Quick Answer
The Home Assistant Energy Dashboard gives you real-time and historical visibility into your home's electricity consumption, solar generation, grid import/export, and battery storage — all in one place. To set it up, you need at least one energy monitoring sensor (like a Shelly EM ~$39 or Emporia Vue 2 ~$69) and about 15 minutes to configure it in Settings → Energy.
Contents
What Can the Home Assistant Energy Dashboard Show?
The Energy Dashboard (introduced in HA 2021.8) is a dedicated view that visualizes your home's energy flows. It can display:
- Grid consumption — how much electricity you're drawing from the grid (kWh)
- Grid return — how much solar energy you're exporting back to the grid
- Solar production — total generation from your solar panels
- Home battery — charge and discharge from a home battery (Powerwall, etc.)
- Individual device consumption — per-device breakdown if you have smart plugs or individual monitors
- Cost tracking — actual £/$/€ cost based on your tariff rates
The dashboard shows data in time scales from the current day to the past month, with charts broken down by hour. Over weeks, you'll start to see patterns — that old chest freezer costing $4/month, the EV charger dominating your overnight usage, or phantom loads from TVs on standby.
What Are the Best Energy Monitoring Sensors for Home Assistant?
You need a sensor that provides a sensor.energy entity measured in kWh (cumulative total, not instantaneous watts). Most clamp meters and smart plugs meet this requirement.
Whole-Home Monitoring
Shelly EM (~$39)
Two clamp-based current transformers (50A or 120A), monitors up to 2 circuits, real-time and cumulative energy. Wi-Fi, local API, native HA integration. Best value whole-home monitor for most users.
View on AmazonEmporia Vue 2 (~$69)
Monitors up to 16 individual circuit breakers simultaneously plus whole-home consumption. Native Home Assistant integration via cloud, or local data via a community workaround. Perfect for circuit-level visibility. Includes 8 clamp sensors, additional sets available.
View on Amazon| Monitor | Price | Circuits | Local API | HA Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelly EM | ~$39 | 2 | Yes | Native, local |
| Emporia Vue 2 | ~$69 | Up to 16 | Community workaround | Cloud + community local |
| Iotawatt | ~$120 | Up to 14 | Yes | Native |
| Sense | ~$299 | Whole home + AI | No | Cloud only |
The best whole-home energy monitor for Home Assistant is the Shelly EM — local API, native integration, $39 price, and reliable performance. Use the Emporia Vue 2 if you need per-circuit breakdown across a standard breaker panel.
Per-Device Monitoring with Smart Plugs
Many smart plugs also report energy consumption and work with the HA Energy Dashboard:
- Shelly Plug S (~$22) — local API, native HA integration, 10A max
- TP-Link Kasa EP25 (~$18) — matter-compatible, reliable energy reporting
- NOUS A1T (~$15) — Tasmota pre-flashed, fully local, cheap
How Do You Set Up the Energy Dashboard?
- First, ensure your energy monitoring sensors are integrated into HA and showing kWh entities
- Go to Settings → Dashboards → Energy (or click Energy in the left sidebar)
- On first visit, click Get started
- Under Electricity grid, click Add consumption and select your grid consumption kWh sensor
- If you export to the grid (solar), click Add return and select your export sensor
- Click Save
The dashboard will immediately start showing data for the current hour. Historical data from before setup is not retroactively available — the Energy Dashboard only tracks data from the point of configuration onward. This is a common frustration for new users.
state_class: total_increasing or state_class: total attribute. If your sensor doesn't appear in the dropdown, check that it has the correct state class and unit of measurement (kWh).How Do You Add Electricity Tariffs for Cost Tracking?
Cost tracking turns raw kWh numbers into actual money spent. Navigate to Settings → Energy → Electricity Grid and edit your consumption sensor. You'll see a "Cost" section where you can:
- Use a static price — enter your flat rate (e.g., $0.15/kWh)
- Use a dynamic price sensor — link to a sensor that updates with real-time electricity prices (e.g., from Nordpool or OTE integration for European markets, or Octopus Agile in the UK)
Once configured, the Energy Dashboard shows daily and monthly cost breakdowns. At a static $0.15/kWh, you can immediately see that the 30 kWh you used yesterday cost $4.50 — the kind of visibility that quickly pays for the monitoring hardware.
How Do You Add Per-Device Energy Monitoring?
Scroll down in the Energy configuration to Individual devices. Click Add device and select a kWh entity from a smart plug or device-specific monitor. You can add as many individual device monitors as you have.
Once added, the Energy Dashboard shows a bar chart breaking down which devices consumed the most energy in a given period. Common candidates to monitor individually:
- Washing machine, dryer, dishwasher
- EV charger
- Desktop PC / gaming setup
- Chest freezer / second fridge
- Electric heaters
How Do You Add Solar Production to the Energy Dashboard?
If you have solar panels, navigate to Settings → Energy → Solar panels. Click Add solar production and select the kWh entity from your solar inverter integration.
Popular solar inverter integrations for Home Assistant:
- SolarEdge — official integration, cloud-based
- Fronius — local API integration available
- SMA — official integration
- Huawei Solar — community integration via HACS
- SolarEdge Modbus TCP — HACS, fully local
With solar data connected, the Energy Dashboard's Sankey-style flow diagram shows exactly where your solar production goes — home use vs. battery charging vs. grid export — in real time and historically.
Useful Energy Automations to Build
Once you have energy data flowing, the real power is building automations around it:
- High usage alert: Notify when current power draw exceeds 4,000W for more than 5 minutes (forgotten oven, etc.)
- Daily cost summary: Send a notification every evening with today's kWh and cost
- Solar surplus action: When solar generation exceeds home consumption by 1,000W, start the dishwasher or heat the water heater
- Tariff-aware scheduling: Delay EV charging until off-peak rates start (e.g., midnight)
- Monthly budget warning: Alert when projected monthly cost exceeds your budget target
Our Verdict
The Home Assistant Energy Dashboard is one of the most genuinely useful features in the entire HA ecosystem — provided you have the right hardware to feed it. Start with a Shelly EM (~$39) for whole-home monitoring and add individual device smart plugs over time. Within a month you'll have clear insight into where your electricity money goes, and within three months most users report cutting consumption by 10–20% through awareness and automation alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my sensor not showing up in the Energy Dashboard setup?
The entity must have a unit of measurement of kWh and a state class of total_increasing or total. Check the entity's attributes in Developer Tools → States. If these are wrong, you may need to customize the entity or use a template sensor to fix them.
Can I see historical energy data from before I set up the dashboard?
No — the Energy Dashboard only tracks data from the moment you configure it. Some monitoring hardware (like Emporia Vue 2) can import historical data through their cloud, but HA itself doesn't retroactively populate the statistics database.
Does the Energy Dashboard work without solar panels?
Absolutely — most users only have grid consumption data. Solar, battery, and individual device sections are all optional. A simple Shelly EM measuring grid import is all you need to get started.
How much does a Shelly EM installation cost in total?
The Shelly EM itself is ~$39. You'll also need CT clamp sensors — two are included. Installation in your electrical panel should take 15–30 minutes if you're comfortable working in a panel (always turn off the main breaker first). No electrician required for most setups, though one is recommended if you're not confident.
Can the Energy Dashboard track gas consumption?
Yes — as of HA 2021.11, the Energy Dashboard includes a Gas section. You need a sensor reporting cumulative gas usage in m³ or ft³. Options include smart gas meters, P1 port readers (Netherlands), or DSMR readers.
Why does my Energy Dashboard show incorrect data after a sensor restart?
If your sensor resets its cumulative counter (e.g., after a power cycle), HA may misinterpret the drop as negative consumption. Use the utility_meter integration or enable "Total increasing" state class — HA will automatically handle counter resets by ignoring decreases.
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