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How it works

A smart plan for your battery, refreshed every five minutes

Most batteries follow one rule all year. Watt iQ makes 288 decisions a day, each one based on the latest weather, the latest price and what your household is likely to do next. Here is what happens in each cycle.

Hour by hour(scroll sideways for the whole day)Next decision in -:--

Summary of the sample day: the battery charges from midnight to 2am on cheap overnight power, holds from 3am to 5am, powers the house from 6am to 8am while prices are high, charges from 9am to 12pm while solar pushes prices negative, holds through the early afternoon, powers the house at 4pm, sells to the grid from 5pm to 7pm when the price spikes to 142 cents, powers the house again at 8pm and 9pm, holds at 10pm and charges again at 11pm.

  1. 12am4c/kWhCharge
  2. 1am3c/kWhCharge
  3. 2am2c/kWhCharge
  4. 3am3c/kWhHold
  5. 4am5c/kWhHold
  6. 5am9c/kWhHold
  7. 6am22c/kWhPower the house
  8. 7am31c/kWhPower the house
  9. 8am18c/kWhPower the house
  10. 9am2c/kWhCharge
  11. 10am-1c/kWhCharge
  12. 11am-3c/kWhCharge
  13. 12pm-2c/kWhCharge
  14. 1pm1c/kWhHold
  15. 2pm4c/kWhHold
  16. 3pm8c/kWhHold
  17. 4pm19c/kWhPower the house
  18. 5pm58c/kWhSell to the grid
  19. 6pm142c/kWhSell to the grid
  20. 7pm96c/kWhSell to the grid
  21. 8pm34c/kWhPower the house
  22. 9pm21c/kWhPower the house
  23. 10pm12c/kWhHold
  24. 11pm6c/kWhCharge

An example day for a 28 kWh battery on a wholesale plan. Your plan will look different, because it is built from your home.

  1. Step 1

    Forecast

    Work out what tomorrow looks like.

    Watt iQ looks at the weather forecast to predict how much your solar panels will make. It looks at your own household's history, the day of the week and the season to predict how much power you will use and when. School holidays and a hot week both change the picture, so the forecast refreshes constantly.

  2. Step 2

    Price

    Find out what power is worth right now, and later today.

    Through Localvolts, Watt iQ sees the live wholesale price every five minutes, the price your neighbours are offering, and the forecast for the rest of the day. Prices can swing from below zero in the middle of the day to many dollars per kilowatt hour on a hot evening.

  3. Step 3

    Optimise

    Choose the best plan for the whole day, then act on the next five minutes.

    With a forecast and a price in hand, Watt iQ solves for the cheapest way to get your household through the day. Charge now while the sun is strong and prices are low. Hold through the afternoon. Sell a little into the evening spike. Then run the house on what is left. Five minutes later it does the whole thing again with fresh information.

  4. Step 4

    Protect

    Never put your family or your battery at risk.

    Your backup reserve is a hard floor. Warranty cycle limits are a hard ceiling. If a storm is forecast, the battery fills early so you face any outage with a full charge. These rules sit above every trade and cannot be overridden by a price.

  5. Step 5

    Report

    Show you the money.

    Each month Watt iQ compares what your battery actually did with what it would have done on its default setting, in dollars. You see what you saved on your bill and what you earned from selling. No spreadsheets needed.

Wholesale price across the sample day, with the battery's mode shaded behindPrice stays below 10 cents overnight while the battery charges and holds, rises to 31 cents at 7am while the battery powers the house, goes negative around midday while the battery charges from solar, then spikes to 142 cents at 6pm while the battery sells to the grid, before easing back overnight.ChargeHoldPower the houseChargeHoldSell to the gridPower the house0c50c100c150c12am6am12pm6pm142c at 6pm, sell-3c at 11am, paid to charge
Price in cents per kilowatt hour through the sample day. The shaded bands show what the battery was doing.

Three-phase homes

One battery, three phases, no waste

Many larger Australian homes have three-phase power, but a battery often connects to just one phase. The pool pump on phase two and the oven on phase three draw straight from the grid while the battery sits full. Watt iQ balances across all three phases so the battery covers the whole house, not a third of it.

On the roadmap

Electric cars, and beyond

The car is the biggest flexible load most households have. Next we will bring EV charging into the same five minute plan, so the car fills from the sun or from cheap overnight power and never fights the battery for the evening. After that, the same approach works in any market with live prices.

See pricingCommon questions

Tomorrow's outlook: a battery that earns while you sleep

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