How to optimize Stiebel heat pump usage based on energy prices?

Energy
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1

Hi,

I’m thinking about creating a flow to manage the energy usage of my Stiebel heat pump. I’m using the Stiebel app in Homey, and what I’d like to achieve is to avoid running energy-intensive heat pump tasks during peak electricity prices.

For example, heating the hot water buffer. Ideally, I’d like the Stiebel to do this during the hours when electricity prices are lowest. In summer, it could also make sense to heat the buffer during the day when my solar panels are generating electricity. I’d like this to happen, for example, once a day.

I’m also considering turning off cooling during the most expensive hours of the day in summer, and reducing or turning off heating during the most expensive hours in winter. However, I’m not sure how much this would affect the temperature in the house, or whether it’s a good idea for the heat pump itself.

Has anyone automated something like this? If so, would you be willing to share an example flow? It would be great to have something to start with and get an idea of what’s possible and what would be needed.

Thanks!

2

Have you considered this app: Stiebel Eltron Warmtepompen | Homey

3

There is a discussion here on how to do this with an Energy Manager app: [APP][Pro] PELS Energy Manager - Power control and cheaper-hour scheduling for EV charging, heating and hot water - #135 by Ole_Markus_With

4

Thanks for your reply! I have the app installed, and I’ve already created some simple flows to change the heating mode and turn it off again after a certain amount of time.

However, I don’t really understand which cards I could use to achieve the situations I’ve described above. That’s where my question came from.

5

If you use PELS Energy Manager | Homey then you configure desired set temperatures there. When the price reach certain thresholds, it will apply a temperature delta. So it doesn’t really turn off the heat pump, but it increase the temperature when the price is cheap and then you coast through mid-level price levels as well as the expensive periods.

I.e the total energy consumption may very well be the same, but when you consume the energy is based on the price levels.

6

Hi, thanks for your suggestion. I’ve installed the app and configured it for my heat pump.

Am I correct in assuming that the price-based control only affects the room temperature? Is there also a way to schedule or control the domestic hot water buffer based on energy prices?

7

It depends a little on your setup, but yes, it may be possible as long as Homey sees the temperature telemetry.

8

I haven’t found the option yet to make that work with PELS yet but the room temperature part of the heatpump is managed by PELS now.

There seems to be a problem with receiving the dynamic prices from Homey Energy, in the Electricity pricing tab, the status of currency is unknown, and it says ‘no data received’ for today and tomorrow. Should I change something to make it work?

9

If you like, I can look into your specific device if you are willing to share the details.

Regarding prices, I just released some fixes to this that could be related. If you can check that you have 3.6.0 installed and then send me a diagnostics report, I can take a look at this as well.