Support miniumum and maxiumum run time

[nicorusti]

Addresses #32 , based on work by @alistair23.

Some work done:

• merged recent changes
• Improved template descriptions and added a few more code comments
• Tested that blueprint works also with Forecast.Solar

@alistair23 would it be ok to contribute your work to the main repository?

Pending issues:

• [x] README
• [x] 81c46e19579bc7006b4b4478b513e16c59a46de4 that slows down automation to once every minute should be removed from this PR, otherwise power measures every minutes might be too coarse
• [ ] run_time counter does not reset to 0 if appliance switches off exactly at 00:00

Improvements:

• [ ] Collect load history, and use historical loads to estimate future usage, instead of instant load
• [ ] Consider adding a configurable time to enforce minimum run time instead of hardcoded 20:00

[alistair23]

@alistair23 would it be ok to contribute your work to the main repository?

Fine with me

[nicorusti]

@alistair23 I have been running this for a couple of days, and I notice an issue with your control algorithm that is using instant power consumption to estimate remaining power for the day ( introduced in 0220d251123bcf6010643aa653c75326fb49db1a) :

Basically this triggers the appliance to turn on as soon as there is a sudden consumption peak, that causes remaining_power to go down, while avg_excess_power stays positive. Then appliance stays on as soon as it can be powered in with some solar energy, and then turn off as soon as there is another peak:

I might try using a better metric, maybe average daily power consumption, or average from the last x hours. Let me know if you see the same issue and if you have some ideas

[alistair23]

I might try using a better metric, maybe average daily power consumption, or average from the last x hours. Let me know if you see the same issue and if you have some ideas

Ah, good point. An average of the last x hours seems like the best bet