Autopilot
The best starting mode for most homes. Autopilot balances when to charge, hold, or export by weighing tariff value, later home coverage, forecast solar, and your protected minimum battery SoC so profitable export should not create later high-rate import.
Controlled rollout
This page explains the mode logic, not just the label.
All of these modes sit inside the same wider platform: daytime EV-battery protection where supported, whole-home reporting, and vendor-safe controls. The difference here is what the battery is trying to optimise once those guardrails are in place.
Battery protection still sits above the mode
If your setup qualifies for the flagship daytime drain fix, that protection remains the first job regardless of the mode selected underneath it.
Mode choice changes the operating priority
The question is not whether the battery can charge or export. The question is what outcome should win when value, reserve, and home demand are competing.
Availability still depends on your stack
Real rollout still depends on inverter control support, telemetry quality, tariff setup, and whether current onboarding safely supports your hardware mix.
Best fit
Best for mixed-device homes where EV charging, battery use, solar output, and heating demand all change across the day.
Primary goal
Balance tariff upside against reserve protection so the battery behaves sensibly across the whole home.
Decision check
Do you want one sensible default that adapts automatically instead of making you pick between multiple value-seeking personalities?
When this mode wins
- Homes on Agile, Flux, or other dynamic tariffs where the right answer changes through the day.
- Users who want one smart mode instead of juggling separate reserve-first and profit-first options.
- Mixed EV + battery + solar homes where battery timing must stay compatible with the rest of the property.
When another mode is better
- You want a strict home-first policy with no optimiser-led export at all.
- You want charging to follow only your cheap tariff window and chosen battery target.
- You do not want the battery making autonomous charge, hold, or export decisions.
What it does in practice
- 1
Looks at tariff structure, reserve floor, solar forecast, and later refill opportunities before each charging or export decision.
- 2
Only exports when the remaining battery is still expected to cover later household demand without forcing higher-rate import before the next cheap refill opportunity or opportunities.
- 3
Chooses between charge, hold, or export based on whether later household value is likely to beat the current opportunity.
- 4
Reduces pointless mode switching by keeping one smart mode instead of several overlapping value modes or style variants.
Guardrails and stop conditions
- Reserve protection and bill-protection checks can stop an otherwise attractive export action.
- Low-confidence telemetry or control safety limits can make the mode hold rather than trade.
- Vendor control restrictions still apply; the mode is not a bypass around unsupported hardware behaviour.
Compare with other smart controls
Most homes should choose the operating goal first, then choose the mode. These related pages make the tradeoffs explicit.
Home First
A simpler home-first mode. It prioritises running the home from your own solar and battery first, minimises grid dependence, and avoids optimiser-led battery export.
Time-based Control
A simple target-based mode. Time-based Control charges the battery during your cheaper tariff periods until it reaches the level you choose, without optimiser-led export.
Use cases that usually point toward this mode
These whole-home problems are often where this control strategy becomes the practical answer.
Smart tariff EV charging without home energy conflicts
When EV charging is cheap, it can still be operationally expensive if it competes with battery reserve, heating demand or export value elsewhere in the property.
Solar, battery and EV charging in one app
This is one of the strongest SaaS acquisition pages because the value proposition is simple: stop managing three overlapping energy systems in three different tools.
Whole-home conflict detection for modern energy homes
The more flexible devices a home has, the more valuable it becomes to detect conflicts between them before they show up as cost, lost solar or poor comfort.
Integrations commonly paired with this mode
These integration pages explain the device context where this smart control style usually shows up.
Octopus Energy
Connect Octopus tariffs to turn raw device telemetry into cost-aware actions, daily savings reporting and smarter battery decisions.
myenergi Zappi
Connect your myenergi Zappi charger to see EV charging in context with solar, battery and tariff data instead of guessing whether the car is stealing the cheap window.
Solis
Sign in with SolisCloud to connect supported Solis hybrid inverters without chasing API keys first. 1app.energy then puts live solar, battery, grid, home demand and tariff-aware battery behaviour in one place once verified.
Related reading
Use the overview hub for the big picture, or jump into the comparison blog for a quicker narrative walkthrough.
Smart Controls overview
See the full smart-control model together and use the overview hub to narrow the choice before you commit to one strategy.
Which smart control mode should you use?
Read the comparison blog for a quicker narrative walkthrough of where each mode tends to fit and where it can disappoint.
Product context
The smart control is not the whole product.
These modes decide how the battery should behave. The wider platform still includes the daytime EV-battery fix, whole-home visibility, tariff context, and vendor-safe control paths across the rest of the home.
See the wider productPriority access
Tell us if your home is a fit for Autopilot.
If your setup mixes EV charging, battery storage, solar, and smart tariffs, we can review whether your Solis or LuxPowerTek inverter setup supports Autopilot safely.
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