Readings

How metrd records and stores readings.

Every value metrd shows you - a watt figure on the live display, a state of charge percentage, a forecast slot - comes from a reading. A reading is a single measurement from an integration at a point in time, tied to whichever device on that integration it came from (your solar array, your battery, and so on).

Metrics

Each device reports a set of metrics depending on what it's capable of measuring. Common ones include:

MetricTypical unit
Battery state of charge%
Battery charge / discharge rateW
Solar (PV) outputW
Inverter AC outputW
House loadW
Grid import / exportW
Battery / inverter voltageV
Battery / inverter currentA
Battery / inverter temperature°C
Grid frequencyHz

Not every device reports every metric - a solar array reports PV output but not state of charge; a grid-tie inverter without a battery won't report charge rate at all.

Live vs. historical vs. forecast

A reading is tagged with the capability it came from:

  • Live readings reflect what's happening right now, and drive the display.
  • Historical readings are past values, used for backfilling gaps.
  • Forecast readings are predictions of future values, such as tomorrow's expected solar generation.

Retention

Keeping every raw reading forever isn't practical, so older readings are bucketed - averaged down into coarser time intervals the further back they go. Recent data stays at full resolution; older data is progressively compressed. This keeps history useful for trends without the storage cost of keeping every single point indefinitely.