qtrl.me can switch devices by the spot price: cheapest hours, price caps, price levels and a thermostat that lowers the setpoint when prices are high.
qtrl.me fetches the spot price from Nord Pool for all Swedish electricity price areas, SE1 to SE4, in fifteen-minute periods. Tomorrow's prices arrive in the afternoon. You use them in automations and in the thermostat.
Price control requires the Plus subscription or higher. With the Free tier you can build and test run the automation, but it won't actually run until you upgrade.
Choose your price area
Every price node asks for an Electricity price area. Which area you belong to is shown on your electricity bill. Choose the same area everywhere.
Two ways to start an automation
- Electricity price changes: runs at every new price period, every fifteen minutes. Use it together with the conditions below.
- Electricity price reaches value: runs when the price crosses a value in öre per kWh, for example "over 150".
Conditions that apply for as long as they're true
- Electricity price: the current spot price compared with a value, for example under 50 öre.
- Cheapest periods: true during the cheapest or most expensive quarter-hours of the day. Specify how many. Sixteen quarter-hours is four hours a day.
- Cheapest block before: true during the cheapest unbroken block of quarter-hours before a given time. Good for a water heater or an electric car that needs to be ready by seven.
- Price level: cheap, normal or expensive. The day's quarter-hours are ranked and split into three equal groups.
These conditions can be combined with other conditions, for example that the temperature is above a certain value.
Example: hot water during the cheapest hours
- Create a New automation and choose the When the conditions become true mode.
- Add the Cheapest periods condition with your price area and 16 quarter-hours.
- Under When the conditions become true, do: turn on the water heater.
- Under When the conditions stop being true, do: turn it off.
- Test run. You'll see whether right now is one of the cheap quarter-hours, and what would happen.
- Save.
The automation now turns the water heater on during the four cheapest hours of the day, and off in between.
Example: ready by morning
Change the condition to Cheapest block before at 07:00 with eight quarter-hours. That gives you two unbroken hours, the cheapest before you get up.
Example: switch off at a price peak
Choose the When something happens mode with the Electricity price reaches value trigger, above 200 öre. Under Then: turn off the heater in the guest room. Add a second automation that turns it back on when the price drops below 150.
A thermostat that takes the price into account
The thermostat has its own price feature. In the thermostat editor, under Electricity price, you choose a price area and how many degrees to lower the setpoint by during the expensive quarter-hours, between 0 and 10 degrees. Expensive quarter-hours are the most expensive third of the day. When cooling, the setpoint is raised instead. Frost protection always applies, regardless of price.
Good to know
- Prices are spot prices excluding VAT, tax and grid fees. It's the variation over the day that matters, so the fees make no difference to which hours are cheapest.
- Conditions are evaluated every quarter-hour. A device switched on manually is affected the next time the automation changes state.
- Test run shows the current state. If you want to see how the whole day will look, check the price page.