Features
Everything it can do, with compatible equipment.
Beesley Energy works with Home Assistant, which is made by others, and only with equipment your Home Assistant can already read and control. What it can do at your place depends on that equipment. See supported equipment.
Each feature is marked Available, Beta: off until you turn it on or Coming in a later update. Beta features are in the current version but switched off when you install it, so nothing changes until you choose to turn them on. A new installation also starts by only watching and showing its plan; it changes nothing until you turn control on.
Departure times: learnt, or set by you
Beesley Energy plans your car's charging around when you leave. It can learn that for itself, or you can tell it.
It learns when you leave Available
It watches your car's odometer, speed and plug sensors and learns your first departure for each day of the week. It ignores short moves in the driveway. After about two weeks it uses your recent usual times, and it also learns how far you tend to drive.
It knows the spread of your times, not just the average. When the cost of leaving short is high, it plans for the earlier end of your usual range.
Or you set it Available
Set a one-off departure time, or let it read a Home Assistant calendar for trips in the next two days. Both take priority over what it has learnt.
Ready by: choose a charge level and a date and time, and it plans the lowest-cost way it can find to get there. It runs once, then switches itself off.
Departure questions Beta: off until you turn it on When it isn't sure and it matters, the app can ask "Leaving at 7:40?" You can confirm, say an hour later, pick a time or say there's no trip. It asks at most once for each departure, and optional phone notifications respect quiet hours.
What it needs: a car with its own Home Assistant integration that reports charge level, odometer, speed and whether it's plugged in, such as the BYD integration. Until it has about two weeks of history, it uses a default time you can change.
Ready times are aims, not promises. Prices, solar and your plans change, and if you leave earlier than usual the car may not be full. If you must have the car ready, charge it yourself. See clause 4.4 of the terms.
Two-way charging: power from your car
Beta: off until you turn it on Experimental
With compatible equipment, Beesley Energy can use the energy stored in your car as well as charge it. It plans when to do this with the same forecasts it uses for everything else, and keeps your car above the levels you set.
Car to home (V2H)
Runs your house from the car, overnight or when your home battery is low and buying from the grid would cost more than refilling the car later.
Car to grid (V2G)
Sends power from the car to the grid when the price you would get is well above what it would cost to refill the car. It stops as soon as the feed-in price falls to zero or below.
Car to home battery
Moves energy from the car into your home battery in short blocks, so the battery is ready for the evening.
Discharge tests and pulse control
You can arm a one-off test that steps your car's discharge up in stages, up to 10 kW, to learn the rate your car and charger can hold and how they handle short pulses above it. It then uses short pulses to reach a steadier average. The test takes control of your home system for up to 40 minutes, and only starts when the car is at least 70% charged and not due to leave for 4 hours.
If the grid goes down and you have a grid-status sensor in Home Assistant, it can also use the car to support the house.
How it protects your car's charge
- It never takes the car below a floor you set, and never below 25%.
- It never goes below what the car needs for its next predicted trip, plus a margin.
- It doesn't discharge the car while there's spare solar, or while the price to buy is below zero.
- It only uses a car you have marked as able to discharge, once it is sure which car is plugged in.
- It only runs a session when it's worth it, and waits before starting again.
- It caps the discharge rate at 2 kW unless you raise it.
What it needs
- A Sigenergy DC charger connected to a Sigenergy inverter, through the Sigenergy ESS (
sigen) community integration. AC chargers only charge. - A car that supports discharging through that charger. So far it has been tested with BYD cars.
- You turn on "Use power from the car" in settings. It is off when you install Beesley Energy.
Check before you turn it on. Not every car or charger can discharge, and we don't promise it will work with yours. Discharging uses your car's battery, which may affect its warranty or battery life. Check with your car maker and your charger maker first; your rights against them are separate from ours (clause 7.6 of the terms). Sending power to the grid needs your network operator's approval and a compliant setup. Beesley Energy is not a safety or protection device.
More for cars and charging
Solar into the car Available
Spare solar goes into the car before it is exported. A car that's short of its target with a trip coming up gets solar first.
Plug-in-by advice Available
Tells you the time to plug in by, or warns you that the car won't make its target in time.
Drive floor Available
Keeps each car at or above a minimum level you choose, raised when the next trip needs more.
Several cars Available
Keeps a record for each car and works out which one is on which charger. If it can't tell, it asks.
Gentle on the car Available
Reads your car more often around your usual departure and less overnight, and can wake the car before a planned DC charge to check it is ready.
Parked, or charge now
Mark a car as parked until a date so it isn't charged for a trip Available. Quick charge from the app, for a while or to a level by a time Beta: off until you turn it on.
Cars without their own Home Assistant integration: Coming in a later update
Energy decisions
A 36-hour plan, every 5 minutes Available
It plans your battery, car and loads 36 hours ahead using your prices, the solar forecast and your limits, looking for the lowest-cost plan. It plans for many possible futures, not just one guess, and picks what does well across them.
Adjusts to the real sky Available
Every minute it compares your actual solar with the forecast and adjusts the plan.
Your prices Available
Live 5-minute prices from Amber, AEMO forecasts for the hours beyond your retailer's forecast, or a time-of-use tariff you type in. Easier tariff entry Coming in a later update
Prices below zero Available
When you are paid to use power, it charges the battery and car and holds your export at zero.
Strategy, from Safe to Trader Available
One slider changes how hard it chases prices. Your floors and limits stay the same at every setting.
Your daily summary Available
A short, plain-English summary of what happened each day.
Plans are based on forecasts, which are estimates. Prices, weather and solar change. We do not promise a particular bill, battery level or car charge.
Grid limits and spare solar
Breaker limit Available
A model of how much your main breaker can carry, lowered as the switchboard heats up. How the breaker limit works
Import and export limits Available
Keeps grid power out of the battery unless the plan wants it, and keeps imports and exports within the limits you entered. It never changes protection settings.
Less solar thrown away Available
Estimates solar that would otherwise be lost and sends it to the battery, then the cars, then export, then your chosen loads.
Pool pumps, hot water and more Beta: off until you turn it on
Runs up to four switched or climate devices, such as a pool pump, hot water or air-con, on spare solar or below-zero prices, and checks that each one actually switched.
The app
The app shows your home as a picture and lets you see and change every plan. It also runs inside Home Assistant's sidebar. Some screens need their data switched on in Beesley Energy's settings first.
Try the live demo: the app running on sample data, right in your browser.
Your home, live Available
A picture of a home with your solar, battery, chargers and cars. Moving dots show where power is flowing, and speed up as more flows. A charging cable glows teal when charging and gold when power comes from the car.
Tap to zoom Available
Tap the solar, battery, grid, a charger, a car or the pool to zoom in and see its details.
The plan, explained Available
See the battery plan, when the next price change is, and a plain reason for each step. If it doesn't know why, it says nothing rather than guess.
Cars that come and go Beta: off until you turn it on
Cars drive in and out of the picture as they arrive and leave, and park at the charger they are really plugged into.
Alerts Beta: off until you turn it on
A bell and drawer with four levels, a note on the device concerned, and one-tap actions. Choose which alerts reach your phone and set quiet hours.
Help, and a help chat Available
Searchable help pages. Help chat Beta: off until you turn it on: ask questions in plain English, using your own Anthropic API key. It can't change anything, and it sends your question and live figures to Anthropic. See the privacy policy.
Control your home Beta: off until you turn it on
Switch air-con, the pool pump and other Home Assistant devices from the app, optionally behind a PIN.
PIN, away mode and backups Beta: off until you turn it on
A PIN for changes, an away mode that pauses departure questions, and settings backup and restore.
Settings your way Available
Basic, Standard and Advanced settings. Dark, light or automatic theme, and text size.
Wall-screen mode Available
Run it full time on a wall tablet, kept awake, dimmed at night, with reduced motion if you prefer. Old figures are marked as stale, so you know what's current.
Sky, sun and moon
Beta: off until you turn it on The picture of your home follows the real sky where you live.
Light and shadows from the real sun
The scene's light follows the sun's height for your location and time. Shadows fall in the sun's real direction and lengthen as it sets. At night, the windows glow.
Moon phase
The moon in tonight's phase, lit on the correct side for the Southern Hemisphere, with its name, such as "Waxing gibbous".
Weather you can see
Rain, hail, fog, cloud shadows, lightning and stars, with wind that makes the rain drift.
Sky panel
A sunrise-to-sunset arc, today's high and low, rain and wind, and an hourly forecast.
What it needs: your location set in Home Assistant and a Home Assistant weather integration. For shadows, set which way your house faces.
When things go wrong
- No fresh plan for 30 minutes: it hands your battery back to its own self-consumption mode and tells you.
- One controller at a time: it won't fight your own automations for control of the battery.
- When it stops: it tries to hand control back to your equipment first. What happens when it stops
It is not a safety or protection device. Your equipment's own protection, your switchboard and your installer's settings do that job without it.