☀️ EP Cube Integration ☀️

Home Assistant integration for the Canadian Solar EP Cube residential battery with a Predbat-compatible shim for Octopus Agile tariff optimisation

Note

v1.2 renamed sensor.ep_cube_self_consumption → sensor.ep_cube_self_sufficiency to fix a long-standing mislabel — the cube's selfHelpRate field reports self-sufficiency (% of load met from own generation), not self-consumption (% of generation used onsite). The underlying unique_id is preserved, so existing dashboards, automations and Energy Dashboard wiring keep working unchanged; only the display name updates. Fresh installs get the corrected sensor.ep_cube_self_sufficiency slug. v1.2 also adds 4 derived percentage sensors (today + yesterday × self-consumption / self-sufficiency) for symmetry with the Energy Dashboard's today / yesterday cards.

A live drop-in Lovelace dashboard that mirrors the EP Cube mobile app — animated power flow, mode-aware controls, ships with the integration.

✨ What You Get

🔋 41 sensors + 5 control entities surfacing every cube state — SoC, power flow, instant KPIs, mode, reserves, daily / yesterday / monthly / yearly energy, self-consumption + sufficiency %, lifetime stats
⚡ Predbat shim translates rate-based commands into the cube's TOU model — full Octopus Agile optimisation, no manual scheduling
🎨 Drop-in animated dashboard mirroring the EP Cube mobile app — power flow, mode picker, mode-specific control cards
🌍 Multi-region — EU live, US/JP/Other supported via config-flow region picker
🔐 One-time email + password setup with silent re-auth on token expiry — no JSESSIONID-paste UX, no recurring auth chores
🧪 197-test pytest suite + CI on every PR

⚡ Quick Start

Important

HACS Default submission is in flight (hacs/default#8364, in the maintainer queue). Until it merges, install via HACS Custom Repository — same one-click install path, just an extra "add repo URL" step the first time.

1. Add the repository in HACS

HACS sidebar → ⋮ → Custom repositories → add https://github.com/SkiLtY/ha-ep-cube as type Integration → Add.

2. Install + restart

Find Canadian Solar EP Cube in HACS → Download → restart Home Assistant when prompted.

3. Add the integration

Settings → Devices & services → Add integration → search Canadian Solar EP Cube → enter your region, the email + password for the EP Cube mobile app, and submit.

The integration runs the captcha-solving login flow, fetches your device list, and registers 26 sensors + 5 control entities under one device.

Manual install (without HACS)

cd /path/to/homeassistant/config
mkdir -p custom_components
git clone https://github.com/SkiLtY/ha-ep-cube /tmp/ha-ep-cube
cp -r /tmp/ha-ep-cube/custom_components/ep_cube custom_components/

Restart HA, then continue from step 3 above.

Tip

Want Predbat / Octopus Agile optimisation too? After the integration is live, also:

Copy examples/ha_config/ into your HA config dir (or merge into your existing configuration.yaml) — adds the Riemann daily-kWh sensors Predbat needs.
Install Predbat via the nipar44/predbat_addon Docker container. Full runbook in docs/PREDBAT.md.

Want the animated power-flow dashboard? See Dashboard — one HACS frontend card + one paste of dashboards/ep_cube.yaml.

🌍 Supported Regions

Region	Host	Status
EU	`monitoring-eu.epcube.com`	✅ Verified live (UK, DE, IT, NL, FR, ES, …)
US	`epcube-monitoring.com` (path prefix `/app-api`)	🧪 Experimental — host derived from public sources, not live-tested. Please open an issue with your result.
JP	`monitoring-jp.epcube.com`	⬜ Untested
Other	User-supplied	Escape hatch for AU, CA, custom mocks, or any market where the above is wrong. Capture the host from your app's network traffic and paste it in.

📡 Sensors

41 sensors, all grouped under one device per EP Cube:

Group	Sensors
Battery	`battery_soc` · `battery_soc_kwh` · `battery_capacity_kwh` · `battery_power` · `battery_charge_today` · `battery_discharge_today`
Power flow	`grid_power` · `solar_power` · `load_power`
Right now	`instant_self_consumption_pct` · `instant_self_sufficiency_pct` · `instant_grid_flow_w`
Daily energy (kWh)	`solar_today` · `backup_today` · `grid_import_today` · `grid_export_today` · `solar_dc_today` · `solar_ac_today`
Yesterday energy (kWh)	`solar_yesterday` · `backup_yesterday` · `grid_import_yesterday` · `grid_export_yesterday`
Monthly energy (kWh)	`solar_month` · `backup_month` · `grid_import_month` · `grid_export_month`
Yearly energy (kWh)	`solar_year` · `backup_year` · `grid_import_year` · `grid_export_year`
Efficiency (%)	`self_sufficiency_pct` · `self_sufficiency_today` · `self_sufficiency_yesterday` · `self_consumption_today` · `self_consumption_yesterday`
Mode + reserve	`operating_mode` · `reserve_soc`
Lifetime / KPI	`earning_yesterday` · `grid_outage_count` · `off_grid_seconds` · `winter_protect`

Tip

Monthly + yearly rollups are cube-native — they read the cube's own boundary-aware accounting via queryDataElectricityV2 scope=2/3. Don't drift if HA is down at month/year roll, unlike HA-side utility_meter helpers (which previous releases shipped as a workaround). If you've been using the helpers from examples/ha_config/packages/ep_cube.yaml, you can delete the ep_cube_{solar,grid,backup}_{month,year} entries — the integration provides them directly now.

Note

backup_today / backup_yesterday are install-dependent. They count kWh delivered through the cube's backup-output terminal — not "loads that stayed up during an outage". If your installer wired the whole house through the backup terminal (common in the UK with a critical-loads panel), these sensors read as whole-house consumption. If only essential circuits are wired through the backup output, you'll see just fridge / lighting / router etc. Outage-resilience under UK G99/G100 regs requires a separate EPS Gateway; without one the cube refuses to supply via the backup terminal during an actual grid outage even though it meters kWh through it under normal grid-up operation.

⚙️ Services

Predbat Shim (`services.py`)

All shim services accept only an optional device_id. Window and SoC parameters are read from the entities Predbat publishes — see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full contract.

Service	Purpose
`ep_cube.charge_start`	Force grid charge until end of Predbat's planned charge window; target SoC from `best_charge_limit`
`ep_cube.charge_stop`	Cancel active charge override, restore baseline
`ep_cube.discharge_start`	Force discharge until end of planned export window; target SoC from `best_export_limit`
`ep_cube.discharge_stop`	Cancel active discharge override
`ep_cube.charge_freeze`	Hold battery at current SoC until end of charge window
`ep_cube.discharge_freeze`	Alias for `charge_freeze`; end-time taken from export window
`ep_cube.idle`	Restore baseline TOU schedule

Important

v1.0 is an opinionated Predbat bridge. The integration treats Predbat as the single source of truth for time-of-use control. There is no user-facing TOU writer service. If the cube has user-painted TOU slots while Predbat is installed, an HA Repair issue offers a one-click wipe to hand control back to Predbat. Manual TOU painting belongs in the EP Cube mobile app or a different integration (Bobsilvio/epcube is a good fit for fixed-tariff non-Predbat users).

Mode switching and reserve-SoC writes are exposed as entities, not services:

select.ep_cube_operating_mode
switch.ep_cube_allow_grid_charge
number.ep_cube_self_consumption_reserve
number.ep_cube_backup_reserve

Call select.select_option / number.set_value from automations.

🧩 Helper Config (Optional)

The integration installs cleanly on a default HA setup. Two optional extras live in examples/ha_config/:

packages/ep_cube.yaml — Riemann daily kWh sensors (load / PV / signed grid import / signed grid export), utility_meter monthly + yearly rollups, and input_number charge / discharge rate entities.
configuration.yaml — minimal example showing the homeassistant.packages block.

Use case	Need the package?
Running Predbat	✅ Yes — `load_today` is a hard dependency; `charge_rate`/`discharge_rate` must be writable `input_number` entities
Monthly/yearly history in Energy dashboard	✅ Recommended
Just install and view live sensors	❌ No

To install: copy examples/ha_config/ into your HA config directory (merging into any existing configuration.yaml), then restart HA.

📊 Dashboard

dashboards/ep_cube.yaml is a drop-in Lovelace dashboard mirroring the EP Cube mobile app: animated power flow, battery status, operating-mode picker, and mode-specific control cards that swap automatically when you change mode.

Install steps:

Power Flow Card Plus — HACS → Frontend → search "Power Flow Card Plus" by flixlix → Install → restart HA.
New dashboard — Settings → Dashboards → Add Dashboard → "New dashboard from scratch" (title: EP Cube, icon: mdi:home-battery).
Paste YAML — open dashboard → Edit → ⋮ → Raw configuration editor → replace contents with dashboards/ep_cube.yaml → Save.

Tip

Entity IDs assume the default device name EP Cube. If you renamed the device, or have multiple cubes, edit the YAML accordingly — HA appends _2, _3, etc. to disambiguate.

⚡ Energy Dashboard

The integration ships cube-native daily kWh sensors that wire straight into HA's Energy dashboard (Settings → Dashboards → Energy) — no helper package needed.

Slot	Entity
Solar production	`sensor.ep_cube_solar_today`
Grid consumption	`sensor.ep_cube_grid_import_today`
Return to grid	`sensor.ep_cube_grid_export_today`
Home battery SoC	`sensor.ep_cube_battery_soc_kwh`

Tip

Prefer Riemann-integrated power-to-energy sensors instead? The optional helper package ships sensor.ep_cube_import_today / sensor.ep_cube_export_today derived from sensor.ep_cube_grid_power. Useful if you don't trust the cube's daily-counter midnight roll, or want sub-minute resolution.

🛠️ For contributors

💡 Why This Exists

The EP Cube has no documented local API — no Modbus, no MQTT. All control goes through Canadian Solar's cloud via mobile-app endpoints.

One existing community integration exists (Bobsilvio/epcube) but carries no licence file, so it cannot legally be forked. This is a clean-room build.

The end goal: working Octopus Agile tariff optimisation via Predbat. Predbat operates on a rate-based, time-windowed contract; the EP Cube exposes a mode + TOU-schedule contract. This integration includes a shim service layer that translates between the two.

🗺 Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph Cloud ["☁️ Canadian Solar Cloud"]
        EP[monitoring-eu.epcube.com]
    end

    subgraph HA ["🏠 Home Assistant"]
        INT[ep_cube integration]
        SHIM[Predbat shim<br/>services.py]
        STATE[predbat_state.py]
        SENS[26 sensors + control entities]
    end

    subgraph Predbat ["📈 Predbat container"]
        PB[nipar44/predbat_addon]
        OCT[Octopus Agile rates]
        SOL[Solcast PV forecast]
    end

    EP <-->|Bearer token auth<br/>silent re-auth| INT
    INT --> SENS
    PB -->|best_charge_* / best_export_* entities| STATE
    STATE --> SHIM
    SHIM -->|switchMode writes| INT
    OCT --> PB
    SOL --> PB

📁 Layout

ha-ep-cube/
├── custom_components/ep_cube/      ← HA integration
│   ├── services.py                 ← Predbat shim service handlers
│   └── predbat_state.py            ← Reads predbat.best_charge_* / best_export_* entities
├── mock_server/                    ← FastAPI mock of the EP Cube cloud (dev without hardware)
├── dashboards/
│   └── ep_cube.yaml                ← Lovelace dashboard (animated power flow + mode controls)
├── examples/
│   └── ha_config/                  ← Drop-in YAML for Predbat helpers + Energy dashboard rollups
├── docs/
│   ├── ARCHITECTURE.md             ← Predbat shim contract + design notes
│   ├── PREDBAT.md                  ← Predbat install + tariff (BottlecapDave) + Solcast runbook
│   ├── PHASE_3_2.md                ← Bearer-token + captcha refactor notes
│   ├── MITMPROXY_SETUP.md          ← Cloud-API capture tooling (for contributors)
│   ├── TROUBLESHOOTING.md          ← Known wire-level gotchas
│   └── predbat_apps.yaml.example   ← Predbat custom-inverter template
└── docker-compose.yml              ← HA + mock-server stack

🚀 Dev Setup

Requires Docker.

git clone https://github.com/SkiLtY/ha-ep-cube
cd ha-ep-cube
docker compose up -d

This brings up:

Service	URL	Notes
Home Assistant	http://localhost:8123	`custom_components/ep_cube/` volume-mounted
Mock EP Cube cloud	http://localhost:8765	FastAPI mock of the mobile-app surface

Add the integration via HA's UI:

Settings → Devices & services → Add integration → Canadian Solar EP Cube
Region: Other (escape hatch for custom hosts)
Base URL: http://mock:8765 (Docker network DNS)
API prefix: /api
Username + password: any string — the mock accepts anything and returns a stub Bearer token

The mock's deviceList resolves a single device (devId=5613); no manual ID needed.

Running Tests

pip install -r requirements-test.txt
pytest

Tests use pytest-homeassistant-custom-component and run without Docker. The CI matrix (.github/workflows/validate.yml) runs the same on Python 3.12 against every PR and weekly. (3.13 is pending an aiodns/pycares fix in HA's test stack.)

Coverage spans: API client (envelope unwrapping, 403→re-auth retry, switch_mode verification), Predbat shim (idempotency, baseline snapshotting, auto-revert), predbat_state parsing, config flow (region routing + migration), and entity registration.

🏗 HA Install Type

This stack uses HA Container (lightweight, no Supervisor). HA Container cannot install add-ons — Predbat runs as a sibling nipar44/predbat_addon Docker container (the upstream-recommended replacement for the now-deprecated AppDaemon install path). See docs/PREDBAT.md.

🛣 Roadmap

Phase	Status	What
1	✅	Mock cloud + HA integration skeleton + 9 sensors + DeviceInfo
2a	✅	Predbat shim: 7 services, baseline snapshot, idempotency, auto-revert
2b	✅	Predbat as `nipar44/predbat_addon` container, plan loop validated end-to-end
2b.1	✅	Shim reads params from `predbat.best_charge_` / `predbat.best_export_` entities
2c	✅	Live Octopus Agile rates via public REST API (no Octopus account required)
2c+	✅	Solcast PV forecast wired in (split E/W array)
3	✅	Hardware reconciliation — live cloud bring-up against `monitoring-eu.epcube.com`
3.1	✅	`charge_freeze` → mid-peak TOU slot; force-export gap documented; stable device name
3.2	✅	Mobile-app Bearer-token auth replaces JSESSIONID-cookie paste
3.3	✅	Animated power-flow Lovelace dashboard
3.4	✅	Feature-parity vs Bobsilvio/epcube — control entities + daily kWh sensors + i18n
3.5	✅	Bobsilvio-parity metrics expansion — 5 sensors + 4 `utility_meter` rollups
4	✅	HACS distribution — first release `v0.5.0` shipped 2026-05-28. 150-test pytest suite + CI matrix, demo-first README, curated release-notes workflow, brand assets self-hosted, helpers shipped. HACS Default submission opened 2026-06-09 as `hacs/default#8364` — all 11 bot checks green first try, awaiting maintainer merge.
4.1	✅	TOU schedule editor — shipped in `v0.6.0` → `v0.7.0`. Subsequently removed in v1.0 — see below.
v1.0	✅	Opinionated Predbat bridge — TOU editor card + `set_tou_schedule` service removed; HA Repair flow added that detects user-painted TOU slots while Predbat is installed and offers a one-click wipe. Predbat is the single source of truth for TOU. Manual TOU painting belongs in the EP Cube mobile app or Bobsilvio/epcube.
4.2 (Tier 1+2)	✅	Cloud-stats expansion — `queryDataElectricityV2` shipped in `v1.1.0` + `v1.1.1`: signed grid import/export, yesterday's energy quartet, 5-min stats coordinator, ghost-entity sweep on upgrade. Patch releases `v1.1.2` (dashboard entity-id fix + backup-loads/EPS Gateway README clarification) + `v1.1.3` (hassfest compliance — drop `predbat_inverter_mode` state translation block) shipped during HACS pre-submission smoke test.
v1.2	✅	Mislabel fix + cube-native rollups + instant tiles — shipped 2026-06-10 in `v1.2.0`. 15 new sensors (4 derived %s + 8 cube-native monthly/yearly rollups + 3 instant-KPI tiles), self-consumption sensor renamed to self-sufficiency with `unique_id` preserved for back-compat, dashboard grows a "Right now" gauge stack, `utility_meter` helpers dropped from the example package in favour of cube-native rollups. Suite 178 → 216.
v1.3	✅	Dashboard refresh + signed grid net — shipped 2026-06-12 in `v1.3.0`. Dashboard restructured into three tabs (Now / Today / Control); Now-tab swaps SC/SS instant % gauges (low signal — both pin at 100% most of the day) for live Solar/Battery/Grid power gauges in W; Today-tab grows a signed Grid gauge + matching yesterday row using 2 new derived sensors (`grid_net_today` + `grid_net_yesterday`). SC + SS today/yesterday return `0.0` instead of `unknown` below the jitter floor (fixes "Entity is non-numeric" overlay every morning). Unified colour palette: HA Energy Dashboard's purple-out / blue-in across both signed gauges + Material green for renewables. Suite 216 → 223.
4+	⏸️	HomeAssistant-OctopusEnergy — half-hourly smart-meter consumption replaces Riemann `load_today`. Gated on Octopus Home Mini arrival.
v1.4	📋	Lifetime totals + eco metrics — RestoreSensor + coordinator-startup state-seeding for lifetime kWh counters; `coal` / `treeNum` eco metrics from `queryDataElectricityV2`. Originally pencilled for v1.3; today's UX work filled that slot first.

☕ About + Support

Hacking life to keep it simple. Solving technical challenges along the way.

I'm an integration engineer who loves taking complex technical puzzles and turning them into simple solutions.

When I'm not at a terminal, you'll usually find me logging miles in the pool or on the bike, training for that next aquabike event.

If any of my tools, scripts, or tinkering have helped you solve a challenge of your own, tossing a ko-fi in the tank helps keep the engine running. Thanks for the support! ☕

— Michael Skilton (@SkiLtY)

📄 Licence

MIT — see LICENSE.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Canadian Solar or EP Cube.

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☀️ EP Cube Integration ☀️

✨ What You Get

⚡ Quick Start

🌍 Supported Regions

📡 Sensors

⚙️ Services

Predbat Shim (`services.py`)

🧩 Helper Config (Optional)

📊 Dashboard

⚡ Energy Dashboard

🛠️ For contributors

💡 Why This Exists

🗺 Architecture

📁 Layout

🚀 Dev Setup

Running Tests

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custom_components/ep_cube		custom_components/ep_cube
dashboards		dashboards
docs		docs
examples/ha_config		examples/ha_config
mock_server		mock_server
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
hacs.json		hacs.json
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
requirements-test.txt		requirements-test.txt

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☀️ EP Cube Integration ☀️

✨ What You Get

⚡ Quick Start

🌍 Supported Regions

📡 Sensors

⚙️ Services

Predbat Shim (services.py)

🧩 Helper Config (Optional)

📊 Dashboard

⚡ Energy Dashboard

🛠️ For contributors

💡 Why This Exists

🗺 Architecture

📁 Layout

🚀 Dev Setup

Running Tests

🏗 HA Install Type

🛣 Roadmap

☕ About + Support

📄 Licence

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Predbat Shim (`services.py`)