Deadline Charging With State of Charge

Use this setup when the real question is:

"Will the car be at 80% by 07:00?"

That is different from "run the charger for five cheap hours." Deadline charging starts with the outcome you care about: a target battery level and a ready-by time. PELS then chooses useful charging hours before that time, checks prices, protects the hard cap, and keeps watching the car's state of charge.

State of charge, or SoC, is the battery percentage Homey receives from the car or charger. With SoC, PELS can see whether charging is actually moving toward the target. Without it, any schedule is still a guess.

Why This Is the Gold Standard

SoC-based deadline charging is the best EV charging pattern in PELS because it closes the loop.

Older pattern	Deadline charging with SoC
Pick a number of cheap hours.	Pick the battery target and ready-by time.
Hope the chosen hours are enough.	PELS tracks progress against the target.
Manually adjust after cold weather, slow charging, or a half-full battery.	PELS learns the charger and replans when the estimate changes.
Cheap hours are the goal.	Readiness is the goal; cheap hours are used when they still fit.
Hard-cap handling is separate from the schedule.	The same plan still respects the hard cap and priorities.

The result is calmer:

• If you only want confirmation, the Smart tasks widget tells you whether the car is on track.
• If this is your first charging setup, the New smart task widget lets you create the task without learning modes.
• If you optimize every run, the plan view shows which hours were selected and why.
• If a previous run missed, the next run gives you an early At risk or Cannot finish signal.
• If a notification sends you here, the active EV smart task is the one thing to check first.

What You Will Build

You will set up:

1. EV charger current control, so PELS can pause, resume, or lower charging through Homey.
2. Battery percentage reporting, so PELS knows the car's state of charge.
3. A Homey dashboard with PELS widgets for creating and watching the task.
4. A first charging task: for example, charge the EV to 80% by 07:00.
5. Optional automation that creates the same task every time the car is plugged in.

You do not need to configure PELS modes for this guide.

Before You Begin

You need:

• PELS installed and receiving live whole-home power data.
• Price-aware planning enabled, with prices available through the ready-by time.
• An EV charger paired in Homey.
• A Homey charger app or Flow action that can set available current or available power for the charger.
• A car or charger app that can expose battery percentage in Homey, or a Flow that can send that percentage to PELS.

If PELS is not installed yet, start with Getting Started. If your power or price source comes from Homey Energy, see Using Homey Energy. A charging task can stay at Building plan… until prices are available for the whole ready-by window.

Homey background reading:

• Homey Energy shows EV and battery state in the Energy experience.
• Understanding the Homey Energy tab explains the EV Charger and Electric Vehicle tiles.
• Homey's app documentation describes EV battery state of charge through the measure_battery capability in Energy and Battery status.

Step 1: Connect The Charger To PELS

First make PELS able to control charging current.

1. Open More -> Apps -> PELS -> Settings -> Devices.
2. Open the EV charger.
3. Enable Managed by PELS.
4. Choose EV 1-phase or EV 3-phase, matching your charger setup.
5. Configure current control as described in Configure an EV Charger. A new Easee setup uses built-in device control; an existing Easee current-control Flow remains supported.

For a Zaptec charger, use the shorter Zaptec EV Charger guide. An Easee charger needs no current-control Flow; see Easee EV Charger.

Choose The Default Charging Behavior

For deadline charging, many homes use this default:

• Managed by PELS: on.
• Power-limit control: off by default.
• A Smart task makes the charger available during planned charging hours.

That prevents ordinary run-when-power-is-available behavior when no active task controls the charger. During planned task hours, PELS can make room for it while staying under the hard cap. An active task can also charge in an hour it keeps without planned energy, when power turns out to be available; a deferred hour is held off whether power-limit control is on or off.

If you also want normal "charge when there is room" behavior when no active Smart task controls the charger, leave Power-limit control on. During an active task, hours the task defers stay off; an hour the task keeps without planned energy may run when power turns out to be available.

Step 2: Give PELS The Battery Percentage

PELS needs battery percentage for the charger it is planning. Choose one of the following paths.

Path A: Select A Supported Car

Open the charger's Car section in More -> Apps -> PELS -> Settings -> Devices and select the cars that charge there. PELS reads the battery level from the car it matches to the charger. If the car is not listed, use its battery-percentage tag through Path C instead.

Selecting a car does not itself establish a match. While the page says Waiting to match a car, this charger has no battery level. While any car is selected, PELS ignores both the charger's own reading and the Report battery level for charger Flow card, including before a match. Clear the selection if you want to use either of those sources instead.

PELS matches cars to chargers whether or not they are selected. Under each car, the Car section shows Last matched to this charger on <date>, Not matched to this charger when the car has matched a different charger that is still in Homey, or Not matched to this charger yet. If you already report the battery level through a Flow, wait until the car shows as matched before you select it.

Path B: The Charger Reports Battery Percentage

Leave the charger's car selection empty. Some charger integrations expose battery level on the charger device itself. If Homey exposes that as a supported battery percentage capability, PELS can read it directly.

Check the charger in More -> Apps -> PELS -> Settings -> Devices. The device detail should show battery level once PELS has seen a reading.

Path C: Report Battery Percentage Through A Flow

With no car selected in the charger's Car section, you can use Flows to report the car's battery percentage to the PELS charger entry:

Flow part	Card
When	Your car app: battery level changed
Then	PELS: Report battery level for charger

In the PELS action card:

• Select the same charger you use for current control.
• Put the car app's battery percentage tag into Battery level (%).

Also report the current battery level when the car is plugged in. If your car app does not emit a new battery event until charging starts, add a periodic Flow while the car is plugged in, for example every 30 minutes. PELS needs a fresh SoC reading even when the percentage has not changed yet.

This reports the battery level to the charger PELS controls; it does not create an automatic car association. Use this path when you prefer Flow reporting or the car is not supported by the car picker. Do not configure it as a fallback for a selected car: PELS ignores it while any car is selected.

Step 3: Add The Dashboard Widgets

Homey dashboards let you use PELS without opening the PELS settings page for every task. Homey's dashboard guide is here: Create and manage Homey Dashboards.

Create an EV charging dashboard and add these PELS widgets:

Widget	Use it for
New smart task	Create the charging task from the dashboard.
Smart tasks	Watch whether the EV task is On track, At risk, or Cannot finish.
Available power	See whether the home is close to the hard cap right now.
Budget and Price	See today's budget, price shape, and whether the day is tracking to plan.
Held-back devices	Optional: see devices currently waiting and release an eligible one when you deliberately want it sooner.

Put New smart task near Smart tasks. The first creates the task; the second tells you whether it is still healthy.

Step 4: Create The Charging Task

From the New smart task widget:

1. Pick the EV charger.
2. Set the target, for example 80%.
3. Set Ready by, for example 07:00.
4. Preview the plan.
5. Confirm the task.

Leave Extra permissions off for the first run. A normal EV deadline should prove itself inside the daily budget and hard cap before you give it more leeway.

After confirmation, the Smart tasks widget and the PELS Smart tasks page show the active charging task.

Step 5: Read The Result

Use the widgets in this order.

What you see	What it means
On track	PELS expects the task to reach the target — either charging hours are selected for later, or charging is already progressing. The task detail may also say Charging now during an active charging hour.
Paused — unplugged	The EV task is paused because the car is unplugged or the session ended. Plug the car back in if the deadline still matters.
At risk	The target may still be possible, but time or available power is getting tight.
Cannot finish	PELS does not currently see enough usable charging before the ready-by time.

Open the task in the PELS Smart tasks page when you want more detail. The plan view shows selected hours, price context, expected charging work, background usage, and target progress.

The important distinction: cheap hours are preferred, but readiness wins. If the car needs energy soon, PELS may choose a normal or expensive hour rather than miss the deadline.

Step 6: Make It Automatic After The First Good Run

The widget is the easiest way to create a one-off task. Once the first run behaves correctly, you can automate task creation with a simple Homey Flow. Homey's Flow basics are here: Create your first Flow.

Typical repeating Flow:

Flow part	Card
When	Your car or charger app: car plugged in
Then	PELS: Add charging task

Use the same target and ready-by time you tested in the widget, for example 80% by 07:00.

Keep the battery source you set up in Step 2 working: the selected car, the charger's own reading, or the battery-reporting Flow. The charging task is only as good as the battery percentage PELS receives.

When To Use Flow-Booked Cheap Hours Instead

Use Book Cheap Hours With Flows instead when:

• You do not have a battery percentage source.
• You only care about a fixed number of cheap hours.
• You want the schedule to live entirely in Homey Flow logic.

Use deadline charging when the car's final battery level matters.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
The charger is not offered in New smart task	Confirm it is paired in Homey, visible in PELS, Managed by PELS, and configured as EV 1-phase or EV 3-phase.
Battery percentage does not appear	Check whether the value is on the charger or on a separate car device. If it is on the car device, select the car in the charger's Car section (Path A) and wait for PELS to match it. If the car is not listed there, report its battery percentage with Report battery level for charger (Path C).
The task stays at Building plan…	Check that price data is available through the ready-by time. Tomorrow's prices may not be published yet.
The charger starts in an hour outside the plotted task plan	The task keeps that hour without planned energy, because it is cheaper than the planned hours or the task cannot finish otherwise, and charges there when power is available. A deferred hour is held off. Turn Power-limit control off to prevent normal run-when-power-is-available behavior when no active task controls the charger.
The task is At risk	Check that the car is plugged in, the charger current is correct, and the target is realistic for the time left. If other devices take the room, grant the task permission to limit lower-priority devices. If the reason names the car's own schedule or smart charging, turn that off in the car.
The car's own charge limit is below the target	The task keeps your target. As soon as PELS knows the car's limit is lower, the task shows At risk (or Cannot finish) with the limit as the reason, and it ends as missed if the car stops there. Raise the charge limit in the car, or lower the task's target to the car's limit. While the car is still below its limit, the daily budget is named instead when it is what holds the task back. A car unplugged before it reaches the limit shows Paused — unplugged; plug it in.
The task is Cannot finish	Lower the target, move the ready-by time later, plug in earlier, reduce competing load, or review the charger setup. Raising the hard cap is only correct if your grid tariff step is actually higher.
Charging current does not change	For Easee, check the path you chose: Use built-in device control, or the existing current-control Flow. For other chargers, recheck the Flow from Configure an EV Charger and use EV charger current (A).

For problems beyond charging — budget, capacity, or a missed task — see the full Troubleshooting guide.

Related Pages

• Smart Tasks
• Configure an EV Charger
• Zaptec EV Charger
• Dashboard Widgets
• EV charging under a power limit
• Book Cheap Hours With Flows