Is it possible to monitor Solar Production Surplus within Smartthings Energy?

Devices & Integrations
1

Hello all,

After searching the Forum about Solar Monitoring, more specifically about Solar Surplus, I found this great post from Mariano. I also have posted some questions in the past, and got some input from some users that have helped me almost getting where I want with this…

Back in 2024 I bought my first Aeotec Gen5 HEM (one clamp), I used it for over a year to monitor Grid Consumption and Solar Production by placing it on the Grid wire - Positive values were consumption, and negative values surplus.

This allowed me to at least have a “near real time” view, and play with Routines, to send alerts if I was having surplus:

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The problem was the integration with Smartthings Energy. I had the HEM5 configured as total consumption, and let’s imagine that from 00:00 to 08:00 I consumed 2kwh, and from 08:00 to 16:00 I was self-sufficient, and on top of that generated a total of 2kwh surplus, for Smartthings it would be as if I had actually consumed 0 from 00:00 to 16:00.

Last month, after a response on my old post I came across some features I didn’t know about, on Smartthings Energy. After reading for a while, I decided to buy a second HEM5, and attach it to the Solar Panels backbone wire that injects electricity into my home (not using Batteries).

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Config in the Measurement Settings:

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In this example, I can see that I’m over producing:

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For Smartthings the Solar Production readings will be just fine, but I believe a constant reading of negative values would cause the same problem I mentioned earlier.

I know there’s this feature that you can configure the HEM for Positive readings only. But that way I lose my way of seeing the Surplus.

So, I wanted to find out how other users track Surplus, and it Smartthings Energy actually does it. I know that I can get yet another clamp, and monitor the same wire… since my HEMs are 1 phase only, that would mean buying another one.

If Smartthings Energy doesn’t track Surplus at all, the more cost efficient option would be to buy a device other than the HEM5.

@Mariano_Colmenarejo @stillerson sorry to tag you directly, but as far as I’ve seen here in the Forum, you guys shared some insights which lead me to believe that maybe you can help.

Cheers

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o @Patrick_Duarte tem controle de geração de energia solar ligado ao ST. Pode ser que ele te ajude…

It has a solar power generation control system connected to the ST. It might be able to help you…

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Here is the topic from Patrick:

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Thanks both for your replies. My question is geared towards Surplus and Smartthings Energy. Not how to monitor per se.

5

Unfortunately, only devices certified by Samsung can appear on Energy.
I’m thinking of making a driver that better calculates solar production and home energy data, because I also have the problem of going negative.

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Hi @nf098,

sorry for reacting late to this. And unfortunately I think I cannot help you with regards to Smartthings as a solution or tool for what you search or want to establish.
As far as energy reporting and its visuliazation goes, I like their approach and some of the unique features in combination of what I find visually pleasing and what works with most of my stuff I have at home. But for a more detailled and powerfull look and analysis of what is going on in my home regarding to power & solar production (and gas, battery and water usage), I switched to Homeassistant a while ago. For several reasons, but buttom line is, that Smartthings Energy Service is way too limited (for what I want to see) and they make it hard to understand (for me) what is possible, which manufacturers, devices and features are supported and how they are planning on moving on. The whole “certified with Smartthings Energy” is an impenetrable mess, if you ask me.
As far as I am concerned, and/but I am by any means no expert or a developer.

Similar to you, I was really struggeling to make Smartthings work with what I think should be there and/or optional (and not only for the Energy section), but it seems, they are not interested in this kind of detail for more advanced users; I have to say. What they do, works for a huge part of the userbase and thats fine making it really stable, easy approachable and kind of fun to play with without getting too deep into maintaing it I guess. Gamification-style, but not more.

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Hey @stillerson, thanks for the reply. No problem, at least you were able to help me before with the proper way to configure solar monitoring on Smartthings Energy. All I had before was a HEM connected, but the data on Energy wouldn’t be accurate, because of all the other variables. After I’ve seen your screenshots and explored it a bit more I found options I had not seen before. Now its better, but not perfect.

Regarding Home Assistant, I thought about it, I had tried for a month, but what made me come back was not having the time to do everything in terms of views, and also some equipments that I couldn’t make it work exactly as I had them working on Smartthings (mostly Samsung Home appliances and Aeotec devices). Who knows, maybe one day I go back.

Cheers