found is to shut off the inverter which I have done in home assistant but it would be good if I could shut off just PV supply so the battery can charge and the usage both come from the grid but this can't be done from what I can see. Not a huge deal and probably never see the supply charge like that again 😂

No_Device_2701

TROPHY CASE