# Heat pumps and HEMS

A home energy management system with two layers: a local, deterministic safety layer that never exceeds the fuse and that the AI cannot touch, and a policy layer whose control loops the AI adjusts when you tell it what you want.

Canonical: https://edgetech.eu/solutions/heat-pumps-hems  
Updated: 2026-10-14

![Two layers: you or the AI set goals; a local safety layer that never exceeds the fuse controls meter, charger, heat pump, battery and solar](/img/solutions/heat-pumps-hems.svg)

## Two layers

**The safety layer** runs locally, every second, whatever else happens: the main fuse is never exceeded when the heat pump and the induction hob start while the car charges; every charger keeps its 6 A minimum or stops; on loss of communication everything falls back to a safe limit. No cloud, no language model, no exceptions.

**The policy layer** decides what to do inside that envelope: when to charge, when to boost the heat pump, whether to export. Its parameters can be set in the app, and they can be set by telling the HEMS what you want in plain language. The agent changes policies; it never sits in the control loop.

## What you can tell it

| You say | The HEMS does | It will not |
|---|---|---|
| "Use the cheapest energy" | Shifts car, battery and heat-pump boost to the cheapest day-ahead hours | Exceed the fuse to catch a cheap hour |
| "Never supply energy to the grid" | Caps export at zero: surplus goes to the car, the battery, the boiler; curtails the inverter if it can | Curtail below what the safety layer needs |
| "Have the car at 80 % by 7:00" | Plans the session backwards from 7:00 within the site limit | Promise 80 % if the connection cannot deliver it, it says so |
| "Prefer my own solar for the car" | Solar-surplus mode with a grid top-up only below 6 A surplus | Stop the car mid-session below 6 A without telling you |
| "Keep the house under 3×16 A from 17:00 to 20:00" | Applies a congestion-window limit | Forget the limit when the window ends |
| "Boiler only from solar or below 10 ct/kWh" | Relay on the boiler on surplus or cheap hours | Let the boiler go cold beyond its minimum |
| "Prices are negative tonight: fill everything" | Charges the battery and the car, runs the heat-pump boost | Exceed device limits |
| "Guests this weekend: second charge point first" | Changes socket priority for the weekend | Keep it after the weekend |
| "Holiday mode" | Minimum heating, no charging, sell surplus | Turn off frost protection |
| "What did you do last night, and why?" | Shows the decisions and the prices, solar and limits behind them | Invent a reason |

## Interfaces

SG-Ready contacts today, through the [SG-Ready module](/products/matter-set) or a GridShield receiver; EEBus as a supported interface for heat pumps on order; S2 for Dutch HEMS on order. Status of each on the [standards page](/standards).

## Details still open

The product name of the HEMS, which devices are controllable today versus planned, and where the policy layer runs (the Matter hub or the cloud) are being finalised.