What is happening after the reboot or 3 suggestions for a smoother installation

[typxxi]

I had done all steps of the installation and did 1 or 2 reboots meanwhile.

I found the AIO sensors via integration pane "aio"

SUGGESTION 1: add "aio" to the sensors / object names (incl. inputnumber ...)

GOAL: make all "aio elements" easy to find in the developer tools tab for status

Not all users are familiar with the ha terminology or read superficial the guideline like maybe I did.
I went to the developer pane, opened the 2nd tab / status and typed into entity "AIO"

Luckily I found at least 1 aio piece / entity/sensor here.

Best part of all: due to that I knew at least that after reboot the aio installation must have been at least partially succesfull.

But disappointing to find just 1 sensor only, wasn't there anything more.

Therefore I suggest - if possible - to give the sensor a name that might start with AIO too to always have the connection or link to its roots. I prefer that.

Therefore I started to rename everything a bit into the "aio_" direction to have those parts together no matter where I type "aio"
Let me know if that is not a good idea cause then I can turn back again.

I prefer to documentate and structure a lot to be on the safe side from where I had gotten what.
Therefore big pieces become their own headline / section where I also usually mention a link where the journey had started to get the full picture months later (even though I guess I will have to deal with aio quite often to not forget).

####################################
###                              ###
###   AIO = GÜNSTIGSTE STUNDEN   ###
###                              ###
####################################
# https://www.creatingsmarthome.com/index.php/2024/07/27/home-assistant-nord-pool-cheapest-hours-with-aio-energy-management/
#
aio_energy_management:
  cheapest_hours:
    - nordpool_entity: sensor.nordpool_kwh_ger_eur_4_10_0
      unique_id: aio_tibbers_cheapest_hours
      name: TIBBERS BESTE STUNDEN [AIO]
      first_hour: 14
      last_hour: 23
      starting_today: true
      number_of_hours: input_number.aio_tibbers_gunstigste_stunden_anzahl
      sequential: false
      failsafe_starting_hour: 1
    - nordpool_entity: sensor.nordpool_kwh_ger_eur_4_10_0
      unique_id: aio_tibbers_expensive_hours
      name: TIBBERS TEUERSTE STUNDEN [AIO]
      first_hour: 0
      last_hour: 23
      starting_today: false
      number_of_hours: input_number.aio_tibbers_gunstigste_stunden_anzahl
      sequential: false
      failsafe_starting_hour: 1
      inversed: true

  calendar:
    name: KALENDER GÜNSTIGER STROMPREISE [AIO]
    unique_id: aio_tibber_energy_management_calendar

That being said I opened the calendar which looked empty too except my waste schedule, even though there was at least a piece of AIO visible, an AIO category called

KALENDER GÜNSTIGER STROMPREISE [AIO]

which I have activated, but still nothing appeared there even though I had expected to see those 4 hours requested by inputnumbers.
And that would be another point to emphasize more in the documentation

SUGGESTION 2: describe the inputnumbers helper for the amount of cheapest hours requested

Simply describe the process how to create such sensor and which options to choose for beginners or to make things save like the right flow when you install it and how to name that like in my example input_number.aio_tibbers_gunstigste_stunden_anzahl

And that might require to work with the renaming option not everyone is familiar with via the UI.

You need to create a inputnumber which you can limit to maybe 1 to 23 (cause 0 hours would not make a sense if you want cheapest hours - would avoid an accicdental false input too)

Then I checked the developer pane / status section for "aio" sensors and they looked a bit empty to me - just an impression.

I compared the sensor for the "cheapest" with yours and again they looked different, so parts were missing or not the most recent cause I had been hoping for an indicator like "list of 4 cheapest hours are ... ". Finally the update thing / attribute was missing.

I bet that the secret sauce is mentioned in the documentation in 1 line but rather overlooked than fully understood in the current way.

"The logic of Nord Pool cheapest hours is quite simple: As soon as the Nord Pool data is received from Nord Pool sensor, the data is stored into Home Assistant. The sensor attributes described below might come handy:"

Yes, those sensor attributes and the sensor Screenshot were handy for sure to get here and recognice that something seems to bemissing.

Now my guess is that all prepared aio sensors are waiting to awake once the Nordpool integration has updated its sensors or in particular this one

sensor.nordpool_kwh_ger_eur_4_10_0

But that behaviour is interrupting the flow and experience so here is

SUGGESTION 3: instant aio sensor update during installation / at first boot (if nordpool values are available)

I would ask for a kind of "manual" update which is usually not needed only in the moment of the installation to give the user an instant success feeling instead of raising question marks.

Of cause those questions marks had made me start to think twice read 2 or 3 times to digg deeper and to understand more.
But still I suggest to have a one time only or whatsoever trial to import the data from the nordpool sensor now as it is and not to wait for that cause many might have had already the nordpool sensor and could instantly start fully.

Not sure if there is a trick I had missed and therefore think that I simply have to wait till 1 or 2 pm till the next nordpool update will happen which then should provide the data for the aio sensors.

I simply would look for a streamlined process to avoid question marks and what might be next.

Therefore I started to write down my thoughts here in the discussion not being able to judge how usefull these changes above might be. But this is the record of my thoughts and impressions when I started to actively implement the AIO at midnight and not that much had happened till now.

Might be a tiny line of code to check if the nordpool sensor in configuration.yaml exists and to drag its most recent data once during the installation cause the folllowing updates will happen automatically.

But at least a point to discuss cause the delay between one nordpool update and the next one can be 23 hours - a bit too long if you install aio at 2 pm just after the nordpool sensor update and would have to wait for 12 hours to see any results.
I am still waiting and hope to see at 2 pm at least events (4 cheapest) in the calendar.

But I guess it will work even though not much achieved except if I type "aio" I get all current sensors in 1 spot together.

[typxxi]

many hours later both sensors have come alive, but in the beginning around 1:30 pm the expensive one was first showing a list of times.

5 hours later for whatever reason the best hours sensor became alive and also the calendar entries for the cheapes and most expensive hours appeared.

So far, so good. I played around with the inputnumber hour changer how fast they would update or not, but that was a question of 10 seconds or up to 1 minute max to increase to 4 and then deacrease to 2 hours.

Tomorrow I will start looking into the automation topic. Today was not much sunshine, the PV system production went down from 70 kWh yesterday to 7 kWh today due to thick persistant clouds. Tomorrow we are back to 60 if the outlook is right.