This binding provides data from Solar Forecast services. Use it to estimate your daily production, plan electric consumers like Electric Vehicle charging, heating or HVAC. Look ahead the next days in order to identify surplus / shortages in your energy planning.
Supported Services
- Solcast
- Free Hobbyist Plan with registration
- Forecast.Solar
- Public, Personal and Professional plans available
Display Power values of Forecast and PV Inverter items
Display Energy values of Forecast and PV inverter items Yellow line shows Daily Total Forecast.
Each service needs one xx-site for your location and at least one photovoltaic xx-plane.
| Name | Thing Type ID |
|---|---|
| Solcast service site definition | sc-site |
| Solcast PV Plane | sc-plane |
| Forecast Solar site location | fs-site |
| Forecast Solar PV Plane | fs-plane |
Solcast service requires a personal registration with an e-mail address.
A free version for your personal home PV system is available in Hobbyist Plan
You need to configure your home photovoltaic system within the web interface.
The resourceId for each PV plane is provided afterwards.
In order to receive proper timestamps double check your time zone in openHAB - Settings - Regional Settings. Correct time zone is necessary to show correct forecast times in UI.
You have the opportunity to send your own measurements back to Solcast API. This data is used internally to improve the forecast for your specific site. Configuration and channels can be set after checking the Show advanced checkbox. You need an item which reports the electric power for the specific rooftop. If item isn't set, no measures will be sent. As described in Solcast Rooftop Measurement check in beforehand if your measures are sane.
- item is delivering correct values and they are stored in persistence
- time zone setting in openHAB is correct to deliver correct timestamp
After measurement is sent the raw-tuning channel is reporting the result.
| Name | Type | Description | Default | Required | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| apiKey | text | API Key | N/A | yes | no |
| channelRefreshInterval | integer | Channel Refresh Interval in minutes | 1 | yes | no |
| timeZone | text | Time Zone of forecast location | auto-detect | no | yes |
apiKey can be obtained in your Account Settings
timeZone is set to auto-detect to evaluate Regional Settings of your openHAB installation.
See DateTime section for more information.
| Name | Type | Description | Default | Required | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| resourceId | text | Resource Id of Solcast rooftop site | N/A | yes | no |
| refreshInterval | integer | Forecast Refresh Interval in minutes | 120 | yes | no |
| powerItem | text | Power item from your solar inverter for this rooftop | N/A | no | yes |
| powerUnit | text | Unit selection of the powerItem | auto-detect | no | yes |
resourceId for each plane can be obtained in your Rooftop Sites
refreshInterval of forecast data needs to respect the throttling of the Solcast service.
If you have 25 free calls per day, each plane needs 2 calls per update a refresh interval of 120 minutes will result in 24 calls per day.
Note: channelRefreshInterval from Bridge Configuration will calculate intermediate values without requesting new forecast data.
powerItem shall reflect the power for this specific rooftop.
It's an optional setting and the measure is sent to Solcast API in order to tune the forecast in the future.
If you don't want to send measures to Solcast, leave this configuration item empty.
powerUnit is set to auto-detect.
In case the powerItem is delivering a valid QuantityType<Power> state, this setting is fine.
If the item delivers a raw number without unit please select powerUnit accordingly if item state, is Watt or Kilowatt unit.
Each sc-plane reports its own values including a raw channel holding JSON content.
The sc-site bridge sums up all attached sc-plane values and provides the total forecast for your home location.
Channels are covering today's actual data with current, remaining and today's total prediction. Forecasts are delivered up to 6 days in advance including
- a pessimistic scenario: 10th percentile
- an optimistic scenario: 90th percentile
DayX channels are referring to forecasts plus X days: 1 = tomorrow, 2 = day after tomorrow, ...
| Channel | Type | Unit | Description | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| actual | Number:Energy | kWh | Today's forecast till now | no |
| actual-power | Number:Power | W | Predicted power in this moment | no |
| remaining | Number:Energy | kWh | Forecast of today's remaining production | no |
| today | Number:Energy | kWh | Today's forecast in total | no |
| dayX | Number:Energy | kWh | Day X forecast in total | no |
| dayX-low | Number:Energy | kWh | Day X pessimistic forecast | no |
| dayX-high | Number:Energy | kWh | Day X optimistic forecast | no |
| raw | String | - | Plain JSON response without conversions | yes |
| raw-tuning | String | - | JSON response from tuning call | yes |
ForecastSolar service provides a public free plan. You can try it without any registration or other preconditions.
| Name | Type | Description | Default | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| location | text | Location of Photovoltaic system | auto-detect | yes |
| channelRefreshInterval | integer | Channel Refresh Interval in minutes | 1 | yes |
| apiKey | text | API Key | N/A | no |
location defines latitude, longitude values of your PV system.
In case of auto-detect the location configured in openHAB is obtained.
apiKey can be given in case you subscribed to a paid plan
| Name | Type | Description | Default | Required | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| refreshInterval | integer | Forecast Refresh Interval in minutes | 30 | yes | false |
| declination | integer | Plane Declination: 0 for horizontal till 90 for vertical declination | N/A | yes | false |
| azimuth | integer | Plane Azimuth: -180 = north, -90 = east, 0 = south, 90 = west, 180 = north | N/A | yes | false |
| kwp | decimal | Installed Kilowatt Peak | N/A | yes | false |
| dampAM | decimal | Damping factor of morning hours | N/A | no | true |
| dampPM | decimal | Damping factor of evening hours | N/A | no | true |
| horizon | text | Horizon definition as comma separated integer values | N/A | no | true |
refreshInterval of forecast data needs to respect the throttling of the ForecastSolar service.
12 calls per hour allowed from your caller IP address so for 2 planes lowest possible refresh rate is 10 minutes.
Note: channelRefreshInterval from Bridge Configuration will calculate intermediate values without requesting new forecast data.
Advanced configuration parameters are available to fine tune your forecast data. Read linked documentation in order to know what you're doing.
Damping factors for morning and evening.
Horizon information as comma separated integer list. This configuration item is aimed to expert users. You need to understand the horizon concept. Shadow obstacles like mountains, hills, buildings can be expressed here. First step can be a download from PVGIS tool and downloading the terrain shadows. But it doesn't fit 100% to the required configuration. Currently there's no tool available which is providing the configuration information 1 to 1. So you need to know what you're doing.
Each fs-plane reports it's own values including a raw channel holding JSON content.
The fs-site bridge sums up all attached fs-plane values and provides the total forecast for your home location.
Channels are covering today's actual data with current, remaining and total prediction. Forecasts are delivered up to 3 days for paid personal plans.
DayX channels are referring to forecasts plus X days: 1 = tomorrow, 2 = day after tomorrow, ...
| Channel | Type | Unit | Description | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| actual | Number:Energy | kWh | Today's forecast till now | no |
| actual-power | Number:Power | W | Predicted power in this moment | no |
| remaining | Number:Energy | kWh | Forecast of today's remaining production | no |
| today | Number:Energy | kWh | Today's forecast in total | no |
| dayX | Number:Energy | kWh | Day X forecast in total | no |
| raw | String | - | Plain JSON response without conversions | yes |
All things sc-site, sc-plane, fs-site and fs-plane are providing the same Actions.
Channels are providing actual forecast data and daily forecasts in future.
Actions provides an interface to execute more sophisticated handling in rules.
You can execute this for each xx-plane for specific plane values or xx-site to sum up all attached planes.
See Date Time section for more information. Double check your time zone in openHAB - Settings - Regional Settings which is crucial for calculation.
Returns Instant of the earliest possible forecast data available.
It's located in the past, e.g. Solcast provides data from the last 7 days.
Instant.MAX is returned in case of no forecast data is available.
Returns Instant of the latest possible forecast data available.
Instant.MIN is returned in case of no forecast data is available.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| timestamp | Instant | Timestamp of power query |
| mode | String | Choose optimistic or pessimistic to get values for a positive or negative future scenario. Only Solcast. |
Returns QuantityType<Power> at the given Instant timestamp.
Respect getForecastBegin and getForecastEnd to get a valid value.
Check for UndefType.UNDEF in case of errors.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| date | LocalDate | Date of the day |
| mode | String | Choose optimistic or pessimistic to get values for a positive or negative future scenario. Only Solcast. |
Returns QuantityType<Energy> at the given localDate.
Respect getForecastBegin and getForecastEnd to avoid ambiguous values.
Check for UndefType.UNDEF in case of errors.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| startTimestamp | Instant | Start timestamp of energy query |
| endTimestamp | Instant | End timestamp of energy query |
| mode | String | Choose optimistic or pessimistic to get values for a positive or negative future scenario. Only Solcast. |
Returns QuantityType<Energy> between the timestamps startTimestamp and endTimestamp.
Respect getForecastBegin and getForecastEnd to avoid ambiguous values.
Check for UndefType.UNDEF in case of errors.
Each forecast is bound to a certain location which automatically defines the time zone.
Most common use case is forecast and your locarion are matching the same time zone.
Action interface is using Instant as timestamps which enables you translating to any time zone.
This allows you with an easy conversion to query also foreign forecast locations.
Examples are showing
- how to translate
InstanttoZonedDateTimeobjects and - how to translate
ZonedDateTimetoInstantobjects
Example is based on Forecast.Solar service without any registration. Exchange the configuration data in thing file and you're ready to go.
Bridge solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite "ForecastSolar Home" [ location="54.321,8.976", channelRefreshInterval=1] {
Thing fs-plane homeSouthWest "ForecastSolar Home South-West" [ refreshInterval=10, azimuth=45, declination=35, kwp=5.5]
Thing fs-plane homeNorthEast "ForecastSolar Home North-East" [ refreshInterval=10, azimuth=-145, declination=35, kwp=4.425]
}Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Actual "Actual Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite:actual" }
Number:Power ForecastSolarHome_Actual_Power "Actual Power Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite:actual-power" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Remaining "Remaining Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite:remaining" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Today "Today Total Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite:today" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Day1 "Tomorrow Total Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite:day1" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Actual_NE "Actual NE Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeNorthEast:actual" }
Number:Power ForecastSolarHome_Actual_Power_NE "Actual NE Power Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeNorthEast:actual-power" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Remaining_NE "Remaining NE Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeNorthEast:remaining" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Today_NE "Total NE Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeNorthEast:today" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Day_NE "Tomorrow NE Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeNorthEast:day1" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Actual_SW "Actual SW Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeSouthWest:actual" }
Number:Power ForecastSolarHome_Actual_Power_SW "Actual SW Power Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeSouthWest:actual-power" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Remaining_SW "Remaining SW Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeSouthWest:remaining" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Today_SW "Total SW Forecast Today [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeSouthWest:today" }
Number:Energy ForecastSolarHome_Day_SW "Tomorrow SW Forecast [%.3f %unit%]" {channel="solarforecast:fs-plane:homeSite:homeSouthWest:day1" } import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit
rule "Forecast Solar Actions"
when
Time cron "0 0 23 * * ?" // trigger whatever you like
then
// get Actions for specific fs-site
val solarforecastActions = getActions("solarforecast","solarforecast:fs-site:homeSite")
val timeZone = "Europe/Berlin"
// get earliest and latest forecast dates
val beginDT = solarforecastActions.getForecastBegin
val endDT = solarforecastActions.getForecastEnd
logInfo("SF Tests","Begin: "+ beginDT.atZone(ZoneId.of(timeZone))+" End: "+endDT.atZone(ZoneId.of(timeZone)))
// get forecast for tomorrow
val fcTomorrowState = solarforecastActions.getDay(LocalDate.now.plusDays(1))
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast tomorrow state: "+ fcTomorrowState.toString)
val fcToTomorrowDouble = (fcTomorrowState as Number).doubleValue
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast tomorrow value: "+ fcToTomorrowDouble)
// get power forecast in one hour
val hourPlusOnePowerState = solarforecastActions.getPower(Instant.now.plus(1,ChronoUnit.HOURS))
logInfo("SF Tests","Hour+1 power state: "+ hourPlusOnePowerState.toString)
val hourPlusOnePowerValue = (hourPlusOnePowerState as Number).doubleValue
logInfo("SF Tests","Hour+1 power value: "+ hourPlusOnePowerValue)
// get energy forecast at specific time: Nov 18th 2023, 16:00
val startDT = LocalDateTime.of(2023,11,18,16,00).atZone(ZoneId.of(timeZone))
val stopDT = startDT.plusDays(2)
val twoDaysForecastFromNowState = solarforecastActions.getEnergy(startDT.toInstant, stopDT.toInstant)
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast 2 days state: "+ twoDaysForecastFromNowState.toString)
val twoDaysForecastFromNowValue = (twoDaysForecastFromNowState as Number).doubleValue
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast 2 days value: "+ twoDaysForecastFromNowValue)
endshall produce following output
2023-11-18 22:00:59.250 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Begin: 2023-11-18T07:34:23+01:00[Europe/Berlin] End: 2023-11-19T16:26:50+01:00[Europe/Berlin]
2023-11-18 22:00:59.262 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast tomorrow state: 3.861 kWh
2023-11-18 22:00:59.267 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast tomorrow value: 3.861
2023-11-18 22:00:59.275 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Hour+1 power state: 0 kW
2023-11-18 22:00:59.280 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Hour+1 power value: 0.0
2023-11-18 22:00:59.296 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast 2 days state: 3.865 kWh
2023-11-18 22:00:59.300 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast 2 days value: 3.865
Only Solcast is delivering optimistic and pessimistic scenario data.
If arguments are used on ForecastSolar UNDEF state is returned
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit
rrule "Solcast Actions"
when
Time cron "0 0 23 * * ?" // trigger whatever you like
then
val solarforecastActions = getActions("solarforecast","solarforecast:sc-site:homeSite")
val startTimestamp = Instant.now
val endTimestamp = Instant.now.plus(6, ChronoUnit.DAYS)
val sixDayForecast = solarforecastActions.getEnergy(startTimestamp,endTimestamp)
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast Estimate 6 days "+ sixDayForecast)
val sixDayOptimistic = solarforecastActions.getEnergy(startTimestamp,endTimestamp, "optimistic")
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast Optimist 6 days "+ sixDayOptimistic)
val sixDayPessimistic = solarforecastActions.getEnergy(startTimestamp,endTimestamp, "pessimistic")
logInfo("SF Tests","Forecast Pessimist 6 days "+ sixDayPessimistic)
endshall produce following output
2022-08-10 00:02:16.569 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast Estimate 6 days 309.424 kWh
2022-08-10 00:02:16.574 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast Optimist 6 days 319.827 kWh
2022-08-10 00:02:16.578 [INFO ] [g.openhab.core.model.script.SF Tests] - Forecast Pessimist 6 days 208.235 kWh