PELS Energy Manager
Hard cap breach imminent — no managed devices left to limit
PELS Energy Manager
Shift charging and heating to cheaper hours, limit power peaks and use your solar surplus.
PELS controls EV chargers such as Easee and Zaptec, heating, hot water and home batteries using the controls provided by their Homey apps. When several appliances need power at once, it lowers charging current, adjusts heating or pauses devices you have given a lower priority. PELS raises the charging current and resumes paused devices when more power is available. Equipment from different manufacturers can be controlled from the same app.
Capacity limit manages average power over an hour or 15 minutes to reduce tariff peaks. Grid import limit controls the power drawn from the grid right now. Either limit can be used independently, or both together. Measurements come from Homey Energy, a meter reader or Flows.
In Smart tasks, you set a goal and deadline: the car at 80% by 07:00, a warm living room when you get home or a set amount of energy for your water heater. PELS selects the cheapest hours before that deadline. When Homey provides the car's battery level, PELS plans how much charging is needed to reach your target on time. Prices come from Homey Energy, Power by the Hour or Flows, including time-of-use rates and network charges supplied by your chosen source. Heating and cooling also respond to 15-minute prices.
Solar surplus can heat water, warm or cool your home and charge your car. PELS adjusts charging current to the available solar power. In suitable installations, it can also use otherwise unused solar production when export is disabled. Your export price is included in planning, even when it is negative. Usage shows production, self-consumption, export and avoided grid costs.
A home battery, such as a Sessy or Marstek Venus, stores the solar surplus left after other devices have used what they need. PELS reduces battery charging when a higher-priority appliance needs power and discharges the battery to keep consumption within your chosen limit.
Home, Away and Night have their own temperatures and device priorities. Flows can switch between them as your routine changes. Daily budget spreads energy use across the day.
The guided setup is under Homey > More > Apps > PELS > Settings. Simulation mode previews how devices would be controlled before you enable automatic control.
Supported devices
Flow cards
Click on a device above to show related Flow cards only.
When...
Fires when PELS expects one part of your home to exceed its hard cap in the selected capacity period, with every managed device there already turned off or at its lowest step. The [[home]] tag names that part: the Main home, or a meter area by name. Use it to alert someone to go and turn something off by hand. Daily budget overruns do not fire this trigger.
PELS Energy Manager
Hard cap breach imminent for at least Must last at least (seconds) seconds — no managed devices left to limit
Fires once when PELS has expected one part of your home to exceed its hard cap in the selected capacity period, without a break, for the time you choose, with every managed device there already turned off or at its lowest step. If the situation clears inside that time, nothing fires. PELS limits managed devices immediately either way — this only decides when your Flow starts. Use it instead of Hard cap breach imminent — manual action needed when a brief spike is not worth a notification. The [[home]] tag names the part of the home: the Main home, or a meter area by name. Daily budget overruns do not fire this trigger.
PELS Energy Manager
Daily budget adjusted for the weather forecast
Fires once a day when PELS sets your daily budget from the weather forecast. Requires the weather insight's automatic apply to be turned on. Manual and Flow budget changes do not fire it.
PELS Energy Manager
Smart task ended for Device
Fires once when a smart task ends. The [[outcome]] tag tells you how it ended — succeeded (target reached and held), missed (ready-by time passed before reaching the target), or abandoned (cleared by hand or the device dropped out). Values are stable lowercase ids — filter on them downstream. The [[shortfall_known]] flag is false when the device-side delta was not observable and [[shortfall]] fell back to 0; gate any numeric comparison on it.
PELS Energy Manager
Smart task schedule changed for Device
Fires when the smart task is rescheduled with a different number of hours — for example when new prices arrive, or when the device runs faster than estimated. Hour swaps that keep the same total and kWh-only redistributions stay quiet.
PELS Energy Manager
Smart task status changed for Device
Fires when PELS saves a new smart task status for the chosen device. Short mid-hour recalculations do not fire it. Filter on the [[status]] tag downstream; values are stable lowercase ids: waiting / on_track / at_risk / unachievable / satisfied.
PELS Energy Manager
PELS wants Device at a different step
Fires when PELS decides a stepped device should move to a different configured step. Use it in flows that translate PELS intent into a vendor-specific action.
PELS Energy Manager
No car matched to EV charger after Wait (minutes) minutes
Fires once when a connected charger has waited this long without a car match. Start with 1 minute for a confirmation notification. Automatic matching continues. A match or unplug ends the wait.
PELS Energy Manager
Operating mode changed to Operating mode
Use this to trigger flows when PELS switches to a different operating mode.
PELS Energy Manager
Price level changed to Price level
PELS Energy Manager
PELS price list was updated
PELS Energy Manager
Current price is one of Lowest count lowest in the Hours hours before End hour:00
PELS Energy Manager
Current price is one of Lowest count lowest prices today
PELS Energy Manager
Device smart task has Hours remaining (or fewer) hours or fewer remaining
Fires once when the hours remaining until the smart task's Ready by drops to the chosen value or fewer. Re-arms when the Ready by is rescheduled. Use it to act a fixed lead-time before a deadline (e.g. 2 hours or fewer). The [[hours_remaining]] tag carries the whole hours remaining at the crossing.
And...
PELS Energy Manager
Device smart task is Status
True when the saved smart task status for this device matches the chosen status.
PELS Energy Manager
EV charger is waiting to match a car
True while the charger is connected, has cars selected in PELS settings, and has no usable car association.
PELS Energy Manager
Device has a smart task
True when this device has a smart task stored in PELS.
PELS Energy Manager
Is there enough available power for Required power (kW) kW?
Use this to check if the current available power is enough to add the requested load.
PELS Energy Manager
Does Device have available power for Required power (kW) kW?
True when the house has room for this device to draw the requested kW. PELS waits about 60 seconds after limiting the device, and asks for extra room when recent attempts to bring it back already fell short — so flows do not flap the device on and off.
PELS Energy Manager
Operating mode is Mode
Use this to create flows that only run when PELS is in a specific mode (e.g., Home, Away, Night).
PELS Energy Manager
Device has budget exemption
Use this to check if the selected device is ignored by daily budget control while still counting in real usage.
PELS Energy Manager
Is power-limit control enabled for Device?
Use this to check whether PELS may limit or resume the selected device: to stay under your grid import limit or hard cap, to keep to your daily budget, or to follow your solar surplus.
PELS Energy Manager
Is Device managed by PELS?
Use this to check if PELS is currently managing the selected device.
PELS Energy Manager
Price level changes to Price level within Hours h
True when a coming price period switches to the chosen level within this many hours. If the price is already at that level, it has to leave it and come back to count. The first period after missing prices counts as a change too. Uses the prices PELS has now, so the answer can change when tomorrow's prices arrive or a new day starts. If PELS has no price for the current period, the Flow fails instead of answering.
PELS Energy Manager
Price level is Price level
PELS Energy Manager
Current price is one of Lowest count lowest in the Hours hours before End hour:00
PELS Energy Manager
Current price is one of Lowest count lowest prices today
Then...
PELS Energy Manager
Add budget exemption for Device
Exclude this device from daily budget control. Real usage still counts in charts and budget reporting.
PELS Energy Manager
Allow Device's smart task to Permission When
Choose what PELS may do to keep this smart task's deadline, and when: go over today's budget, limit lower-priority devices, or reserve power so this task can start sooner — which keeps enough power available for it to begin, and never switches anything off. 'While it's scheduled to run' applies it the whole time the task is active; the change takes effect on the next plan refresh and sticks until you change it or clear the smart task.
PELS Energy Manager
Clear smart task for Device
Removes the active smart task for this device.
PELS Energy Manager
Associate Car with EV charger for this connection
Confirms the selected car for the charger’s current connection, using its battery reading even if the car app has not reported it plugged in. Select the charger first. The car must already be selected for this charger in PELS settings. A delayed Flow response applies to the connection active when this action runs.
PELS Energy Manager
Disable power-limit control for Device
Keep PELS from limiting or resuming this device while power-limit control is disabled.
PELS Energy Manager
Enable power-limit control for Device
Allow PELS to limit or resume this device: to stay under your grid import limit or hard cap, to keep to your daily budget, or to follow your solar surplus.
PELS Energy Manager
Remove budget exemption for Device
Make this device follow daily budget control again.
PELS Energy Manager
Report battery level for Charger device as Battery level (%) %
Store battery percentage for a managed charger without requiring the charger itself to expose a battery capability.
PELS Energy Manager
Report power Power (W) W
Send the current whole-house power reading (W) from your meter so PELS can track energy use for the selected capacity period and stay under the hard cap. If your meter reports a signed value, send it as-is: a negative reading means you are exporting to the grid.
PELS Energy Manager
Report stepped load for Device as Step
Use this after a vendor-specific action card, or when the device changes step outside PELS, so PELS knows which configured step is currently selected.
PELS Energy Manager
Report stepped load for Device matching Power
Use this when a device app gives you a power value instead of a step name. PELS matches the configured step by planning power. Accepts values like 1750 or 1750 W.
PELS Energy Manager
Set capacity limit to Limit (kW) kW
Changes the hard cap, for example by time of day. It does not turn on Capacity limit.
PELS Energy Manager
Set operating mode to Mode (e.g. home, away, vacation)
Use this to automatically switch PELS modes based on time, presence, or other triggers in your flows.
PELS Energy Manager
Set daily budget to Budget (kWh) kWh
Use this to adjust your daily energy budget from flows. Set to 0 to disable the daily budget.
PELS Energy Manager
Set the temperature for Device in Mode to Target temperature (°C) °C
Saves the device's target temperature for a mode, the same setting as the device's Temperature per mode section. Choose Active mode to change whichever mode is in force when the Flow runs. With "Return to mode target" selected for the device, PELS applies it with price and solar adjustments and power limiting on top. With "Save as current mode target", PELS applies it without price or solar adjustments; power limiting still applies. With "Keep the new temperature", PELS saves it but does not apply it.
PELS Energy Manager
Set the Adjustment for Device to Amount (°C) °C
Saves how far PELS moves this device's temperature in cheap or expensive hours, the same setting as the device's Price response section. Use 0 to stop that adjustment. Needs Price-based control turned on for the device. Applied only while "Respond to prices" is on under Price-aware devices, and not while the device is set to "Keep the new temperature" or "Save as current mode target".
PELS Energy Manager
Set what happens when the temperature of Device changes outside PELS: Choice
The same setting as "When the temperature changes outside PELS" in the device's Setup section. With "Keep the new temperature", PELS stops setting this device's temperature: mode targets and price and solar adjustments stop, and PELS cannot limit its power by lowering the temperature. With "Save as current mode target", price and solar adjustments stop and power limiting continues. While the device has an active Smart task, only "Return to mode target" is accepted. Switching back to "Return to mode target" lets PELS set the temperature again: the mode target, with price and solar adjustments and power limiting on top.
PELS Energy Manager
Deliver Energy (kWh) kWh to Device by Ready by
PELS runs the device in the cheapest hours before the ready-by time, within the hard cap and, unless you allow more, the daily budget, until it has taken this much energy, counted from its power readings. For on/off devices like a water heater on a relay, or EV chargers, including chargers with current control. The device needs a live power reading. For EV chargers, you can choose an energy target with or without a linked car or battery reading; the energy includes charging losses. A water heater that is already hot or a car that stops accepting charge can leave the task short of its energy target. The task auto-disables once the deadline passes; run this card from a recurring Flow (for example every evening at 22:00) to set it up for the next night.
PELS Energy Manager
Charge EV charger to Target battery (%) % by Ready by
PELS plans charging from the device settings, prices, budget, and the hard cap. The smart task auto-disables once the deadline passes; run this card from a recurring Flow (e.g. when the EV is plugged in) to re-arm it for the next session.
PELS Energy Manager
Set EV charger charging phase to Phase
Use this after the charger or car is already using this phase. PELS uses it to calculate charging power; it does not switch the charger hardware.
PELS Energy Manager
Set external prices for today from Price data (JSON)
Paste the price JSON from Power by the Hour's "price changed" card tag. Single quotes are accepted (e.g., {'0':0.2747,'1':0.2678,...}).
PELS Energy Manager
Set external prices for tomorrow from Price data (JSON)
Paste the price JSON from Power by the Hour's "price changed" card tag. Single quotes are accepted (e.g., {'0':0.2747,'1':0.2678,'2':0.261,...}).
PELS Energy Manager
Heat Device to Target temperature (°C) °C by Ready by
PELS plans heating from the device settings, prices, budget, and the hard cap. The smart task auto-disables once the deadline passes; run this card from a recurring Flow (e.g. on a daily schedule) to re-arm it for the next run.
Widgets
Support
Having an issue with this app? Contact the developer via email.
What’s new
Version 3.19.0 — New Device insight widget: pick one managed device and see its status, its own figure such as temperature against target or battery level, why PELS is limiting it, and its smart task. Tap the tile to open its smart task, or to create one for that device. The other two smart task widgets are now called Create smart task and Smart task list. When a car app is slow to report the plug-in, you can now tell PELS which car is connected. Use Confirm connected car in the charger's Car section, or the new Flow cards: a trigger when no car is matched after a wait you choose, a waiting condition, and an action that associates a car for this connection. A smart task that waits for this now says it is waiting to identify the connected car.
PELS Energy Manager
This app can manage your entire Homey.
PELS Energy Manager is not compatible with the selected Homey.
PELS Energy Manager will install on Homey shortly.
Changelog
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