Predbat Explained | Richard Eyres

Predbat Explained | Richard Eyres

In this episode of Energy Unwrapped, I’m joined by Richard Eyres, co-founder of Predbat Cloud, to explore one of the most powerful home energy automation platforms available today. Whether you’re using solar PV, battery storage, an EV or a heat pump, Predbat is designed to optimise your system automatically using weather forecasts, electricity tariffs, household demand and much more.

I’ve personally been running the open-source version of Predbat inside Home Assistant for around 18 months, and it has genuinely saved me money. Richard explains how the new cloud version takes the same optimisation engine and packages it into a much simpler experience that’s suitable for homeowners who don’t want to build or maintain a Home Assistant setup.

We also discuss virtual power plants, intelligent tariffs, Give Energy, local control, battery optimisation, heat pumps and how automation is becoming one of the biggest opportunities for reducing household energy bills.

If you’d like to try Predbat yourself, take a look at my Predbat Referral page. It explains how Predbat works, how the cloud platform differs from the open-source version, and includes my referral link. Using it helps support Energy Stats UK at no extra cost to you.

What we cover in this episode

• what Predbat actually does
• the history of the open-source project
• why Predbat Cloud was created
• Home Assistant vs Predbat Cloud
• connecting solar, batteries and smart tariffs
• how Predbat plans battery charging and discharging
• solar forecasting using roof mapping
• machine learning household demand prediction
• Octopus Agile, Intelligent Go and custom tariffs
• exporting electricity at the best times
• Savings Sessions integration
• Axle Energy virtual power plant integration
• intelligent EV charging optimisation
• why Predbat works so well with heat pumps
• the Give Energy situation and local control
• the new Predbat Hub
• API vs local communication
• battery optimisation guarantees
• cloud automation without vendor lock-in
• the future of home energy automation

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Find all platform links via Podlink: Energy Unwrapped with Mick Wall

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Full Transcript

Below is the full transcript for this episode, lightly edited for readability.

Meet Richard Eyres and the Story Behind Predbat

Richard explains how buying a solar and battery system led him to discover the original open-source version of Predbat. After helping family members use the software, it became clear that the power of the platform was being held back by its complexity, leading to the creation of Predbat Cloud.

The Origins of the Open-Source Predbat Project

We discuss Trevor’s original GitHub project, how the community helped shape the software, and why open-source development allowed Predbat to evolve so quickly through contributions from users around the world.

What Predbat Actually Does

Richard explains Predbat in simple terms. It is an optimisation engine that constantly analyses tariff prices, weather forecasts, solar generation, household demand and battery state of charge before deciding exactly when to charge, discharge or export electricity.

Why Home Assistant Isn’t for Everyone

Having run the Home Assistant version myself, we discuss why it remains a fantastic platform for enthusiasts but can be overwhelming for the average homeowner. Predbat Cloud aims to provide the same optimisation with a far simpler setup process.

A Live Demonstration of Predbat Cloud

Richard gives a full walkthrough of the onboarding process, showing how homeowners connect their inverter, electricity supplier and battery before allowing Predbat to automatically begin optimising the system.

Solar Forecasting Using Your Roof

One of the standout features is automatic solar forecasting. Predbat analyses roof orientation, pitch and panel layout to build an accurate forecast of the next day’s solar generation with very little manual setup.

Learning Your Home’s Energy Usage

Predbat doesn’t just learn solar production. It also uses machine learning to understand typical household demand and continually refines its predictions, making battery charging decisions more accurate over time.

How Predbat Optimises Your Battery

We explore how Predbat creates an energy plan every day, deciding exactly when to buy electricity, charge the battery, export to the grid and preserve energy for later based on the cheapest and most profitable opportunities.

Intelligent Octopus Go and Dynamic Charging

Richard explains how Predbat integrates with Intelligent Octopus Go, automatically detecting additional charging slots and adjusting the battery strategy to make full use of cheaper electricity while avoiding common problems like house batteries discharging into EVs.

Why Agile Export Makes More Sense

We discuss why dynamic export tariffs are becoming increasingly attractive. Rather than exporting electricity at a fixed rate all day, Predbat waits until electricity is genuinely valuable to the grid before exporting stored energy.

Axle Energy and Virtual Power Plants

The conversation also looks at how Predbat works alongside Axle Energy. Rather than competing with virtual power plants, Predbat incorporates Axle events into its optimisation plan so homeowners can maximise both export income and virtual power plant payments.

Heat Pumps and Whole-Home Optimisation

We also discuss how the latest machine learning improvements make Predbat particularly effective for homes with heat pumps by learning seasonal electricity demand and automatically adapting battery strategies throughout the year.

Local Control with the Predbat Hub

Richard demonstrates the new Predbat Hub, which provides local communication with compatible inverters rather than relying solely on manufacturer cloud services. This offers greater resilience, faster communication and future flexibility.

Supporting Give Energy Customers

Following the well-publicised changes at Give Energy, Richard explains how his team has launched additional support services to help both homeowners and installers continue supporting existing systems for years to come.

Why Predbat Is Platform Agnostic

Unlike supplier-specific automation platforms, Predbat is designed to work across multiple inverter manufacturers and energy suppliers. This gives homeowners flexibility to change equipment or tariffs without losing their optimisation platform.

Transparency Matters

One of the biggest themes of the episode is transparency. Rather than making hidden decisions, Predbat clearly shows the charging and exporting plan, allowing homeowners to understand exactly what their system is doing and why.

The Future of Home Energy Automation

We finish by discussing where home energy automation is heading. As more homes adopt batteries, EVs, heat pumps and flexible tariffs, platforms like Predbat will increasingly act as the intelligence layer that ties everything together automatically.

About the Energy Unwrapped Podcast

Energy Unwrapped is my podcast about renewables, home electrification and how energy technology works in the real world. You can browse all episodes, platform links and future updates on the main Energy Unwrapped Podcast page.

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