Hildebrand Glow (DCC) Integration

Home Assistant integration for energy consumption data from UK SMETS (Smart) meters using the Hildebrand Glow API.

This integration works without requiring a consumer device provided by Hildebrand Glow and can work with your existing smart meter. You'll need to set up your smart meter for free in the Bright app on Android or iOS. This will only work when using the Data Communications Company (DCC) backend, which all SMETS 2 meters and some SMETS 1 meters do. Once you can see your data in the app, you are good to go.

The data provided will be delayed by around 30 minutes. To get real-time consumption data, you can buy Hildebrand Glow hardware. Although this integration will technically work with their hardware, you should instead use the Local MQTT integration or the Cloud MQTT integration to get real-time consumption data which is not delayed.

Installation

Automated installation through HACS

You can install this component through HACS to easily receive updates. Once HACS is installed, click this link:

Manually add to HACS

Visit the HACS Integrations pane and go to Explore and download repositories. Search for Hildebrand Glow (DCC), and then hit Download. You'll then be able to install it through the Integrations pane.

Manual installation

Copy the custom_components/hildebrandglow_dcc/ directory and all of its files to your config/custom_components/ directory.

Configuration

Once installed, restart Home Assistant:

Then, add the integration:

Manually add the Integration

Visit the Integrations section in Home Assistant and click the Add button in the bottom right corner. Search for Hildebrand Glow (DCC) and input your credentials. You may need to clear your browser cache before the integration appears in the list.

Sensors

Once you've authenticated, the integration will automatically set up the following sensors for each of the smart meters on your account:

• Usage (Today) - Consumption today (kWh)
• Cost (Today) - Total cost of today's consumption (GBP)
• Standing Charge - Current standing charge (GBP)
• Rate - Current tariff (GBP/kWh)

The usage and cost sensors will still show the previous day's data until shortly after 01:30 to ensure that all of the previous day's data is collected.

The standing charge and rate sensors are disabled by default as they are less commonly used. Before enabling them, ensure the data is visible in the Bright app.

If the data being shown is wrong, check the Bright app first. If it is also wrong there, you will need to contact your supplier and tell them to fix the data being provided to DCC Other Users, as Bright is one of these.

Energy Management

The sensors created integrate directly into Home Assistant's Home Energy Management. It is recommended you use the daily usage and cost sensors in the Energy integration.

Debugging

To debug the integration, add the following to your configuration.yaml

logger:
  default: warning
  logs:
    custom_components.hildebrandglow_dcc: debug

Development

To begin, it is recommended to create a virtual environment to install dependencies:

python -m venv dev-venv
. dev-venv\Scripts\activate

You can then install the dependencies that will allow you to develop: pip3 install -r requirements-dev.txt

This will install black, homeassistant, isort, pyglowmarkt and pylint.

Code Style

This project makes use of black, isort and pylint to enforce a consistent code style across the codebase.

Credits

Thanks go to:

• The pyglowmarkt library, which is used to interact with the Hildebrand API.

• The Hildebrand API documentation and Swagger UI.

• The original project from which this project is forked.

• The Hildebrand-Glow-Python-Library, used for understanding the API.

• All of the contributors and users, without whom this integration wouldn't be where it is today.