Glossary
Plain definitions of the words PELS uses. New to the app? Read How PELS Decides for the big picture, then use this page to look up any term. Each entry links to where it matters most.
Power and capacity
Power (W / kW)
How much electricity your home is drawing right now — an instantaneous rate. 1 kW = 1000 W. A kettle pulls ~2 kW while it's on. Think of it as speed.
Energy (kWh)
Power used over time — the meter total. Running 2 kW for one hour uses 2 kWh. Think of it as distance travelled. Your daily budget is in kWh; your hard cap is about kW.
Power vs energy, in one line: power (kW) is how fast you're using electricity right now; energy (kWh) is how much you've used over an hour or a day. The hard cap watches the selected capacity period's distance; the daily budget watches the whole day's.
Hard cap
The maximum average power (in kW) you want the whole home to draw in one capacity period. PELS supports an hourly period and a 15-minute period, and treats the selected one as the boundary it protects above all else. Set it to match the peak or tariff step you want to protect. It is not a setting you raise to get more room. If you have no capacity tariff at all, set it well above what your home ever uses, and PELS never limits for it. Your main fuse is a separate, much higher physical limit, and not something PELS manages. See Getting Started → Set your capacity limit.
Capacity tariff (effekttrinn)
A grid pricing model — common in Norway, Sweden and Finland — where your monthly grid fee depends on your highest power use, sorted into steps. In Norway the charge is the kapasitetsledd and the steps are effekttrinn; staying under a step keeps you in a cheaper band. PELS's hard cap is how you hold a step.
Safety margin
A buffer (in kW) below the hard cap. PELS starts easing devices down before the home actually reaches the cap, so it has time to react. A margin of 0.3–0.5 kW is a sensible start. See Tips → Capacity tuning.
Safe pace
The power level where PELS starts acting right now. On the 15-minute period it never rises above the hard cap minus the safety margin. On the hourly period it paces the allowance left in the hour, so in an under-used hour it legitimately sits above that level and tightens toward it as the hour ends. When a daily budget is active and tighter, it can drop below either. On the Overview it shows as the Safe pace now marker. It's a moving target, not a fixed limit.
Available power
How much more load PELS can fit right now before it reaches the current safe pace, in kW. When it's positive, paused devices can resume; when it's near zero, PELS holds or eases devices off.
Budget and pacing
Daily budget
An optional soft target for total energy in a day (in kWh). PELS paces the home toward it — leaning on cheap hours when price optimization is on — but it never overrides the hard cap and never raises an urgent alarm. Off by default. See Daily Energy Budget.
Daily pace
How fast PELS thinks the home should be using power right now to land on the daily budget. Ahead of plan → the pace eases; behind plan → it rises. PELS always uses the tighter of the daily pace and the hard-cap pace.
Managed vs background usage
Managed devices are the ones PELS plans and controls (the loads you marked Managed). Background usage is everything else — lights, appliances, the fridge — that PELS measures but cannot move. Charts split usage this way.
Devices and control
Priority
A number per device, per mode, where lower means more important. When PELS must turn things down it starts with the highest numbers (least important) and works up; when room returns it resumes in the opposite order.
Mode
A saved profile — such as Home, Away, or Night — holding its own set of priorities and target temperatures. Switch modes from Homey Flows. See Configuration → Modes.
Device states (Limited, Resuming, Idle, Off, Manual)
The state words on the Overview that say what each device is doing right now. Limited = PELS is lowering, pausing, or turning it off to stay under the hard cap or daily budget pace, or keeping it waiting for power; Resuming = PELS has decided to bring it back and is turning it on or raising its level; Idle = on or available with nothing to do; Off = Homey reports the device off and PELS is not limiting it; Manual = managed but PELS has no power-limit control of it right now. Full list: Plan States.
Power-limit control
The per-device switch that lets PELS lower or turn the device off to protect the hard cap. With it off, the device stays under PELS's planning but is never limited for capacity — useful for an EV charger you only want running during booked hours.
Prices
Spot price / price source
The electricity price for the period it covers — an hour on most sources, or 15 minutes where your Homey Energy zone publishes quarter-hour prices. The Norway source combines spot price, grid tariff, surcharges and your chosen support scheme into one hourly price; the Homey Energy, Power by the Hour and Flow sources work anywhere those prices are published, and hand over the price as their source states it. For most homes this is the price PELS plans around; homes with an export price plan against the derived planning price (below). See Using Homey Energy.
Import price
The price you are billed per kWh — every cost figure and receipt stays on this. On homes without solar it is simply "the price"; the Import price label only appears on surfaces that also show an export or planning price.
Export price
What you are paid — or charged — per kWh for power you export to the grid. Turn it on under Settings > Electricity prices when you have solar; the Budget tab shows Export price now for the current hour. See Solar and Self-Consumption.
Planning price
The derived price PELS plans against when you have an export price: a blend of import and export that reflects what your energy is actually worth to you. It is always an estimate — your bills and receipts stay on the import price. Surfaces that act on it show a using your solar reason line.
Cheap-hour boost / expensive-hour reduction
Temperature nudges (in °C) PELS applies to a price-aware device while electricity is cheap or expensive: for example 2 °C up overnight and 2 °C down during the evening peak. A unit that is cooling moves the other way. They follow the price for as long as it lasts, which is a quarter of an hour where your source publishes 15-minute prices.
Solar
Solar surplus
Solar power available beyond what your home is using right now: either exported to the grid or inferred when a zero-export inverter throttles production to match the house. PELS can steer flexible devices to soak it up instead of exporting it cheaply. Devices and home batteries share it in priority order: with the battery last, the default, your devices get the sun first, then the battery, then the grid. See Solar and Self-Consumption.
Home battery
A battery paired with Homey whose app lets PELS set how much it charges or discharges. It is a managed device with its own Overview card (Supplying, Charging, Limited · Charging or Own mode) and a place in your priority list, last by default. PELS uses it to share your solar surplus and, on its turn, to hold your limit: first by capping its charge, then by discharging. Managed by PELS turns this on or off, and Power-limit control decides whether it may hold your limit. See Solar and a home battery.
Use solar surplus / Run on solar surplus
Per-device settings for prosumers. Use solar surplus lifts a device's target (for example a warmer water heater) while there is surplus; Run on solar surplus runs an on/off device (pool pump, towel dryer) only while surplus covers it.
Smart tasks
Smart task
A one-off goal for one device: reach a target by a ready-by time (e.g. charge to 80 % by 07:00, or 21 °C by 06:30). PELS picks the best hours before the deadline. See Smart Tasks.
State of charge (SoC)
An EV battery's charge level, as a percentage. A charging Smart task aims for a target SoC (e.g. 80 %) by its ready-by time. See Deadline Charging With State of Charge.
Ready-by time
The deadline a Smart task plans toward — written as a local clock time, e.g. 07:00. PELS lines up usable hours before it.