Price analysis

The price analysis turns the electricity price list into things you can use directly: a level per slot, an on/off signal for cheap moments, and the cheapest block of the day. Turn it on with the Price analysis sensor group; the settings are on page 2 of the options.

It contains two independent calculations:

	Price levels	Cheapest period
Question it answers	"Is the price cheap right now?"	"When is the best moment today?"
Based on	Fixed prices you set	The prices of the day, compared with each other
Result on an expensive day	Maybe no cheap slot at all	Still the best block of that day
Entities	Electricity price level, Cheap electricity price now	Cheapest electricity period now, Next cheapest electricity period

Everything uses the all-in electricity price. Gas has no price analysis.

1. Price levels

Every slot gets one level:

Level	Shown as	Rule
expensive	Expensive	Price above the expensive price
cheap_solar	Cheap + solar	Price at or below the cheap price, and the solar forecast is at or above the solar threshold
cheap	Cheap	Price at or below the cheap price
normal	Normal	Everything in between

With the defaults (cheap €0.25, expensive €0.40):

Price	Solar forecast	Level
€0.19	0.2 kWh/h	cheap
€0.19	2.1 kWh/h	cheap_solar
€0.25	none	cheap
€0.31	2.1 kWh/h	normal
€0.40	none	normal
€0.41	none	expensive

Solar forecast

Optional. Choose an integration under Solar forecast and cheap slots with enough expected production are marked cheap_solar. Use it to tell "cheap from the grid" apart from "cheap and my panels are producing".

• Works with every integration that provides a solar forecast to the Energy dashboard, such as Forecast.Solar and Solcast.
• The forecast is converted to kWh per hour for every slot, so the threshold means the same for quarter-hour and hourly prices. A quarter with a forecast of 0.5 kWh counts as 2.0 kWh/h.
• If the forecast integration is unavailable or slow, the analysis continues without solar: slots are then cheap instead of cheap_solar.
• Only cheap slots can become cheap_solar. A normal or expensive slot never does, however sunny.

2. Cheapest period

The consecutive block of the length you chose with the lowest average price. It is calculated three times:

Calculation	Searches in	Used by
Today	Today's slots	Cheapest electricity period now, Electricity price analysis today
Tomorrow	Tomorrow's slots (once published)	Electricity price analysis tomorrow
From now on	All slots that have not ended yet, today and tomorrow	Next cheapest electricity period

Details:

• The length is 15 minutes to 6 hours. With hourly prices it is rounded up to whole hours: 90 minutes becomes 2 hours.
• If two blocks have the same average price, the earliest one wins.
• The block is always one piece; it is never split in two.
• Next cheapest electricity period stays the same while that period is running. It only moves to a new period when the current one has ended or new prices arrive.

Only when cheap

By default Cheapest electricity period now turns on during the cheapest period of every day, even when that day is expensive. Tick Only when cheap to let it turn on only when the period's average price is at or below your cheap price.

Day	Cheapest 2 hours average	Only when cheap off	Only when cheap on
Sunny Sunday	€0.12	On during the period	On during the period
Dark winter day	€0.34	On during the period	Stays off

Entities

Entity	State	Use it for
Electricity price level (sensor)	Level of the current slot	Conditions, colours on a dashboard
Cheap electricity price now (binary_sensor)	On while the current slot is cheap or cheap_solar	Run something whenever it is cheap
Cheapest electricity period now (binary_sensor)	On during today's cheapest period	Run something once a day for a fixed time
Next cheapest electricity period (sensor)	Start time of the cheapest period from now on	Planning, "starts in…" on a dashboard
Electricity price analysis today (sensor)	Start time of today's cheapest period	Charts, templates
Electricity price analysis tomorrow (sensor)	Start time of tomorrow's cheapest period	Charts, templates

All of them refresh at every quarter hour and whenever new prices arrive.

Attributes of Electricity price level

Attribute	Meaning
cheap_threshold	Your cheap price
expensive_threshold	Your expensive price

Attributes of Next cheapest electricity period

Attribute	Meaning
end	End of the period
average_price	Average all-in price in the period
minutes	Length of the period

Attributes of Electricity price analysis today / tomorrow

Made for charts and templates. Not stored in history.

Attribute	Meaning
slots	One entry per price slot, see below
cheapest_period	The cheapest period of that day: start, end, average_price, minutes
cheap_windows	List of blocks of consecutive cheap (and cheap + solar) slots
expensive_windows	List of blocks of consecutive expensive slots
solar_windows	List of blocks of consecutive cheap + solar slots, with average_solar_kwh
thresholds	Your settings: cheap, expensive, solar_kwh

Every window has start, end, average_price and minutes.

Every entry in slots:

Key	Meaning
from, till	Start and end of the slot
price	All-in price
level	cheap_solar, cheap, normal or expensive
solar_kwh	Solar forecast for the slot in kWh per hour (0 without a forecast)
in_cheapest_period	true when the slot is part of that day's cheapest period
is_current	true for the slot of this moment

slots:
  - from: "2026-10-01T13:00:00+02:00"
    till: "2026-10-01T14:00:00+02:00"
    price: 0.1874
    level: cheap_solar
    solar_kwh: 2.31
    in_cheapest_period: true
    is_current: false
cheapest_period:
  start: "2026-10-01T13:00:00+02:00"
  end: "2026-10-01T15:00:00+02:00"
  average_price: 0.1902
  minutes: 120
cheap_windows:
  - start: "2026-10-01T11:00:00+02:00"
    end: "2026-10-01T16:00:00+02:00"
    average_price: 0.2105
    minutes: 300
thresholds:
  cheap: 0.25
  expensive: 0.4
  solar_kwh: 1.5

Template examples

{# When does today's cheapest period start? #}
{{ states('sensor.frank_energie_prices_electricity_price_analysis_today') | as_datetime | as_local }}

{# How many hours are cheap today? #}
{{ state_attr('sensor.frank_energie_prices_electricity_price_analysis_today', 'cheap_windows')
   | sum(attribute='minutes') / 60 }}

{# Minutes until the next cheapest period starts #}
{{ ((states('sensor.frank_energie_prices_next_cheapest_electricity_period') | as_datetime - now()).total_seconds() / 60) | round }}

{# Is the next hour expensive? #}
{{ state_attr('sensor.frank_energie_prices_electricity_price_analysis_today', 'slots')
   | selectattr('from', 'gt', now())
   | map(attribute='level') | first == 'expensive' }}

More: Automation examples and the Chart gallery.

Choosing your prices

• Cheap price: look at a week of prices and pick the price below which you would gladly charge a battery or run the dishwasher. A common start is your average price minus a few cents.
• Expensive price: the price above which you want to avoid using power, for example to stop charging or to discharge a home battery.
• Prices change with the seasons; check the two prices a few times a year.
• Want a signal that works on every day without tuning? Use the cheapest period instead of the levels.