Plant Automations — alerts, actions, and the surplus plan
The Automations tab is where a plant reacts on its own — notifying you when something needs attention, and switching real loads to soak up surplus solar. Everything the plant does automatically lives here, in three sections.
The three sections
Section titled “The three sections”| Section | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Alerts | Watches live readings and notifies you when a condition holds | “Push me if the inverter is silent for 30 minutes” |
| Actions | Watches live readings and switches a connected device | “Turn the heat-pump relay on when the battery is above 65% and solar is strong” |
| Surplus plan | Ranks your deferrable loads so surplus energy goes to the right one first | Heat pump before water heater before EV charger |
Alerts inform. Actions act. The surplus plan decides priority when more than one load could run.
Creating one
Section titled “Creating one”Today, actions are set up together with the techs.solar team — you describe what you want in plain language (for example: “turn the heat-pump relay on when the battery is above 65% and solar is producing well; off if solar fades or the battery drops below 60%”) and it’s configured as a structured recipe with every threshold, timing, and safety setting reviewed with you before it exists. A self-serve builder on this tab is planned.
Alert rules you can already create and edit yourself on this tab.
However it’s created, a new action never switches anything immediately — it starts in rehearsal. See automation-rehearsal-and-arming.
The safety settings on every action
Section titled “The safety settings on every action”Every action carries guard settings, pre-filled with safe defaults you can adjust:
- Minimum on/off time — the load never flaps on and off in quick succession (protects compressors).
- Auto-off timer — every “on” command has a built-in expiry; if the plant loses internet, the load switches itself off rather than running unattended.
- Bailout condition — a hard cut-off (for example, battery below 60%) that overrides everything else.
Good candidates for actions
Section titled “Good candidates for actions”Deferrable loads with their own controls: heat pumps, water heaters, pool pumps, EV charging enable circuits. The relay switches the enable signal; the appliance still manages itself.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- automation-rehearsal-and-arming — how an action goes live safely
- adding-smart-devices-shelly — connecting the relay it will switch