# \[APP\]\[Pro\] PELS Energy Manager - Power control and cheaper-hour scheduling for EV charging, heating and hot water **URL:** \ **Category:** Apps\ **Tags:** app, energy, community-app\ **Created:** [December 21, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496 "2025-12-21T10:21:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 12:38pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/121 "2026-08-08T12:38:48Z")
I’ll have a look at this as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/122 "2026-08-10T12:55:50Z")
New release just went live. @Awangens If you report power through flows (which I assumed that you do), then you can submit signed values where negative values means export. The case I tested with is a flow like this: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/c/3/c3bc006048806c17338203c31ef6137c839f1736.png) @Magnus_Fredlund Your two issues should also be fixed now. PELS should learn the ceiling of the EV charger. PELS will back off when chargers that are completed (plugged in, but not explicitly in a paused state) rather than continuously try starting the charger. ---
**Author:** ![Magnus\_Fredlund](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/magnus_fredlund/32/120763_2.png) [@Magnus\_Fredlund](https://community.homey.app/u/Magnus_Fredlund)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 11:36am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/123 "2026-08-26T11:36:52Z")
Any interest in implementing solar surplus for EV charging? It would be nice to leave the car plugged in but only charge when there is excess solar energy produced. Maybe with a small amount of grid power allowed if neccessary, or dynamic current regulation to keep as close to zero export as possible. I guess this is already possible using flows, but it would be more elegant to have a setting in PELS when needing somewhere else do dump excess energy besides heating/water heater. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 12:15pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/124 "2026-08-26T12:15:18Z")
Yeah. It should be doable. The reason EV is excluded from this feature right now is only because PELS also need to know that a car is plugged in for this to work. So a little bit more work than plain heaters and such that are always there and largely always can accept load. But the pieces for this functionality should now already be there. Caveat being that there is less of a guarantee of successfully being able to dump power to an EV charger. I’ll add it to the backlog and get back to this thread once I have done a bit of investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/125 "2026-08-26T12:58:55Z")
Just a sanity check: many chargers require at least 6 A worth of energy to be able to charge at all. Do you regularly produce enough energy using solar only to be able to start the charger? Right now, I am thinking of letting the user choose between two modes: solar only or solar first. The latter being that PELS will also allow consuming some energy from the grid in addition to the energy from solar. ---
**Author:** ![Magnus\_Fredlund](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/magnus_fredlund/32/120763_2.png) [@Magnus\_Fredlund](https://community.homey.app/u/Magnus_Fredlund)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 2:12pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/126 "2026-08-26T14:12:00Z")
Yes, quite often I have 1,5 - 3kW in export for extended periods of time during summer. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2026, 9:46am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/127 "2026-08-30T09:46:38Z")
Okay. I released this to testing now. Appreciate feedback if possible. > **[PELS Energy Manager | Homey](https://homey.app/en-us/app/com.barelysufficient.pels/PELS-Energy-Manager/test/)** > > Power control and cheaper-hour scheduling for EV charging, heating and hot water. ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 8:52am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/128 "2026-09-08T08:52:10Z")
Hi @Ole_Markus_With! Testing with a Daikin heat pump, we found that PELS enforces the active mode’s temperature: manual changes from the physical remote reach Homey but are then overwritten. The source code appears to already distinguish external/manual changes from PELS’ own writes. Could you add an option for a manual `target_temperature` change on the device to update the PELS target for the active mode? For example: Home 23.5°C → user sets Daikin to 22°C → Homey receives 22°C → PELS updates the Home target to 22°C instead of restoring 23.5°C. This would let users adjust the temperature naturally from the remote while keeping PELS as the sole control authority and avoiding competing automations. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 9:11am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/129 "2026-09-08T09:11:32Z")
Hi @Felix_oslo. That should be doable. Let me try to figure out how to add this and then I’ll get back to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 12:14pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/130 "2026-09-08T12:14:24Z")
It would be best if PELS could register temperature changes directly from the device. If we start doing this via Flows, it could result in an excessive number of Flows, especially for heat pumps. PELS should detect if a user changes the setpoint temperature on a thermostat or heat-controlling device, and then directly apply that as PELS’s own target temperature. I haven’t checked whether PELS also controls whether the heat pump heats or cools, but PELS should ideally have the capability to take this into account as well. I’m very excited to see how this turns out in the end. I’ve spent almost an entire week converting from Sparegris to PELS since Sparegris is no longer being developed. I’m rooting big time for PELS and think the app is both well-designed and looks very promising! ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 1:46pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/131 "2026-09-08T13:46:51Z")
Thanks for kind words! There will be no flows needed for something like this. Currently PELS has a toggle for enabling/disabling temperature control. The plan is to add a third option to that toggle to update the current mode instead of doing nothing or reverting to what is already configured for the mode. PELS have no knowledge about heating or cooling at the moment. And doesn’t really need one. I think right now the only consequence could be that some status messages could say heating instead of cooling. But I may be missing something. If you think PELS should take cooling into consideration, it would be interesting to know what for. ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/132 "2026-09-08T14:38:01Z")
Thanks — the third option sounds exactly like what I was asking for. The reason I mentioned heating/cooling is mainly the direction of any temperature adjustment PELS makes for power limiting or cheap-hour control. In heating mode, lowering the setpoint reduces demand; in cooling mode, lowering the setpoint increases demand. Likewise, raising the setpoint reduces cooling demand. So if PELS only enforces the configured target and never offsets the setpoint up or down, it probably does not need to know. But if it throttles a heat pump by changing `target_temperature`, it should either read the current HVAC mode and reverse the adjustment direction in cooling, or avoid such adjustments while cooling is active. I am not asking PELS to choose between heating and cooling automatically. Reading the device’s existing mode would be enough for correct control direction and accurate status messages. The manual setpoint → update current PELS mode feature is the important part for our setup. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/133 "2026-09-08T18:04:03Z")
Ah that makes sense. But note that if you want PELS to update the mode setting on manual temperature change, this will disable automated temperature changes like setting temperature when power limiting or adjusting delta on cheap/expensive prices. I can’t at least imagine a good UX of when a user changes temperature at the same time as PELS has adjusted temperature due to power usage/price. But for devices that PELS fully control, it shouldn’t be a problem to support devices with `thermostat_mode` capability. A note on Daikin is that I think they support this capability, but they provide some unofficial values. ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 9:05am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/134 "2026-09-09T09:05:00Z")
I would prefer to keep both manual setpoint updates and PELS’s automated temperature adjustments. One possible model would be to keep these as separate values: - The configured base target for the active PELS mode. - A temporary PELS offset caused by power limiting or electricity price. - The effective device setpoint: base target + temporary offset. When PELS detects a manual change from the device, the selected temperature could become the new base target for the active mode. I suggest clearing the current temporary offset at that point, so PELS does not immediately ‘fight’ the user and overwrite the new setting. Automatic offsets could resume on the next actual price or power-control event. For example: - Home target: 23.5°C - Temporary PELS offset: −1°C - Device setpoint: 22.5°C - User manually selects 22°C - New Home target becomes 22°C and the current offset is cleared This seems easier for the user to understand than trying to infer whether a manual value entered while an offset is active represents a new base target or a new effective target. An additional edge case is when the user selects a temperature outside the range implied by PELS’s allowed offset. I think the manual value should still become the new base target and the active offset should be cleared. The offset limit should constrain PELS’s automatic adjustments, not the user’s selected base temperature. The manual value would only be clamped to the device’s supported range or any explicitly configured safety limits. Future price or power-control events could then calculate a new offset from that new base target. PELS would also need to recognise or suppress the device’s echoed confirmation of its own write, so it is not interpreted as another manual change. For cooling, PELS would only need to read the existing `thermostat_mode`; it would not need to select heating or cooling itself. The direction of an automated offset should be reversed while cooling: raising the target reduces cooling demand, while lowering it increases demand. Would this model fit reasonably well with the way PELS currently handles temperature deltas? ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 11:43am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/135 "2026-09-09T11:43:27Z")
Almost. While electricity price shift is a delta, set temperature when power limited is a fixed value. Reason for that is that one typically would use this value for example as frost guard, or in my case, prevent plants in the room from dying. Otherwise, you are mostly correct in how PELS works. The behavior you describe is possible for price-based shift, but it adds some complexity and state tracking. The implementation I am doing now will disable the automated temperature change features except for modes. Mostly because of how much change I can bring out in one cycle. Follow ups will be: - Take `thermostat_mode` into consideration when it comes to applying price-based delta. - Enable the Set Temperature power limit mode. Most likely this will be fixed and will override user changes, because it’s purpose is to be a safety limit for the room, but ideally never cause any actual power usage. - If a device has `thermostat_mode`, add a separate setting for power limited temperature when cooling. - Allow price-based deltas. Manual changes cancels current shift and updates mode. I am not entirely sold on the UX on this, but I think I’ll do it anyway mostly because those who want this behavior probably know what they are doing. A premise for each of these is that I don’t hit any unexpected blockers. ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 12:06pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/136 "2026-09-09T12:06:09Z")
Thank you for the quick and thorough reply. This sounds like a very sensible way forward. I would be happy to install and test a development or test version if that would be helpful. Do you have a rough idea of when the first version containing the manual setpoint handling might be available for testing? I am also genuinely grateful for how actively and thoughtfully you are following this up. It means a lot to have a developer engaging with these use cases, especially after the developer of Sparegris decided to discontinue further development. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/137 "2026-09-09T19:22:03Z")
The feature is sort of developed, but there are some other stuff I want in before I cut a release. I am hoping for a version before the weekend though. ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/138 "2026-09-09T20:33:43Z")
Just let me know if I’m gonna download beta or just wait for your update. ---
**Author:** ![Ole\_Markus\_With](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ole_markus_with/32/148535_2.png) [@Ole\_Markus\_With](https://community.homey.app/u/Ole_Markus_With)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 7:24am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/139 "2026-09-11T07:24:14Z")
This should be able in the test release channel now: [PELS Energy Manager | Homey](https://homey.app/a/com.barelysufficient.pels/test/) ---
**Author:** ![Felix\_oslo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/felix_oslo/32/33969_2.png) [@Felix\_oslo](https://community.homey.app/u/Felix_oslo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 9:17am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496/140 "2026-09-11T09:17:08Z")
Thanks — I installed and tested PELS 3.1.0. I have two VThermo devices with the same Homey on/off Flow cards. Both VThermo thermostats are configured so their on/off controls work correctly in Homey, and I have verified that on/off works on both: - Bad Lille termostat: Power-limit control and ‘Leave off until turned on again’ are available and work. - Bad termostat: PELS says ‘PELS cannot limit this device’s power’, and both options are disabled. ‘Keep the new temperature’ works on both. I toggled ‘Managed by PELS’ off/on and restarted PELS, but the result was unchanged. When I forced capacity control, PELS started Bad termostat again while the system was in Away. Diagnostic report: d9422e5b-0c5a-46d5-a75c-d2e406368e8e Could this be a bug in how this VThermo device is detected, or is something wrong in my configuration? [Previous page](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496.md?page=6) [Next page](https://community.homey.app/t/app-pro-pels-energy-manager-power-control-and-cheaper-hour-scheduling-for-ev-charging-heating-and-hot-water/147496.md?page=8)