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 your speed; the daily budget watches your distance.
Hard cap
The maximum average power (in kW) you want the whole home to draw in any one hour. PELS treats this as the boundary it protects above all else. Set it to match your grid tariff step or breaker limit. It is a physical property of your connection — not a setting you raise to get more room. 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. It's the hard cap minus the safety margin — and, when a daily budget is active and tighter, it can drop below that to keep the day on plan. 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, Manual)
The chips on the Overview that say what PELS is doing to each device right now. Limited = PELS is lowering, pausing, or turning it off to stay under the hard cap or daily budget pace; Resuming = bringing it back as power frees up; Idle = off and not held back; 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 hourly electricity price PELS plans around. The Norway source combines spot price, grid tariff, surcharges and your chosen support scheme into one hourly price; Homey Energy and Flow tag sources work anywhere with hourly prices. See Using Homey Energy.
Cheap-hour boost / expensive-hour reduction
Temperature nudges (in °C) PELS applies to a price-aware device when electricity is cheap or expensive — for example +2 °C overnight, −2 °C during the evening peak.
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.