Python Plugin : Solar Prediction

[JayDotR]

Hi everyone,

I've developed a new plugin for Domoticz that retrieves photovoltaic (PV) production forecasts from Forecast.Solar and makes them available as devices in Domoticz.

The goal is to make solar production forecasts easy to integrate into your home automation, energy monitoring and automation scripts.

Features

• []Remaining Today – Forecast energy production from the current time until midnight.
  []Tomorrow Forecast – Estimated total PV production for the next calendar day.
  []Next Hour Forecast – Estimated PV production for the next complete clock-hour interval.
  []Status – Displays the last update status.
  []Automatic device creation.
  []Configurable through a .env file.
• Energy forecasts reported in kWh.

New in v0.0.3

The latest release introduces the Next Hour Forecast sensor.

For example, at 17:44, the forecast covers 18:00–19:00 rather than a rolling 60-minute period.

This can be useful for automations that depend on expected solar production during the next hour.

Example Use Cases

• []Optimize EV charging based on expected solar production.
  []Schedule appliances when sufficient PV energy is expected.
  []Improve energy management using today's remaining and tomorrow's forecast.
  []Use forecast values in Domoticz scripts and other automations.

Installation and Download

GitHub repository:
https://github.com/janreimen/Domoticz-SolarForecast

Please check the repository README for installation and configuration instructions.

Feedback and Contributions

The plugin is under active development, and feedback is welcome!

If you encounter a problem, please open an issue on GitHub and include the relevant Domoticz logs, with any personal information or API credentials removed.

Suggestions, bug reports and contributions are appreciated.

Happy automating!

[imautohuttraeger]

Great stuff! I will test it maybe this weekend. One question: How to proceed with different PANEL_AZIMUTH? I can only refer to the information in the readme file, so it seems to exist just one PANEL_AZIMUTH - right?

22 panels south
5 panels east
5 panels west

Maybe pragmatically type in just e.g. 29 panels instead of 32, all orientated south?

[JayDotR]

Good point, could you open a feature request issue..

As this seems doable with the plugin

[imautohuttraeger]

Good point, could you open a feature request issue..

As this seems doable with the plugin

Done:
https://github.com/janreimen/Domoticz-S ... 5860606314

[imautohuttraeger]

It is working like a charme. Great - thank you!

One little note: In the instructions for the env. file on GitHub it says for the convention of PANEL_AZIMUTH:
0° south, -90° east, +90° west

But typing in a negative value leads to this error:

Error: Solar Forcast DEV: Startup failed: PANEL_AZIMUTH entry 2 must be a compass bearing between 0 and 360

So it should be changed and maybe even the degree character should be dropped to avoid misunderstandings:
0° south, 90 east, 270 west

[JayDotR]

It is working like a charme. Great - thank you!

One little note: In the instructions for the env. file on GitHub it says for the convention of PANEL_AZIMUTH:
0° south, -90° east, +90° west

But typing in a negative value leads to this error:

Error: Solar Forcast DEV: Startup failed: PANEL_AZIMUTH entry 2 must be a compass bearing between 0 and 360

So it should be changed and maybe even the degree character should be dropped to avoid misunderstandings:
0° south, 90 east, 270 west

Noticed, it will be a mini commit to dev before i merge it towards the master branch

[imautohuttraeger]

Maybe I have expressed it misunderstanding: This only refers to the text of the instruction and not to the implementation. It works perfect with numbers from 0 to 360

[JayDotR]

Hi,

I cross-checked the documentation files, seems I included it in the commit in development.

The readme, changelog, ... files can differ depending if you browse the repo on the "master" branch, or on the "development" branch. Normally I try to update documentation first in dev, maintain it when sth needs to be fixed, and once I merge dev to master, documentation comes along

[edit after post] : https://github.com/janreimen/Domoticz-S ... /tag/0.0.4 --> Release 0.0.4 is out, I started on 0.0.5 locally which is planned to arrive in development for sunday evening