Configuration

The PELS settings UI is organized by task. Most users spend the most time in Devices, Modes, Budget, and Price.

Devices tab

The Devices tab shows temperature devices, on-off devices, and optionally supported EV chargers.

• EV chargers are hidden by default and only appear after enabling Enable EV charger support in the Advanced tab.
• Devices without a usable power estimate cannot be capacity-controlled.
• Temperature devices can still be managed for mode and price behavior even when capacity control is unavailable.

Setting	What it does
Managed by PELS	Includes the device in modes and price optimization. Unmanaged devices stay out of the Overview plan and are treated as uncontrolled load.
Capacity-based control	Allows PELS to shed and restore the device for capacity. Requires a usable power estimate.
Price optimization	Applies cheap-hour or expensive-hour temperature deltas on managed temperature devices.
When shedding	Chooses whether PELS turns the device off or drops it to a configured minimum temperature.

Notes:

• Only managed devices appear in the Modes tab and price-optimization list.
• If expected usage looks wrong, check Device -> Advanced Settings -> Energy in Homey and verify the configured power usage values.
• EV charger support is currently limited to official Homey EV chargers exposing evcharger_charging and evcharger_charging_state.

Modes tab

Modes let you store different comfort and priority profiles such as Home, Away, Night, or Vacation.

What changes per mode

For each managed device in a mode:

Setting	What it does
Desired deg C	Target temperature for the mode
Priority	Lower number means higher priority. These devices stay on longer and restore first.

Typical approach:

• Keep living-room comfort high in Home mode.
• Move bedroom heating higher during Night mode.
• Lower less critical loads in Away mode.

Changes save automatically.

Overview tab

The Overview tab shows the current plan: what PELS wants each managed device to do right now.

Field	What it shows
Device	Device name
Temperature	Current and target temperature where relevant
Power	Current to planned on-off state
State	Active, Restoring, Shed, Inactive, or Capacity control off
Usage	Current measured power and expected power
Status	The reason for the current plan or current blocker

Use Refresh plan after changing setup if you want an immediate recalculation.

For the exact planner state language, see Plan States.

Budget tab

This is where the core capacity logic lives.

Capacity settings

Setting	What it does
Capacity limit (kW)	Your hourly hard-cap limit. This is the line you do not want to average above for the current hour.
Soft margin (kW)	Buffer below the hard cap. PELS starts reacting before you hit the hard-cap budget.
Dry run	Calculates the plan without actually controlling devices. Useful during initial tuning.

Important:

• The hourly capacity limit is the only real emergency limit.
• The Capacity guard: manual action needed trigger only fires when PELS projects an hourly hard-cap breach and cannot shed any more load.

Daily budget

The daily budget is a soft pacing layer on top of hourly control.

• It never replaces the hourly hard cap.
• It never triggers shortfall alarms by itself.
• It can reduce restores earlier in the day if you are already over plan.

Read Daily Energy Budget before changing the advanced tuning values.

Usage tab

The Usage tab helps you understand what PELS has observed.

• Usage summary shows today, the last week, and the last month.
• Usage patterns show a heatmap of typical load by weekday and hour.
• Hourly totals show derived hourly energy use based on reported power samples.

This is useful when you want to see whether your meter Flow is healthy and whether your home follows a stable pattern.

Price tab

Price support is optional, but it makes the app more useful for thermal loads.

Price source

Setting	What it does
Price source	Choose Norway (spot + grid tariff), Homey Energy, or Flow tag.

If you use Norway pricing, you also set:

• county
• grid company
• tariff group
• price area
• provider surcharge
• threshold and minimum difference values

If you use external flow tags:

1. Set Price source to Flow tag.
2. Feed the full JSON payload for today's prices into Set external prices (today).
3. Feed tomorrow's payload into Set external prices (tomorrow) when available.

Price optimization per device

Setting	What it does
Cheap delta	Temperature boost during cheap hours
Expensive delta	Temperature reduction during expensive hours

Water heaters and similar thermal loads are usually the best first candidates.

Advanced tab

The Advanced tab is for optional capabilities and expert tuning.

Setting	What it does
Enable EV charger support	Shows supported EV chargers and allows pause-resume control through EV capabilities.
Debug logging topics	Chooses which internal topics emit debug logs.
Controlled usage weight	Tunes how strongly controlled usage influences the learned daily profile.
Price flex share	Tunes how strongly price shaping can move controlled usage across the day.
Show daily budget breakdown in chart	Splits the plan chart into controlled and uncontrolled portions.

Only change the daily-budget tuning values if you understand the tradeoff. They can materially change shed timing and restore timing.

For the exact formulas, see Daily Budget Weighting Math.

Suggested setup order

1. Get the meter Flow working.
2. Enable management on a small set of obvious devices.
3. Tune priorities and capacity settings.
4. Add price optimization.
5. Add daily budget pacing if you want softer whole-day guidance.