Thoughts on running optimizer as custom integration

[kskalski]

I was trying to install emhass, however I use a manually installed HA Core and I don't have option to install add-ons. I know there are other options to install and I think I will go with one of them, however it got me thinking why emhass uses a separate webserver and needs an elaborate methods to exchange data with HA.

IIUC operating emhass essentially consists of periodically running a python function that fetches data from several HA entities and produces a bunch of data points that can be used by HA automations / display. I think this is exactly what custom components deliver and could simplify the overall workings of the system:

• no need to expose secrets for emhass to call out to HA for data exchange
• no need for HA to fetch data over http with its quirks like having to create dedicated automation for that, etc.
• no need to run any servers and separate containers, etc. and ways to orchestrate them
• more universal and potentially easier installation method (whole optimizer could become an integration available on HACS)

The above benefits would require implementing similar functionalities inside the integration, but at least this could be done once without use having to go over long process of setting up necessary parts to execute optimization periodically as in usual use-case.

Having emhass as standalone python package that allows calculating optimal energy management plan using any of the provided data sources is clearly a nice approach. I suppose custom HA integration wouldn't change that - it should basically wrap the core implementation with a direct way to get and save data from/to HA.

[davidusb-geek]

In your case you can go with either the legacy or the docker standalone installation methods. Those work fine.
As for your comments, the thing is that we need some specific python modules for this to work. It is not simple scripting. When I started coding this and I think it's still the case, it was just impossible to easily import python modules or create and manage virtual environments with a custom component. Hence the decision to go with our own python module.

[davidusb-geek]

As for the data exchange we are using the official Home Assistant API to fetch and publish data to HA, that works very well.