Energy & Power¶
Time-of-Use Pricing¶
Dominion Energy charges different rates depending on the time of day. During "peak" hours, electricity costs roughly twice as much per kilowatt-hour as off-peak times.
| Period | Summer rate | Winter rate | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak | $0.30/kWh | $0.26/kWh | Weekday afternoons/mornings (varies by season) |
| Off-peak | $0.14/kWh | $0.15/kWh | Most of the day |
| Super off-peak | $0.12/kWh | $0.14/kWh | Midnight – 5 AM daily |
Peak hours:
| Season | Peak window | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Summer (May–Sep) | 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Weekdays only |
| Winter (Oct–Apr) | 6:00 AM – 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Weekdays only |
No peak periods on weekends — the cheaper off-peak rate applies all day.
How the House Saves Money Automatically¶
Thermostat Pre-Conditioning (Eco+ TOU)¶
The Ecobee thermostats know the peak schedule. Before peak hours start, the system pre-cools (summer) or pre-heats (winter) the house so the HVAC runs less during the expensive window.
See Climate & Comfort for more detail on how this works.
Dashboard Peak Indicator¶
The Climate tab shows whether you're currently in a peak, off-peak, or super off-peak window and the live rate in $/kWh. Useful for deciding when to run appliances (dishwasher, laundry, etc.) — off-peak and super off-peak windows are much cheaper.
What's Being Monitored Now¶
Four smart plugs throughout the house track live power draw and cumulative energy use:
| Location | What's plugged in |
|---|---|
| Front room | — |
| Upstairs hallway | — |
| Upstairs hallway (2nd plug) | — |
| Office | — |
These report live wattage and total kilowatt-hours to the dashboard and are logged to Grafana for historical trending.
Whole-Home Energy Monitoring — Coming Soon¶
Two Leviton EM16P dual-panel energy monitors are in hand, waiting to be installed in the electrical panels. Once installed:
- Every circuit in the house gets its own energy sensor
- Total house consumption is visible in real time
- Historical usage is logged and viewable in Grafana
- This data feeds into more advanced TOU optimization
This is the single highest-ROI pending install — it unlocks detailed understanding of where the house's energy is going.
Utility Meter Monitoring¶
A NooElec NESDR SMArt v5 RTL-SDR dongle is connected to the HAOS machine and actively scanning 915 MHz for Itron ERT/AMR meter broadcasts.
Electric Meter — Not Available¶
The Dominion Energy electric meter uses AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) — a two-way cellular/mesh network that does not broadcast continuously on 915 MHz. The RTL-SDR cannot read it. Electric sub-metering will come from the EM16P clamp monitors once those are installed on the electrical panels.
Gas Meter — Live¶
Columbia Gas of Virginia uses the older one-way AMR system, which broadcasts on 915 MHz every 30–60 seconds. The rtlamr2mqtt add-on is running, filtering for meter ID 12868632 (Itron ERT module on a Sensus R-275 meter body).
| Entity | Description |
|---|---|
sensor.gas_meter_reading | Live cumulative ft³ reading, published to MQTT via rtlamr2mqtt auto-discovery |
sensor.gas_consumption_ccf | Derived template sensor: ft³ ÷ 100 = CCF (same cumulative total, different unit) |
sensor.gas_daily | Daily delta — resets to 0 at midnight; shows today's ft³ usage |
sensor.gas_monthly | Monthly delta — resets on the 1st; shows this month's ft³ usage |
- All four sensors are live in HA
sensor.gas_meter_readingandsensor.gas_consumption_ccfare wired into the HA Energy dashboard under Gas Consumption- Meter ID confidence: high — consumption (~860,000 ft³) matches the physical register reading and it's the most frequently detected ID in neighborhood scans
- An automation (
gas_meter_restart_rtlamr_on_start) restarts rtlamr2mqtt 30 s after every HA start to force a fresh MQTT publish (workaround for MQTT retain not being available in the add-on schema)
Pending: Gas anomaly alert and monthly cost summary automations (Phase 4 — blocked on first bill to confirm meter ID and get rate).