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    Dynamic Strategy Setup

    The dynamic flow is provided for automated charging/discharging based on changing hourly rates. This is only relevant if you have a dynamic/hourly contract.

    How it works

    The strategy will periodically check for new tariff data from your supplier. You can configure which strategy to use during:

    • Cheapest hours: Choose between Charge (from grid) or Charge PV (solar only)
    • Expensive hours: Choose between Self-consumption or Sell (to grid)
    • Regular hours: Choose between Charge PV (default), Self-consumption, or Full stop

    Smart thresholds ensure periods only activate when economically beneficial.

    View the explanation videos of the general idea behind this strategy:

    Solar prediction

    Tuning of charging levels (SoC) based on PV Forecast can be created by you as a user. Via handmade automations or flows setting the now available SoC and threshold fields. The project will move towards built-in integration in the future.

    SETUP - getting dynamic up and running

    How to setup Dynamic

    1. Install Cheapest Energy Hours if you have not done so already
    2. Provide data from your Energy supplier to Home Assistant. See this easy list with addons from TheFes.
      • Follow any instructions provided by the Data Provider addon.
      • Tip: is your energy supplier not supported? Use ENTSO-e.
    3. Import the 02 strategy-dynamic.json flow into Node-RED and deploy
    4. Go to your Home Battery Control dashboard in HA
      • Select Full control and Dynamic to activate the strategy
    5. Go to 2nd tab, this shows timed and dynamic planning
      • Select your energy supplier from the dropdown
      • The dashboard should (with a small delay) display when it will be charging/idle/discharing in the next 24 hrs.
    6. Minimum price delta
      • Leave the price delta at €0,06/kWh or set it to your desired value
      • For a Marstek bought at ~ €1250, 6000 cycles at 88% DoD and an 80% RTE = delta at €0,06/kWh
      • If you charge largely using solar power, you can lower the price delta down to €0,00/kWh

    Done.

    Need an example of a Data Provider utilizing a blueprint and template sensor? See Nordpool (core) example.

    USE - the dynamic strategy

    How to use Dynamic

    Strategy behavior per period

    • Regular hours: Select baseline strategy (default: Charge PV to capture surplus solar power)
    • Cheapest hours: Select charging strategy (default: Charge to charge from grid at lowest rates)
      • Only activates when average tariff is below configured threshold
    • Expensive hours: Select discharge strategy (default: Self-consumption to reduce grid usage)
      • Only activates when price spread exceeds minimum delta threshold

    Note the dynamic and timed strategy share settings for charge / charge pv / self-consumption.

    Dashboard controls

    Energy supplier / Data source

    • Select your energy supplier from the dropdown to fetch hourly pricing data
    • The system needs this to determine when to charge and discharge

    Cheapest avg tariff is below (cents/kWh)

    • The cheapest period threshold determines when the cheapest period activates
    • Cheapest hours only activate when average tariff is at or below this value
    • Prevents charging from grid when even “cheap” hours are still expensive

    Minimum spread (cents/kWh)

    • The minimum price spread is required between cheap and expensive hours before the expensive period activates
    • Set based on your battery’s round-trip efficiency and cost per cycle
    • Lower this value if you charge primarily with solar power

    Cheapest hours (number)

    • How many of the cheapest hours per day to use for charging from grid
    • The system automatically finds the cheapest consecutive hours in your data source (often: the current and next day)

    Expensive hours (number)

    • How many of the most expensive hours per day to use for self-consumption (discharging)

    • The system automatically finds the most expensive block of consecutive hours in your data source (often: the current and next day)

    • Only activates if the minimum price delta threshold is met. Otherwise grid power is cheaper than the energy stored in your battery.
      • it will remain in charge PV mode during expensive hours if the threshold is not met.

    FAQ

    Period start/end times (read-only)

    • Shows when the cheapest and expensive periods start and end
    • Automatically calculated by the system based on your energy price data

    Average tariffs display

    • Expensive period: Shows the average price during discharge hours
    • Charged at: Shows the average price during charging hours
    • Price delta: The difference between expensive and cheap periods

    Examples

    Nordpool (core)

    1. Install Nordpool Core integration (link)
    2. Install Cheapest Energy Hours integration trough HACS (link)
    3. Install blueprint from Cheapest Energy Hours (link)
    4. Put following code into your template.yaml file, make sure that file is linked from your configuration.yaml file
    - use_blueprint:
    path: TheFes/energy_price_sensor.yaml
    input:
      entity_id: sensor.nordpool_ceh_prices
      source: nordpool
      resolution: 15
      name: Nordpool Cheapest Energy Hours
  unique_id: 881b6558-26c6-44bb-81c5-d86c05451bd4
    1. Now you have a sensor called sensor.nordpool_ceh_prices
    2. Replace this sensor name in the Node Red flow for Dynamic Strategy as show in this first post: go to Node Red, select tab Strategy Dynamic, double click ‘Data Source Settings’
    3. Probably you have to wait some time until data is loaded

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