Support for Dummy Devices (not a "dummy load")

I’m really loving this extension, thank you for writing it! I stumbled upon it because I was going to sit down and write one myself but figured I should look first - glad I did!

One thing that I think would be awesome would be to be able to have a dummy device, that is a device that isn’t really connected to any home automation at all (thus no on/off to trigger Powercalc). For example, I have a dozen smart speakers around the house, I know exactly what the wattage is of those speakers so I would really like to create dummy device in Powercalc that allows me to give it a fixed wattage and on-time (i.e., 24 hours) so it will calculate the kWh for the energy report.

For example:

- platform: powercalc-dummy
  friendly_name: Smart Speakers
  wattage: 5.7
  on_time: 24:00:00

And that would create a sensor.smart_speakers_consumed_kwh entity that is incrementing 0.1378 kWh a day.

I’m doing this now by creating switch templates in HomeAssistant and making them be on all the time and then tying Powercalc to the dummy switch, but it would be less clutter if I could just create dummy entities directly in Powercalc that performs this function for me.

There are a lot of great uses for this where people don’t typically connect energy monitoring hardware: refrigerators, furnaces, smart speakers, load controls not incorporated into HA (various lights and switches), garage door motors, etc.

It seems like a relatively easy addition to your great extension.

[bramstroker]

@bramstroker I don’t see that as an update in HACS, do I need to install this one manually?

You can click the three dots and than reinstall. That will allow you to install the master branch.

[Colorado4Wheeler]

It’s not a deal breaker, I can continue to do this with adding template entities and tying powercalc to that, but if it is possible I think it could be a valuable resource. As for the fridge, while you are absolutely correct (and in many other types of devices like coffee pots), it allows you to have something, even if it’s not 100% accurate. I would rather know the idle or average state of a device and have slightly incorrect values than to not have it at all.