Simple solar radiation chart card

Who it’s for

Solar farm operators, agricultural irrigation planners, and environmental monitoring teams ask “how has solar irradiance changed over time, without the clutter of delta comparisons?” They want to see the current reading and the daily irradiance curve in one card, nothing more.

What it does

A sensor currently reading 380 W/m² shows an orange value — Moderate — above a chart that reveals the day’s irradiance curve: low at dawn, climbing toward solar noon, dropping to zero at dusk.

• Large current solar-radiation value color-coded across five bands from None to Very High
• Time-series chart of solar-radiation readings over the selected time window, averaged per interval
• Shows one sensor’s data; it does not compare multiple pyranometers or show period-over-period deltas

How to set up

Data keys

Key	Role	Type	Description
radiation	Chart series	Timeseries	Solar irradiance in W/m²; drives the chart. The Latest value overlay is automatically derived from this same key
Latest	Latest value	Timeseries	The headline figure above the chart. Its own color ranges are where the band colors are edited

The widget ships with a simulated function datasource key labeled Solar Radiation, so it draws random values until you point the datasource at a device and rename the key.

To point it at your own device: open the dashboard in edit mode, open the widget’s Datasources, pick the entity or entity alias, and replace the function key with the key your device reports.

If the key has never reported for the selected time window, the chart is empty and the value overlay shows no data.

Value ranges

Range (W/m²)	Level	Color
0	None	Blue
0–250	Low	Green
250–500	Moderate	Orange
500–1000	High	Orange
1000+	Very High	Red

How to customize

• To use your own irradiance thresholds — edit the color ranges on the Latest data key; adjust the five default bands to match your site’s conditions.
• To hide or show the chart — toggle Show chart in the widget settings.
• To change the chart line color — set Chart color.
• To hide the entity name subtitle or the timestamp — turn off Show subtitle or Show date.
• To match your dashboard’s fonts — set the font options under each data key’s appearance settings.

Tips

• Use this card when the shape of the irradiance curve matters more than the period-over-period change. Add the full solar radiation chart card if you need a delta W/m² figure alongside the chart.
• A flat-topped curve mid-day indicates cloud cover clipping peak irradiance; a clean bell curve confirms clear-sky conditions.
• The area under the daily curve (kWh/m²) is the key input for yield models — use the time window to accumulate a full day and note the average as a proxy for daily insolation.