Energy Tracking¶

Track power consumption from your 3D printers and calculate electricity costs per print or cumulatively.

Overview¶

Energy tracking helps you understand:

• Power consumption per print
• Electricity costs over time
• Most efficient printers and settings
• Total energy usage

Requirements¶

Energy tracking requires a smart plug with power monitoring:

Supported Smart Plugs¶

Configuration¶

Setting Up Energy Tracking¶

1. Configure a smart plug for your printer (Tasmota, Home Assistant, REST/Webhook, or MQTT)
2. Go to Settings > Smart Plugs
3. Assign the plug to a printer
4. For HA plugs: Configure energy sensor entities if needed
5. Energy tracking starts automatically

Tracking Mode¶

Choose how energy is tracked:

Configure in Settings > General.

Energy Data¶

Per-Print Tracking¶

When enabled, each print records:

Archive Display¶

Energy data appears on archive cards:

⚡ 245 Wh • $0.04

Energy Statistics¶

Dashboard Widget¶

The Energy widget shows:

• Total consumption for period
• Cost breakdown by printer
• Trend over time
• Comparison between printers

Per-print energy also feeds the Statistics page: the Filament Trends widget gains an Energy Over Time chart when measured data exists in the selected range, and the Most Expensive record ranks prints by filament + energy cost.

Energy by Printer¶

Cost Calculation¶

Setting Electricity Rate¶

1. Go to Settings > General > Cost Tracking
2. Choose the Electricity price source:
   • Fixed price: enter your rate per kWh under Electricity cost per kWh
   • Home Assistant sensor: pick the sensor that holds your current price, see Dynamic Electricity Rates
3. Choose currency

Cost Formula¶

Print Cost = (Energy in Wh / 1000) × Rate per kWh

Example:

245 Wh at $0.15/kWh = 0.245 × 0.15 = $0.037

Energy Is Costed at the Price of the Hour It Was Used¶

Bambuddy records the electricity price with each hourly energy reading, and costs the energy used in each hour at that hour's price:

• A print that runs through a price change is costed hour by hour: its cheap hours at the cheap price and its expensive hours at the expensive one, not all of it at the price when it ends.
• The Statistics page in Total mode does the same for any date range and for the all-time figure.
• Changing the price applies to the energy used from then on. Energy already used keeps the price it was used at, so a new contract doesn't re-cost last year.

Energy used since the last hourly reading, and energy from plugs without a lifetime counter (MQTT plugs), is costed at the current price. Energy recorded before this feature existed keeps the price that was set when you upgraded.

When Energy is Tracked¶

Energy tracking records:

Per-Print Mode¶

Only tracks during active print:

• Starts when print begins
• Ends when print completes
• Includes preheating and cooling
• Restart-resilient: the starting plug counter is persisted on the archive row, so if the Bambuddy backend restarts during a print the per-print energy delta is still computed correctly at completion.

Total Mode¶

Tracks all energy when the plug is on — including idle, preheat, printing, cooldown, and standby. The value comes from the smart plug's lifetime counter (delivered via Tasmota/HA/REST), not from per-print deltas.

• Cumulative total reported as the plug's live lifetime counter
• Includes idle / standby / chamber heating
• Date-range views (Today / This Week / This Month / …) are supported via hourly snapshots of each plug's lifetime counter. For a date range, Bambuddy computes lastSnapshot − baseline per plug where baseline is the last snapshot at or before the range start.

Energy Export¶

Export energy data:

1. Go to Statistics
2. Click Export
3. Energy data included in CSV/Excel

Export includes:

• Per-print energy consumption
• Cost calculations
• Printer comparison data

Energy Analysis¶

Efficient Settings¶

Compare energy usage across prints to find efficient settings:

Printer Efficiency¶

Compare printers:

• Some are more efficient than others
• Consider energy when choosing which printer to use
• Factor into total cost of ownership

Total Cost of Printing¶

Combine energy costs with filament costs:

Total Print Cost = Filament Cost + Electricity Cost

Example:

Filament: 45g at $25/kg = $1.13
Electricity: 245 Wh at $0.15/kWh = $0.04
───────────────────────────────────
Total: $1.17

Tips¶

Dynamic Electricity Rates¶

If you have a dynamic electricity tariff (e.g., Amber, Tibber, Octopus Energy, Nord Pool), Bambuddy can take the price from Home Assistant. Each hour of energy is then costed at the price of that hour, see Energy Is Costed at the Price of the Hour It Was Used.

Read the Price Sensor (Recommended)¶

Bambuddy reads the price straight from a Home Assistant sensor, using the Home Assistant connection you already set up for smart plugs:

1. Make sure Home Assistant is connected under Settings > Network > Home Assistant
2. Go to Settings > General > Cost Tracking
3. Set Electricity price source to Home Assistant sensor
4. Under Price sensor, pick or type the sensor holding your current price, e.g. sensor.amber_general_price

Bambuddy reads the sensor when you save, every hour, and at the start and end of every print. The price field then shows the last price read and can't be edited. If Home Assistant can't be reached, Bambuddy keeps using the last price it read.

Push the Price from Home Assistant¶

The older alternative, still supported: Home Assistant pushes the price to Bambuddy's API whenever it changes. Leave Electricity price source on Fixed price for this; the pushed price applies from the moment it arrives.

1. Create an API Key¶

1. Go to Settings > API Keys
2. Create a key and tick the Update electricity price permission (this is the only settings field writable via API key — see API Keys for why)
3. Copy the key

2. Add REST Command to Home Assistant¶

Add to your configuration.yaml:

rest_command:
  bambuddy_electricity_price:
    url: "http://YOUR_BAMBUDDY_IP:8000/api/v1/settings/electricity-price"
    method: POST
    headers:
      X-API-Key: "YOUR_API_KEY"
    content_type: "application/json"
    payload: '{"energy_cost_per_kwh": {{ states("sensor.electricity_price") }}}'

Replace:

• YOUR_BAMBUDDY_IP with your Bambuddy server address
• YOUR_API_KEY with the API key from step 1
• sensor.electricity_price with your energy provider's price sensor

3. Create Automation¶

automation:
  id: 'bambuddy_push_electricity_price'
  alias: "Update Bambuddy Electricity Price"
  mode: restart
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: sensor.electricity_price
      for: "00:00:05"
  condition:
    - condition: template
      value_template: >
        {{ states('sensor.electricity_price')|float(none) is not none }}
  action:
    - delay: "00:00:01"
    - service: rest_command.bambuddy_electricity_price

This updates the price in Bambuddy whenever your electricity rate changes.

Common Energy Provider Sensors¶