Setting up the energy dashboard properly for electricity and gas

Your smart meter is hooked up to the P1 port and the data is flowing in. The energy dashboard, meanwhile, is still empty. Or worse: it is showing you a perfectly tidy graph that happens to be missing half your electricity, because one meter reading is absent and nothing tells you so. Fifteen minutes of setup gets you a dashboard that stays correct for the rest of the year.

Electricity: two tariffs, so two sensors

Dutch meters count in two tariffs: tariff 1 (low, or off-peak) and tariff 2 (normal). The DSMR integration therefore exposes a separate meter reading per tariff, and this is where it usually goes wrong. Add only one of them and half your usage disappears without a single error message. So under Settings → Dashboards → Energy → Electricity grid, add both sensors under consumption:

• Energy consumption tariff 1
• Energy consumption tariff 2

No solar panels? Then simply leave return to grid empty.

Gas: slow, and that is normal

Add your gas meter reading under Gas consumption; it comes in over the same P1 port. Do not expect live figures, because the meter only reports gas every five minutes (DSMR 5) or even once an hour (DSMR 4). Nothing is broken, and it makes no difference anyway, since the dashboard works in hourly totals regardless.

Costs: what is and is not included

Per sensor you either enter a fixed price or link a price entity. On a fixed contract a flat price per kWh and per m³ is enough; on a dynamic contract you link a sensor carrying the current price. Expect the totals to come out lower than your actual bill, because grid operator fees and standing charges are not part of this. The dashboard only ever shows the variable portion.

Tracking appliances separately

Under Individual devices you add the energy sensors from your metering plugs and from appliances that measure themselves. This is where your big consumers float to the surface, and it is usually not the appliance you had your money on. Two things to watch:

• The dashboard wants energy (kWh), not power (W). If all you have is power, turn it into a kWh sensor with the Integral (Riemann sum) helper.
• If your washing machine and dryer share one power strip, you are measuring them as a single appliance. To find out which of the two is eating your electricity, give each its own metering plug.

One dashboard instead of two

If you already run your own dashboard, a second entry in the sidebar is mostly just confusing. The energy cards (energy-usage-graph, energy-distribution) work just as well inside your own views, after which you can hide the stock energy dashboard entirely.

Frequently asked questions

Why do I only see data after an hour? Because the dashboard works on hourly statistics. A new sensor shows up once the first full hour has passed. Nothing is broken; you just have to wait.

Can I add solar panels later? Yes, and you will not have to redo any of this. Add the return-to-grid sensors per tariff, and your inverter's production under Solar panels.

Do I need to bother with tariff 1 and 2 on a single tariff? Add them both anyway and give them the same price. Your meter keeps counting per tariff internally, and because the prices match, your costs come out right.