Homey as Energy Management System

Energy management is more important than ever. Increasing energy prices, the rise of solar-at-home, heat pumps, EVs, home energy storage and dynamic energy tariffs all make energy management a key part of smart home. That's why it's also a core part of Homey. Homey creates better smart homes. And that includes better energy management.

Energy management across the home

Energy management takes place in lots of different parts of the home. Because of its versatile connectivity, Homey is able to work with a lot of attractive products in every one of these categories, creating a unified energy management option:

• Energy measurements
• Heating and cooling
• Major energy consumers in the home
• EVs and EV chargers
• Energy pricing, including dynamic tariffs
• Solar at home
• Home energy storage, like home batteries

Energy measurements in Homey

Energy management starts with measuring energy usage. Homey is able to measure energy usage per device, and for the whole home. Per device, Homey uses either the power reporting of the device, or it estimates power usage for known device based on their status. Use a whole-home meter to measure energy for the entire home.

Energy measurement solutions that work with Homey

Estimating power for known devices works out of the box with Homey, and includes popular brands like Philips Hue. Next to that, Homey allows you to enter on and stand-by values for all your devices manually.

Most power-metering plugs and modules work with Homey via Homey Bridge, as they usually use Zigbee or Z-Wave. Supported brands include Innr, Fibaro, Qubino, frient and more. The products from Shelly can be added to Homey even without Homey Bridge as they connect directly to the cloud.

Whole-home energy meters from Tibber, called Pulse, work directly with the Homey service. These are available for the Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and German market. Next to that, the Energy Monitor from Aeotec and the frient HAN sensor can be linked to Homey Bridge.

Energy measurement solutions that work with Homey Pro

All of the solutions that work with Homey and Homey Bridge work with Homey Pro as well. Next to that, Homey Pro adds support for whole-home energy measurements from HomeWizard, Plugwise, Youless, Enelogic and more.

Smart heating in Homey

Heating (and possibly cooling) is where homes typically use most of their energy. There are multiple types of heating available, and their characteristics differ quite a bit. Homey's energy saving capabilities are interesting for all sorts of heating. If you combine electric heating – heat pumps, HVAC and/or space heaters – with dynamic tariffs for electricity (more on that later), there's also a lot of scheduling opportunities.

All sorts of heating systems are ultimately controlled by thermostats. There's smart thermostats available for almost every heating setup. Homey is compatible with a wide range of thermostats for multiple heating configurations:

1. Multi-zone heating with different thermostats. Popular in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden. Homey works with products from Heatit for this option (via Homey Bridge), among other brands.
2. Heating with a main thermostat (either single or multi-zone). Popular in Western Europe. Homey works with many brands, including Honeywell Evohome, Tado and Netatmo for multiroom, plus Toon, Nest, ecobee and more for single room.
3. Multi-zone heating with just radiator thermostats. Popular in Germany / DACH and Central Europe. Smart radiator thermostats from Eurotronic, Aqara, Danfoss, Fibaro and more can be paired to Homey Bridge or Homey Pro.
4. Heating (and cooling) via air conditioning. While you might think of an AC for cooling, the fact that it's based on a heat pump makes it a pretty decent and efficient heater as well. Homey works with connected ACs from Daikin. Homey Pro adds support for Panasonic and Mitsubishi, and both Homey and Homey Pro can connect to Infrared AC controllers from Switchbot and Tado.
5. Electric space heaters. Brands like Mill and Adax have connected space heaters that work with Homey Pro. Next to that, most simple space heaters can be switched on and off with a simple smart plug.

Major energy consumers in Homey

Next to your heating, major energy consumers in your home might include washer/dryers, dishwashers, electric or induction stoves, electric ovens, freezers and possibly a sauna or pool if you have those. Some of these can be bought smart and can be connected to Homey. Others can be made smart with a smart relay.

Major energy consumers that work with Homey

Homey is compatible with quite some brands of connected appliances / white goods, including Bosch, Siemens and Miele. Next to that, you can monitor and control major consumers using smart plugs and built-in modules with energy measurement functionality. These can be from

Solar panels and inverters in Homey

Installing solar panels on your home help you generate your own renewable energy, save money on your electricity bills, and reduce your carbon footprint. To effectively manage your solar energy, it's important to monitor your energy consumption and production to ensure you're using your solar energy efficiently, ideally on the times you're also generating it.

Solar panels themselves are pretty dumb. It's the inverter that is bridging your panels to your grid where it becomes interesting. Homey can integrate with solar panels in two different ways:

1. A connected inverter. Homey Pro works with many different inverters from popular brands, including EnPhase, Growatt, SolarEdge, SMA, Tigo, GoodWe and Huawei.
2. A connected smart meter add-on with separate solar value. Usually this is called a '3-phase meter'. Both Homey and Homey Pro integrate with the Tibber Pulse for this.