# Creating a card for active power consumers A few months ago I heard about the [auto-entities plugin](https://github.com/thomasloven/lovelace-auto-entities) and I decided to try it out. The result? A card that shows me the active power consumers in the house so I can turn any of them off easily. Here's how it looks like: ![autoentities.gif](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1604429355810/t2jIIGnWF.gif) In this blog post I'm going to show you how I made it with a few lines of YAML, but first I'm going to describe how the card works. My card is actually a vertical stack divided in two cards: ## 1. Devices with full access These are devices that I can control from Home Assistant so I can turn them on/off (TVs, lights, smart plugs, etc.) or decrease their consumption (dimming a light). In the recording above you can see that it updates and removes a light once I turn it off, and I can also control media players easily. ## 2. Read-only devices These are devices that have read-only integrations with Home Assistant. For example, my LG drier has a HACS component that allows me to see the current schedule, the time left, state(on/off), but I can't stop it from Home Assistant. I either do this manually using the buttons from the drier, or from the official LG app if I activated its WiFi module before. Same thing applies to my Samsung washer which has a SmartThings integration for Home Assistant that is read-only as well. I'll start by showing you the entire YAML code, and then I'll go over it piece by piece: %[https://gist.github.com/thewindev/95a788d9dd4a1bce4d44e9ca3ca51b1c] The first few lines are self-explanatory, you can set the title of the card, decide if you show a toggle button for all the entities, etc. Things get interesting from the line 15 where the filter starts. For this card, I preferred to filter the entities manually using jinja template, but you can do it easier if you look at their [documentation](https://github.com/thomasloven/lovelace-auto-entities#examples). The reason I went with a template filter is because I have to also display some custom data, like the remaining time for the washer for example. Auto-entities can also show certain entities without filtering them, so in this case you'll see the first two lines with the current consumed power. ``` filter: template: | sensor.apartment_power_adjusted sensor.plugs_consumption_summed ``` The first sensor is my Shelly EM which reports the entire power consumed in my apartment. The second one is the summed power of all my smart plugs. Then I show all the lights that are turned on. This can be done with in the template like this: ``` {% for light in states.light %} {% if light.state == "on" %} {{ light.entity_id}} {% endif %} {% endfor %} ``` However, if you want an easier way, you could also show them like this: ``` filter: include: - domain: light state: "on" options: tap_action: action: toggle ``` Just go over their [examples](https://github.com/thomasloven/lovelace-auto-entities#examples), you'll find many ways of filtering entities and you can pick whatever is best for you. After the lights, I show my media players. This includes a Chromecast, a smart TV, and a bunch of Echo dots, but I show all of them in a single loop because they are all media players. ``` {% for media_player in states.media_player %} {% if media_player.state != "standby" and media_player.state != 'off' and media_player.state !='unavailable' %} {{ media_player.entity_id}}, {% endif %} {% endfor %} ``` The last type of device that I show are the air conditioners: ``` {% for climate in states.climate %} {% if climate.state != 'off' and climate.state !='unavailable' %} {{ climate.entity_id}}, {% endif %} {% endfor %} ``` These are all my entities which I can control from Home Assistant. Next, we'll go over "read-only" entities. ## Read-only entities This is actually a separate card, which is shown only if my dryer or my washer are on. This can be done with this condition: ``` - type: entity-filter entities: - sensor.dryer - switch.washer state_filter: - "on" show_empty: false ``` So, when any of them is on, the card below will be displayed in the Lovelace UI: ``` card: type: markdown title: Read-only theme: 'transparent' content: | {% if is_state("sensor.dryer", "on") %} Drier is on - Current state: {{states.sensor.dryer.attributes.current_course}} - Remaining time: {{states.sensor.dryer.attributes.remain_time}} minutes {% endif %} {% if is_state("switch.washer", "on") %} Washer - Status: {{ states.sensor.washer_job_state.state }} - Power usage: {{ state_attr('switch.power_2', 'current_power_w') }} W - Finishing at: {{ strptime(states('sensor.washer_completion_time'), '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ').hour + 2 }}:{{ strptime(states('sensor.washer_completion_time'), '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ').minute }} {% endif %} ``` Things are a bit complicated here, so let me explain what all of this does line by line. First, I check if the dryer is on, and if it is, then I show this part: ``` Drier is on - Current state: {{states.sensor.dryer.attributes.current_course}} - Remaining time: {{states.sensor.dryer.attributes.remain_time}} minutes ``` I do the same thing for the washer, only here I also show the power usage because my washer is connected to a smart plug which is integrated in Home Assistant. Unfortunately, the washer completion time is not formatted, so I convert it like this: ``` - Finishing at: {{ strptime(states('sensor.washer_completion_time'), '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ').hour + 2 }}:{{ strptime(states('sensor.washer_completion_time'), '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ').minute }} {% endif %} ``` I know, it's not pretty, and I have to find a better way of converting the date from UTC to my time zone, but for the moment it works just fine. The auto-entities plugin is really powerful, this is just the tip of the iceberg in my opinion, but I hope you'll find it useful!