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Using the sensors
TL;DR: Each Brunata meter is a single sensor with state class
total_increasing— the value is the cumulative reading (same number as on the physical meter), not a per-period usage value. The integration itself polls once an hour, but how often new data actually appears depends on your property's metering setup (e.g. wM-Bus vs. LoRaWAN) — this can range from several times a day to less often. Water and energy meters can be added to the Energy dashboard; heat cost allocators (points) can't, but work fine as regular sensors.
Each Brunata meter is exposed as a single sensor entity with state class total_increasing. That means the sensor's state is always the cumulative meter reading — the same number you'd see on the physical meter or in the Brunata Online app — not a per-period usage value. Home Assistant derives usage (consumption per hour/day/month) from that cumulative value automatically, wherever that's supported.
The integration polls Brunata once an hour, but that doesn't mean new data arrives every hour. How often Brunata itself actually has a new reading to hand back depends on the metering setup in your specific property — for example whether the meters report over wM-Bus or LoRaWAN — and can vary from several times a day down to just once in a while. So the sensor's value staying flat between some updates is normal and expected, not a fault; it simply reflects how often your building's meters have reported in.
This is the part that tends to look like a bug but isn't.
The sensor's state (the number shown on the entity itself) reflects the real, current cumulative reading as soon as the integration successfully fetches data — that part is correct immediately.
Consumption graphs are a different story. Both the Energy dashboard and any chart showing "usage" (rather than the raw cumulative value) work by taking the difference between two consecutive readings of the sensor. Right after you add the integration, Home Assistant has only seen one reading — there is nothing yet to subtract it from. Until Brunata publishes a second reading and the coordinator picks it up, any consumption-based graph or bar chart will show 0, even though the underlying sensor already has a real, non-zero value. How long that takes depends on your property's metering setup — it could be within the same hour if your meters report frequently, or take longer if they don't.
| What | Status right after setup |
|---|---|
| Entity state (reading) | ✅ Correct immediately |
| Consumption graph / Energy dashboard bars | ⏳ Shows 0 until a 2nd reading exists (typically within 24 hours) |
No action is needed on your part — this resolves itself as soon as Brunata publishes a new reading and enough history has accumulated.
| Meter type | Unit | Device class | Works in Energy dashboard? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water |
m³ / l
|
water |
✅ Yes |
| Energy |
kWh / MWh
|
energy |
✅ Yes |
| Heat cost allocator (radiator) |
pts (points) |
none | ❌ No |
Heat cost allocators cannot be added to the Energy dashboard. They're excluded on purpose, not as a limitation of this integration: Brunata reports heat cost allocators in unitless "points," not in a physical energy unit like kWh, or m³. Home Assistant's Energy dashboard only accepts sources with a recognised device class and a matching physical unit, so there is no source category a points-based sensor could be assigned to. These meters still work perfectly as regular sensors — see the section below — they just live outside the Energy dashboard.
- Go to Settings → Dashboards → Energy
- Under the relevant section (Electricity grid or Water consumption), click Add
- Select the matching Brunata sensor from the list
- Save
Home Assistant will then show your Brunata consumption alongside any other configured energy sources, with automatic day/week/month/year breakdowns.
Every Brunata sensor — including heat cost allocators — is a completely normal Home Assistant sensor entity and can be used anywhere a sensor can:
- History graph card or Statistics graph card on a regular dashboard, to show the trend over time
- Entities card or Gauge card, to show the current cumulative reading
-
Statistics page (Developer Tools → Statistics, or Settings → System → Statistics depending on your HA version), since
total_increasingsensors are recorded as long-term statistics regardless of whether they're linked to the Energy dashboard - Automations and templates, e.g. to alert on unusually high daily consumption, using the
statisticsorhistory_statsintegration against the sensor
This applies equally to water/energy meters and to heat cost allocators — the only thing heat cost allocators can't do is appear specifically inside the Energy dashboard's own summary views.