PV Opt: Home Assistant Solar/Battery Optimiser v3.15.2

Solar / Battery Charging Optimisation for Home Assistant. This appDaemon application attempts to optimise charging and discharging of a home solar/battery system to minimise cost electricity cost on a daily basis using freely available solar forecast data from SolCast. This is particularly beneficial for Octopus Agile but is also benefeficial for other time-of-use tariffs such as Octopus Flux or simple Economy 7.

The application will integrate fully with Solis inverters which are controlled using any of:

• Home Assistant Solax Modbus Integration
• Home Assistant Core Modbus Integration
• Home Assistant Solarman Integration

Once installed it should require miminal configuration. Other inverters/integrations can be added if required or can be controlled indirectly using automations.

It has been tested primarily with Octopus tariffs but other tariffs can be manually implemented.

Don't Buy Me a Beer or a Coffee...

Although I'm very partial to both, a better home for anything you might like to contribute would be the Mountain Rescue Team that I am currently a probationer (trainee) with. The Team comprises 40 unpaid volunteers and is on call 24/7 365 days a year in all weathers. You can donate via JustGiving by clicking on this link:

Pre-requisites

This app is not stand-alone it requires the following:

Websites
Solcast Hobby Account	Required	Provides solar PV generation forecasts up to 10 times per day,
Add-ons
HACS	Required	Home Assistant Community Store - used to distribute the app and updates
AppDaemon	Required	Python execution environment
Mosquitto MQTT Broker	Required	Used to create Home Assistant Entities using MQTT Discovery .
File Editor	Required	Used to edit the appdaemon.yaml and config.yaml files. Alternatively you could use Samba Share or Studio Code Server
Samba Share	Alternative	Alternative to using File Editor to edit config files. Not convered in this guide.
Studio Code Server	Alternative	Alternative to using File Editor to edit config files. Not convered in this guide.
Integrations
Solcast PV Solar Integration	Required	Retrieves solar forecast from Solcast into Home Assistant
Octopus Energy	Optional	Used to retrieve tariff information and Octopus Saving Session details
Solax Modbus	Optional	Used to control Solis inverter directly. Support for two other integrations is now available (see below). Support inverter brands is possible using the API described below.

Step by Step Installation Guide

1. Get a Solcast Hobby Account

PV_Opt relies on solar forecasts data from Solcast. You can sign up for a Private User account here. This licence gives you 10 (it used to be 50 🙁) API calls a day.

2. Install HACS

1. Install HACS: https://hacs.xyz/docs/setup/download
2. Enable AppDaemon in HACS: https://hacs.xyz/docs/categories/appdaemon_apps/

3. Install the Solcast PV Solar Integration (v4.0.x)

1. Install the integation via HACS: https://github.com/oziee/ha-solcast-solar
2. Add the Integration via Settings: http://homeassistant.local:8123/config/integrations/dashboard
3. Once installed configure using your Solcast API Key from (1) .
4. Set up an automation to update according to your desired schedule. Once every 3 hours will work.

4. Install the Octopus Energy Integration (If Required)

This excellent integration will pull Octopus Price data in to Home Assistant. Solar Opt pulls data from Octopus independently of this integration but will extract current tariff codes from it if they are avaiable. If not it will either use account details supplied in secrets.yaml or explicitly defined Octopus tariff codes set in config.yaml.

5. Install the Integration to Control Your Inverter

At present this app only works directly with Solis hybrid inverters using either the Solax Modbus integration (https://github.com/wills106/homeassistant-solax-modbus) or the HA Core Modbus as described here: https://github.com/fboundy/ha_solis_modbus. Support for the Solarman integration (https://github.com/StephanJoubert/home_assistant_solarman) is in test. At the moment writing to the inverter is disabled pending further testing by Solarman users.

Solax Modbus:

1. Install the integration via HACS: https://github.com/wills106/homeassistant-solax-modbus
2. Add the Integration via Settings: http://homeassistant.local:8123/config/integrations/dashboard
3. Configure the connection:

   Prefix	solis
   Interface	TCP/Ethernet
   Inverter Type	solis
   IP Address	IP of your datalogger
   TCP Port	502
   Protocol	Modbus TCP

4. Check that you have comms with the inverter and the various entities in the integration are populated with data

HA Core Modbus

Follow the Github instructions here: https://github.com/fboundy/ha_solis_modbus

Solarman

Follow the Github instructions here: https://github.com/StephanJoubert/home_assistant_solarman

6. Install the MQTT Integraion in Home Assistant

1. Click on the button below to add the MQTT integration:

   

7. Install Mosquitto MQTT Broker

1. Click the Home Assistant My button below to open the add-on on your Home Assistant instance:

   

2. Click on Install

3. Configure the Add-On as per the documentation: http://homeassistant.local:8123/hassio/addon/core_mosquitto/documentation

4. Either save the MQTT username and password in your secrets.yaml file or make a note of them for later.

8. Install File Editor

9. Install Samba Share and/or Studio Code Server Add-ons If Required

Both of these add-ons make it easier to edit text files on your HA Install but aren't strictly necessary. Samba Share also makes it easier to access the AppDaemon log files.

10. Install AppDaemon

The PV_Opt python script currently runs under AppDaemon.

AppDaemon is a loosely coupled, multi-threaded, sandboxed python execution environment for writing automation apps for home automation projects, and any environment that requires a robust event driven architecture. The simplest way to install it on Home Assistantt is using the dedicated add-on:

1. Click the Home Assistant My button below to open the add-on on your Home Assistant instance:

   

2. Click on Install

3. Turn on Auto update

11. Configure AppDaemon

1. Use File Editor (or one of the alternatives) to open /addon_configs/a0d7b954_appdaemon/appdaemon.yaml.

2. The suggested configuration is as follows. This assumes that you are using secrets.yaml for your password information. If not then the secrets entry can be deleted and the MQTT client_user and client password will need to be entered explicitly.

    secrets: /homeassistant/secrets.yaml
    appdaemon:
      latitude: 54.729
      longitude: -2.991
      elevation: 175
      time_zone: Europe/London
      thread_duration_warning_threshold: 45
      app_dir: /homeassistant/appdaemon/apps
      plugins:
        HASS:
          type: hass
        MQTT:
          type: mqtt
          namespace: mqtt #
          verbose: True
          client_host: core-mosquitto
          client_port: 1883
          client_id: localad
          event_name: MQTT_MESSAGE 
          client_topics: NONE
          client_user: !secret mqtt-user
          client_password: !secret mqtt-password
   
    http:
      url: http://127.0.0.1:5050
    admin:
    api:
    hadashboard:
   

3. It is also recommended that you add the following entries to appdaemon.yaml to improve AppDaemon logging. These settings assume that you have a /share/logs folder setup using Samba Share.

    logs:
      main_log:
        filename: /share/logs/main.log
        date_format: '%H:%M:%S'
      error_log:
        filename: /share/logs/error.log
        date_format: '%H:%M:%S'    
      pv_opt_log:
        name: PV_Opt
        filename: /share/logs/pv_opt.log
        date_format: '%H:%M:%S'      
        format: '{asctime} {levelname:>8s}: {message}'
   

4. Open the AppDaemon Add-On via Settings: http://homeassistant.local:8123/hassio/addon/a0d7b954_appdaemon/info

5. Click on Configuration at the top

6. Click the 3 dots and Edit in YAML to add pandas and numpy as Python packages. Note that numpy has to be set to version 1.26.4 due to an unresolved compatability issue between Home Assistant and 2.0.0:

   init_commands: []
   python_packages:
     - pandas
     - numpy==1.26.4
   system_packages: []
   
   

7. Go back to the Info page and click on Start

8. Click on Log. Appdaemon will download and install numpy and pandas. Click on Refresh until you see:

    s6-rc: info: service init-appdaemon successfully started
    s6-rc: info: service appdaemon: starting
    s6-rc: info: service appdaemon successfully started
    s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: starting
    [12:54:30] INFO: Starting AppDaemon...
    s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully started
   

9. Either click on Info followed by OPEN WEB UI and then Logs or open your main_log file from the location specified in step (3) above. You should see:

   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: AppDaemon Version 4.4.2 starting
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Python version is 3.11.6
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Configuration read from: /config/appdaemon.yaml
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: AppDaemon
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: Error
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: Access
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: Diag
   13:16:24 INFO AppDaemon: Added log: PV_Opt
   13:16:25 INFO AppDaemon: Loading Plugin HASS using class HassPlugin from module hassplugin
   13:16:25 INFO HASS: HASS Plugin Initializing
   13:16:25 WARNING HASS: ha_url not found in HASS configuration - module not initialized
   13:16:25 INFO HASS: HASS Plugin initialization complete
   13:16:25 INFO AppDaemon: Loading Plugin MQTT using class MqttPlugin from module mqttplugin
   13:16:26 INFO MQTT: MQTT Plugin Initializing
   13:16:26 INFO MQTT: Using 'localad/status' as Will Topic
   13:16:26 INFO MQTT: Using 'localad/status' as Birth Topic
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Initializing HTTP
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Using 'ws' for event stream
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting API
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting Admin Interface
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting Dashboards
   13:16:26 INFO HASS: Connected to Home Assistant 2023.11.1
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Starting Apps with 0 workers and 0 pins
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Running on port 5050
   13:16:26 INFO MQTT: Connected to Broker at URL core-mosquitto:1883
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Got initial state from namespace mqtt
   13:16:26 INFO MQTT: MQTT Plugin initialization complete
   13:16:26 INFO HASS: Evaluating startup conditions
   13:16:26 INFO HASS: Startup condition met: hass state=RUNNING
   13:16:26 INFO HASS: All startup conditions met
   13:16:26 INFO AppDaemon: Got initial state from namespace default
   13:16:28 INFO AppDaemon: Scheduler running in realtime
   13:16:28 INFO AppDaemon: Adding /homeassistant/appdaemon/apps to module import path
   13:16:28 INFO AppDaemon: App initialization complete
   

That's it. AppDaemon is up and running. There is futher documentation for the on the Add-on and for AppDaemon

12. Install PV Opt from HACS

0. Make sure HACS "Enable AppDaemon apps discovery & tracking" is enabled - under integrations in HA https://hacs.xyz/docs/categories/appdaemon_apps/
1. Go to HACS
2. Select Automation
3. Click on the 3 dots top right and Add Custom Repository
4. Add this repository https://github.com/fboundy/pv_opt and select AppDaemon as the Category
5. Download the app

Once downloaded AppDaemon should see the app and attempt to load it using the default configuration. Go back to the AppDaemon logs and this time open pv_opt_log. You should see:

16:53:23     INFO: ******************* PV Opt v3.0.1 *******************
16:53:23     INFO: 
16:53:23     INFO: Time Zone Offset: 0.0 minutes
16:53:23     INFO: Reading arguments from YAML:
16:53:23     INFO: -----------------------------------
16:53:23     INFO: 
16:53:23     INFO: Checking config:
16:53:23     INFO: -----------------------
16:53:23  WARNING:     forced_charge       = True   Source: system default. Not in YAML.
16:53:23  WARNING:     forced_discharge    = True   Source: system default. Not in YAML.
16:53:23  WARNING:     read_only           = True   Source: system default. Not in YAML.

13. Add an Automation to Restart AppDAemon when HA Restarts (Optional)

Restarts between Home Assistant and Add-Ons are not synchronised so it is helpful to set up an Automation to restart AppDAemon if HA is restarted. An example is shown below and included in this repo as ha_restart_automation.yaml. The wait_template section ensures that key integrations (in this case Solcast and Solax) have numeric values before AppDaemon is started.

alias: Restart AppDaemon on HA Restart
description: ""
trigger:
  - event: start
    platform: homeassistant
condition: []
action:
  - service: hassio.addon_stop
    data:
      addon: a0d7b954_appdaemon
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 0
  - wait_template: >
      {{(states('sensor.solcast_pv_forecast_forecast_today')| float(-1)>0) and
      (states('sensor.solis_battery_soc')| float(-1)>0)}}
    continue_on_timeout: true
  - service: hassio.addon_start
    data:
      addon: a0d7b954_appdaemon
mode: single

Configuration

If you have the Solcast, Octopus and Solax integrations set up as specified above, there should be minimal configuration required.

If you are running a different integration or inverter brand you will need to edit the config.yaml file to select the correct inverter_type. You may also need to change the device_name. This is the name given to your inverter by your integration. The default is solis but this can also be changed in config.yaml.

inverter_type: SOLIS_CORE_MODBUS
device_name: solis

The config.yaml file also includes all the other configuration used by PV Opt. If you are using the default setup you shouldn't need to change this but you can edit anything by un-commenting the relevant line in the file. The configuration is grouped by inverter/integration and should be self-explanatory. Once PV Opt is installed the config is stored within entities in Home Assistant. It you want these over-ritten please ensure that overwrite_ha_on_restart is set to true:

overwrite_ha_on_restart: true

PV_Opt needs to know the size of your battery and the power of your inverter: both when inverting battery to AC power and when chargingh tha battery. It will attempt to work these out from the data it has loaded (WIP) but you should check the following enitities in Home Assistant:

System Parameters

Parameter	Units	Entity	Default Value
Battery Capacity	Wh	number.pvopt_batter_capacity_wh	10000
Inverter Power	W	number.pvopt_inverter_power_watts	3600
Charger Power	W	number.pvopt_charger_power_watts	3500
Inverter Efficiency	%	number.pvopt_inverter_efficiency	97%
Charger Efficiency	%	number.pvopt_charger_efficiency	91%

There are then only a few things to control the optimisation process. These have been grouped as follows:

Control Parameters

These are the main parameters that will control how PV Opt runs:

Parameter	Units	Entity	Default	Description
Read Only Mode	on/off	switch.pvopt_read_only	On	Controls whether the app will actually control the inverter. Start with this on until you are happy the charge/discharge plan makes sense.
Optimise Charging	on/off	switch.pvopt_forced_charge	On	Controls whether the app will calculate an Optimised plan. If off only the Base forecast will be updated.
Optimise Discharging	on/off	switch.pvopt_forced_discharge	On	Controls whether the app will allow for forced discharge as well as charge
Allow Cyclic	on/off	switch.pvopt_allow_cyclic	On	Controls whether the app will allow cycles of alternating charge/discharge
Use Solar	on/off	switch.pvopt_use_solar	On	Controls whether the app will use the Solcast solar forecast. If set to Off no solar will be used but battery charging can still be optimised for a time-of use tariff.
Solcast Confidence Level	number	number.pvopt_solcast_confidence_level	Solcast	Selects which the Confidence Level for the Solcast forecast. Levels between 10% and 50% are weighted from the Solcast 10% and 50% forecasts. Levels between 50% and 90% are weighted from the Solcast 50% and 10% forecasts.
Optimser Frequency	minutes	number.pvopt_optimise_frequency_minutes	10	Frequency of Optimiser calculation

Consumption Parameters

These parameters will define how PV Opt estimates daily consumption:

Parameter	Units	Entity	Default	Description
Use Consumption History	on/off	switch.pvopt_use_consumption_history	On	Toggles whether to use actual consumption history or an estimated daily consumption
Consumption History Parameters
Load History Days	days	number.pvopt_consumption_history_days	7	Number of days of consumption history to use when predicting future load
Load Margin	%	number.pvopt_consumption_margin	10%	Margin to add to historic load for forecast (safety factor)
Weekday Weighting	fraction	number.pvopt_day_of_week_weighting	0.5	Defines how much weighting to give to the day of the week when averaging the load. 0.0 will use the simple average of the last n days based on load_history_days and 1.0 will just used the same day of the week within that window. Values inbetween will weight the estimate accordingly. If every day is the same use a low number. If your usage varies daily use a high number.
Daily Consumption Parameters
Daily Consumption	kWh	number.pvopt_daily_consumption_kwh	17	Estimated daily consumption to use when predicting future load
Shape Consumption Profile	on/off	switch.pvopt_shape_consumption_profile	On	Defines whether to shapoe the consumption to a typical daily profile (on) or to assume constant usage (off)

Tuning Parameters

These parameters will tweak how PV Opt runs:

Parameter	Units	Entity	Default	Description
Pass threshold	%	number.pvopt_pass_throshold_p	4p	The incremental cost saving that each iteration of the optimiser needs to show to be included. Reducing the threshold may marginally reduce the predicted cost but have more marginal charge windows.
Discharge threshold	%	number.pvopt_discharge_throshold_p	5p	The incremental cost saving that each iteration of the discharge optimiser needs to show to be included. Reducing the threshold may marginally reduce the predicted cost but have more marginal discharge windows.
Slot threshold	%	number.pvopt_slop_throshold_p	1p	The incremental cost saving that each 30 minute slot of the optimiser needs to show to be included. Reducing the threshold may marginally reduce the predicted cost but have more marginal charge/discharge windows.
Power Resolution	W	number.pvopt_forced_power_group_tolerance	100	The resolution at which forced charging / discharging is reported. Changing this will change the reporting of the charge plan but not the actual detail of it.

Alternative Tariffs

PV Opt can also check what each day would have cost using any combination of Octopus tariffs. Run over time this can give you an idea of whether it would be worth switching. To enable this simply add a block like this to `config.yaml`:

id_daily_solar: sensor.{device_name}_power_generation_today
alt_tariffs:
  - name: Agile_Fix
    octopus_import_tariff_code: E-1R-AGILE-23-12-06-G
    octopus_export_tariff_code: E-1R-OUTGOING-FIX-12M-19-05-13-G

  - name: Eco7_Fix
    octopus_import_tariff_code: E-2R-VAR-22-11-01-G
    octopus_export_tariff_code: E-1R-OUTGOING-FIX-12M-19-05-13-G

  - name: Flux
    octopus_import_tariff_code: E-1R-FLUX-IMPORT-23-02-14-G
    octopus_export_tariff_code: E-1R-FLUX-EXPORT-23-02-14-G

In this example three alternatives are tested. For each tariff pair the Base and Optimised net cost for yesterday are calculated and saved to an entity called sensor.pvopt_opt_cost_name. The state of this entity is the optimised cost and the base cost is saved as the net_base attribute.

Output

The app always produces a Base forecast of future battery SOC and the associated grid flow based on the forecast solar performance, the expected consumption and prices with no forced charging or discharging from the grid.. The total cost for today and tomorrow is written to sensor.pvopt_base_cost and the associated SOC vs time is written to the attributes of this entity allowing it to be graphes using apex-charts.

If Optimise Charging is enabled, an optimsised charging plan is calculated and writtemt to sensor.pvopt_opt_cost. This will also include a list of forced charge and discharge windows.

The easiest way to control and visualise this is through the pvopt_dashboard.yaml Lovelace yaml file included in this repo. Note that you will need to manually paste this into a dashboard and edit the charts to use the correct Octopus Energy sensors:

This dashboards uses a couple of template sensors and time which will need adding to /homeassistant/configuration.yaml:

template:
  - sensor:
    - name: "Solis Grid Export Power"
      unique_id: solis_grid_export_power
      unit_of_measurement: W
      device_class: power
      state_class: measurement
      state: >-
        {{max(states('sensor.solis_meter_active_power') | float(0),0)}}    

    - name: "Solis Grid Import Power"
      unique_id: solis_grid_import_power
      unit_of_measurement: W
      device_class: power
      state_class: measurement
      state: >-
        {{max(-(states('sensor.solis_meter_active_power') | float(0)),0)}}

sensor:
  - platform: time_date
    display_options:
      - 'time'
      - 'date'
      - 'date_time'
      - 'date_time_utc'
      - 'date_time_iso'    

The dashboards also depend on the following Frontend components from HACS:

• template-entity-row
• bar-card
• card-mod
• Stack In Card
• layout-card
• apexcharts-card

Development - Adding Additional Inverters: the PV Opt API

PV Opt is designed to be pluggable. A simple API is used to control inverters. This is defined as follows:

Inverter Type

Each inverter type is defined by a string in the config.yaml file. This should be of the format: BRAND_INTEGRATION for example SOLIS_SOLAX_MODBUS.

Inverter Module

PV Opt expects one module per inverter brand named brand.py which includes drives for all integrations/models associated with that brand. For example solis.py includes the drivers for SOLIS_SOLAX_MODBUS, SOLIS_CORE_MODBUS and SOLIS_SOLARMAN

Each module exposes the following:

Classes

The module exposes a single class InverterController(inverter_type, host). The two required initialisation parameters are:

Parameter	Type	Description
inverter_type	str	The inverter_type string from the config.yaml file
host	PVOpt	The instance of PV Opt that has instantiated the inverter class. This allows the class to, for instance, write to the main log file simply be setting self.log=host.log and then calling self.log()

Class Attributes

The InverterController class must expose the following:

Attribute	Key	Type	Description	Example from SOLIS_SOLAX_MODBUS
.config		dict	This dict contains all the names of all the entities that PV Opt requires to run plus a few other parameters that are common to all inverters. Some entries must be an entity_id: keys for these itesms start with id_. Others may be enitity_ids or numbers. entity_ids should ideally include {device_name} to allow for the subsititution of a defined device name where appropriate.
	maximum_dod_percent	str / int	Maximum depth of discharge - nay be an entity_id or a number	number.{device_name}_battery_minimum_soc
	update_cycle_seconds	int	Time in seconds between HA updates	15
	supports_hold_soc	bool	Flags whether the integration supports holding a fixed SOC	true
	id_battery_soc	str	entity_id of Battery State of Charge	number.{device_name}_battery_soc
	id_consumption_today	str	entity_id of Daily Consumption Total	sensor.{device_name}_house_load_today
	id_grid_import_today	str	entity_id of Daily Grid Import Total	sensor.{device_name}_grid_import_today
	id_grid_export_today	str	entity_id of Daily Grid Export Total	sensor.{device_name}_grid_export_today
.brand_config		dict	This dict contains all the names of all the entities that this brand/integration requires. These are only exposed for logging purposes and to allow the plug-in to use methods from the main app that use query entity_ids such as .get_config(entity_id) . A limited number of examples are given as this will vary for each plug-in.
	battery_voltage	str / int	Battery voltage for converting power to current - nay be an entity_id or a number	sensor.{device_name}_battery_voltage
	id_timed_charge_start_hours	str	entity_id of Timed Charge Start Hours	number.{device_name}_timed_charge_start_hours
	id_timed_charge_start_minutes	str	entity_id of Timed Charge Start Minutes	number.{device_name}_timed_charge_start_minutes
	id_timed_charge_end_hours	str	entity_id of Timed Charge End Hours	number.{device_name}_timed_charge_end_hours
	id_timed_charge_end_minutes	str	entity_id of Timed Charge End Minutes	number.{device_name}_timed_charge_end_minutes
	id_timed_charge_current	str	entity_id of Timed Charge Current	number.{device_name}_timed_charge_current
.status		dict	This dict reports the current status of the inverter
	charge	dict	Dict of the Timed Charge Status with the following keys: active: bool, start: datetime, end: datetime, power: float
	discharge	dict	Dict of the Timed Discharge Status with the following keys: active: bool, start: datetime, end: datetime, power: float
	hold_soc	dict	Dict of the Hold_SOC Status with the following keys: active: bool, soc: int

Methods

The InverterController class must expose the following:

Method	Parameters	Returns	Description
.enable_timed_mode()	-	None	Switches the inverter mode to support timed changing and discharging
.control_charge()	enable: bool	None	Enable or disable timed charging
	start: datetime, optional		Start time of timed slot (default = don't set start)
	end: datetime, optional		End time of timed slot (default = don't set end)
	power: float, optional		Maximum power of timed slot (default = don't set power)
.control_discharge()	enable: bool	None	Enable or disable timed discharging
	start: datetime, optional		Start time of timed slot (default = don't set start)
	end: datetime, optional		End time of timed slot (default = don't set end)
	power: float, optional		Maximum power of timed slot (default = don't set power)
.hold_soc()	soc	None	Switch inverter mode to hold specified SOC (if supported)

PV Opt Methods Available to the Inverter

The following methods may be useful for the inverter to call. If self.host is initialised to host they can be called using self.host.method(). As PV Opt is a sub-class of hass.HASS it includes all the AppDAemon methods listed here: https://appdaemon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/AD_API_REFERENCE.html

Method	Parameters	Returns / Decsription
self.host.log	string	Write string to the log file.
	level: str, optional	Optionally set the error level (default = INFO)
self.host.get_state()	entity_id	Home Assitant state of the entity
	attributes: str, optional	If attributes is set the attribute rather than the state is returned. If attribute is set to all a dict of all attributes is returned.
self.host.set_state()	state	Set the Home Assitant state of the entity and optionally the attributes. Returns a dict of the new state
	entity_id: str
	attributes: dict, optional
self.host.entity_exists()	entity_id: str	bool that confirms whether an entity exists in Home Assistant
self.host.call_service()	service: str	Call service in Home Assistant
	data: dict, optional	Data to be supplied to the service e.g. for writing to the Solis Modbus registers: data={"hub": "solis", "slave": 1, "address": 43011, "value": 15}