Automatic coordination of the home's serious energy devices.
Home Power Automation
Home Power Automation coordinates solar, batteries, EV charging, heating, cooling and electricity tariffs so a home can make better power decisions automatically.
Glossary
A plain-English vocabulary for Home Power Automation.
The home energy category is full of acronyms. This glossary keeps the important terms simple, quotable and connected to the real household decisions they describe.
A Home Power Automation system for serious home devices.
GridPassport
GridPassport is a system that coordinates solar, batteries, heating, cooling, EV charging and tariffs so the home can make better decisions around savings, comfort and blackout protection.
The local GridPassport coordinator in the home.
The Passport
The Passport is the small local GridPassport device that stays in the home, watches supported devices and helps coordinate power decisions without turning the phone app into the only control point.
The high-impact devices behind comfort, bills and resilience.
Heavy side of smart home
The heavy side of smart home means the devices that materially change household energy outcomes: solar, home batteries, heating, cooling, hot water, EV charging, meters and backup hardware.
Home Energy Management System.
HEMS
HEMS is the established technical term for systems that monitor, control and optimize energy generation, storage and consumption inside a home.
A device or system that coordinates decisions inside the home.
Local coordinator
A local coordinator stays close to the home energy devices and can continue making or supervising some decisions without depending only on a cloud dashboard or a phone screen.
A home device that can change the power outcome.
Energy asset
An energy asset is a device that can produce, store, consume, shift or protect energy in a home, such as PV, a battery, EV charger, heat pump, AC unit or controllable hot water system.
A device whose timing or power level can change usefully.
Flexible energy asset
A flexible energy asset can move some work in time without breaking the household. Batteries, EV chargers, heating, cooling and hot water can be flexible when comfort, deadlines and reserve are respected.
A tariff where electricity prices can change by market interval.
Dynamic electricity tariff
Dynamic tariffs can create cheaper and more expensive windows during the day. They become more useful when flexible devices can respond automatically.
A tariff with predictable price periods.
Time-of-use tariff
A time-of-use tariff has prices that change by a known schedule, such as cheaper night hours and more expensive peak hours. It is easier to plan around than a fully dynamic tariff, but still rewards timing.
Information that tells the home when energy is cheaper or more valuable.
Price signal
A price signal is the tariff or market information used to decide whether a home should buy, wait, charge, discharge, shift load, export or preserve reserve.
Export compensation that changes with market value.
Dynamic export
Dynamic export means the value paid for energy sent from the home to the grid can change over time. It makes export timing more important, especially for homes with PV and batteries.
The rule or price for energy exported from the home.
Export tariff
An export tariff defines how a household is paid or credited for electricity sent back to the grid. Export rules can strongly affect whether it is better to use, store, sell or curtail solar energy.
Market prices below zero during some periods.
Negative electricity prices
Negative electricity prices happen when wholesale electricity prices fall below zero. A home may still not receive free energy because retail tariffs, fees, taxes and export rules can change the final household outcome.
Changing electricity use in response to grid or price conditions.
Demand response
Demand response means reducing, shifting or increasing electricity use when prices, grid needs or incentives make timing valuable. For homes, it should protect comfort and reserve instead of turning the homeowner into a grid operator.
Using your own solar generation inside the home.
Self-consumption
Self-consumption is the share of locally generated solar electricity used by the household instead of being exported to the grid.
Solar energy the home does not immediately need.
Solar surplus
Solar surplus is PV production that exceeds the home load at that moment. The home can often use it later by charging a battery, charging an EV, heating water, pre-cooling or exporting it.
Using a battery across price differences.
Battery arbitrage
Battery arbitrage means charging when electricity is cheaper or solar is abundant, then using or exporting that energy when it is more valuable, where local rules and battery economics allow it.
Energy kept back for backup or future use.
Battery reserve
Battery reserve is the part of a home battery intentionally protected so the home has energy available during outages, high-price periods or other risk windows.
The energy left after charging and discharging a battery.
Round-trip efficiency
Round-trip efficiency measures how much energy remains useful after a battery charges and later discharges. It matters because every battery decision has losses, so tiny price spreads may not be worth acting on.
Battery wear from time, use and operating conditions.
Battery degradation
Battery degradation is the gradual loss of battery capacity or performance. A responsible home energy system should consider degradation before adding extra charge and discharge cycles for small financial gains.
A device whose timing can move without breaking the household.
Flexible load
A flexible load can shift some consumption to a better time. EV charging, heating, cooling, water heating and some appliances can be flexible when comfort and deadlines are respected.
Moving energy use to a better time.
Load shifting
Load shifting means running a flexible load earlier or later so the home can use solar, avoid expensive prices, preserve battery reserve or reduce peak demand without hurting comfort.
A limit that keeps automation from making the home unpleasant.
Comfort boundary
A comfort boundary is a household rule that tells automation how far heating, cooling, hot water or other flexible loads can move without making people uncomfortable.
Keeping the home ready for power outages.
Blackout protection
Blackout protection means preserving enough backup capability for essential needs during an outage. It depends on battery reserve, inverter capability, wiring, essential loads and installation design.
The home ability to keep important things running.
Energy resilience
Energy resilience is the home ability to handle outages, price stress or device conflicts while protecting essential loads, comfort and household priorities.
The time available to charge an electric vehicle.
EV charging window
An EV charging window is the period between plug-in and departure when the car can charge. A good system balances this deadline with solar, battery reserve, tariff prices and household power limits.
Energy-aware control of heating without losing comfort.
Heat pump energy management
Heat pump energy management coordinates heating with tariffs, weather, solar, battery reserve and comfort boundaries so the home can shift some energy use without making rooms uncomfortable.
Energy-aware cooling inside comfort limits.
AC energy management
AC energy management coordinates cooling with solar, tariffs, weather and battery reserve. The goal is not to make the home warmer, but to use timing intelligently while preserving comfort.
Virtual Power Plant.
VPP
A VPP connects many distributed energy assets, such as home batteries or EVs, so they can support the wider grid as if they were part of one larger power resource.
A product world controlled by one manufacturer.
Vendor ecosystem
A vendor ecosystem is a set of devices, apps and integrations controlled by one manufacturer. It can be convenient, but it can limit whole-home coordination when the house uses devices from several brands.
Designed to work across different manufacturers.
Hardware-agnostic
Hardware-agnostic means the product ambition is to coordinate many supported brands and device types rather than only one manufacturer ecosystem. It is an ambition that must be proven through integrations, not just claimed.
A manufacturer app for a solar or battery inverter.
Inverter app
An inverter app is often useful for managing one solar or battery ecosystem. It usually becomes limited when the home needs cross-device decisions involving EV charging, HVAC, tariffs and backup reserve.
Energy import cost minus export value.
Net cost
Net cost is the electricity cost after export value or credits are counted. It is useful for case studies because a home with PV and a battery may both buy and sell energy during the same period.
A policy that keeps optimization inside allowed rules.
Safe mode
Safe mode is a control policy that avoids unsupported energy behavior, such as exporting more than local rules allow. It lets automation pursue value while respecting market, supplier or household constraints.
Plain-language explanation for Home Power Automation.
Whole-home smart power
Whole-home smart power means the serious energy devices in a home act together instead of behaving like separate apps and isolated settings.
Category anchor
Start with the category definition.
If one term should be used consistently, it is Home Power Automation: the automatic coordination of serious energy devices in the home.
- IEA 4E EDNA: Residential HEMS and controllers
Defines HEMS as systems that connect residential energy devices and optimize generation, storage and consumption.
- U.S. Department of Energy: Demand Response
Defines demand response as reducing or shifting electricity usage during peak periods in response to time-based rates or financial incentives.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: time-based rate programs
Official context for time-based electricity rate programs, including time-of-use, real-time, variable peak and critical-peak pricing.
- ACER: EU network code on demand response
European regulatory context for demand response resources, flexibility and distributed energy participation in electricity markets.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: negative wholesale electricity prices
Explains how wholesale electricity prices can fall below zero when generators pay to produce power under certain market conditions.
- U.S. Department of Energy: utility rate options
Explains time-of-use and dynamic rate structures, including rates that vary by set periods or more directly with market conditions.