Support miniumum and maxiumum run time

[nicorusti]

Addresses #32 , based on work by @alistair23.

Some work done:

• merged recent changes
• Improved template descriptions and added a few more code comments
• Tested that blueprint works also with Forecast.Solar

@alistair23 would it be ok to contribute your work to the main repository?

Pending issues:

• README
• 81c46e1 that slows down automation to once every minute should be removed from this PR, otherwise power measures every minutes might be too coarse
• run_time counter does not reset to 0 if appliance switches off exactly at 00:00

Improvements:

• miniumum and maxiumum run time - improvements  #89

[alistair23]

@alistair23 would it be ok to contribute your work to the main repository?

Fine with me

[nicorusti]

@alistair23 I have been running this for a couple of days, and I notice an issue with your control algorithm that is using instant power consumption to estimate remaining power for the day ( introduced in 0220d25) :

Basically this triggers the appliance to turn on as soon as there is a sudden consumption peak, that causes remaining_power to go down, while avg_excess_power stays positive. Then appliance stays on as soon as it can be powered in with some solar energy, and then turn off as soon as there is another peak:

I might try using a better metric, maybe average daily power consumption, or average from the last x hours. Let me know if you see the same issue and if you have some ideas

[alistair23]

I might try using a better metric, maybe average daily power consumption, or average from the last x hours. Let me know if you see the same issue and if you have some ideas

Ah, good point. An average of the last x hours seems like the best bet

[Kolbi]

push :)

[Kolbi]

@nicorusti no progress? :)

[nicorusti]

Unfortunately I won't have time to work on this in the next future.
I've been running this code with a pool pump for a month, it works fine with the exception that run_time counter does not reset to 0 if appliance switches off exactly at 00:00.
I think one approach to move forward would be to merge this as it is and leave what I listed as improvement to a future iteration

[Kolbi]

@nicorusti thanks for the update

Do you want to mark this PR as Ready for Merge and note the open point somewhere in README?

@InventoCasa I think it makes sense this 99% solution to merge into repo?

[Kolbi]

FYI @InventoCasa I'm currently testing @nicorusti version with maximum runtime.

[Kolbi]

Currently I'm not sure if my patch or your version breaks something but in some cases the automation doesn't switch the entities off, need to look into the logs.

[Kolbi]

2024-08-19 06:42:28.447 ERROR (MainThread) [custom_components.pyscript.file.pv_excess_control.on_time] Exception in <file.pv_excess_control.on_time> line 699: sunset_time = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(sunset_string) ^ TypeError: fromisoformat: argument must be str

Code-Line:
sunset_time = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(sunset_string)

But as far as I'm currently not using minimum time this is not crucial for me.

But
2024-08-17 03:35:28.445 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.pyscript.file.pv_excess_control.on_time] [switch.tasmota_5 automation.pv (Prio 3)] Home battery charge is sufficient (100/100.0 %) OR remaining solar forecast is higher than remaining capacity of home battery. Calculated average excess power based on >> solar power - load power <<: -308 W 2024-08-17 03:35:28.446 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.pyscript.file.pv_excess_control.on_time] [switch.tasmota_5 automation.pv (Prio 3)] ran for 0.0 min out of 0.0 min and the current total load is 277.000 Kw. Appliance is projected to use -0.000kWh to meet minimum runtime. With current load the remaining solar power is -4.7kWh 2024-08-17 03:35:28.447 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.pyscript.file.pv_excess_control.on_time] [switch.tasmota_5 automation.pv (Prio 3)] Average Excess power (-308 W) not high enough to switch on appliance. 2024-08-17 03:35:28.451 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.pyscript.file.pv_excess_control.on_time] [switch.tasmota_5 (Prio 3)] Appliance is already switched off.

But switch.tasmota_5 had the state on...

[nicorusti]

Code-Line:
sunset_time = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(sunset_string)

@Kolbi Did you configure time of sunset? (likely this error happened because you had it not set). In 89cf98c I improved the logic to skip checks requireing time of sunset if minimum runtime enforcement is not set. Can you try again with the latest changes and let me know if this fixes the error?

[Kolbi]

@

Code-Line:
sunset_time = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(sunset_string)

@Kolbi Did you configure time of sunset? (likely this error happened because you had it not set). In 89cf98c I improved the logic to skip checks requireing time of sunset if minimum runtime enforcement is not set. Can you try again with the latest changes and let me know if this fixes the error?

Thanks for the fix, now minimum and maximum runtime is working without this issue.

[nicorusti]

Great, I now also verified that after aa587fe runtine correctly resets to 0 at midnight (even if appliance turns off).

@InventoCasa , From my side, this PR is now ready to merge. I moved some future improvement points to #89