Is my home ready for Next Optimise?

If you've heard about Next Optimise and you're wondering whether your home qualifies, you're probably not the only one. The product is designed for households with solar panels and a home battery, but there are a few specifics worth knowing before you sign up. This blog walks through what you need, what to check, and what to do before you get started.

The basics: What you need to have in place.

Next Optimise works by connecting to your home battery and making automated decisions about when to charge, discharge, and export energy based on real-time wholesale prices. For that to work, a few things need to be in place first.

Solar panels: Next Optimise is built for homes that are generating their own electricity. You don't need a specific number of panels or a minimum system size, but you do need solar panels already installed. The more solar generation your system produces, the more the algorithm has to work with when it comes to optimising exports at the right moment.

A home battery: The automation sits on top of your battery. Without one, there's nothing for the system to optimise. The battery needs to be compatible with the SmartShift technology that powers Next Optimise, but you don't need to hit a specific size threshold. The important thing is that your battery is from a supported brand and can communicate with the system.

A smart meter: Because Next Optimise operates on half hourly wholesale prices, it needs to be able to read your energy usage in real time. A smart meter that can send half hourly readings is essential. If you don't have one yet, we can arrange an installation. It's worth getting that sorted before signing up, as the system can't operate properly without accurate half hourly data flowing through.

Compatible batteries.

Not every battery on the market is currently supported. At launch, Next Optimise is compatible with Tesla, Sungrow, and AlphaESS batteries. If your battery is a different brand, it's worth using our eligibility checker to see whether your specific setup qualifies.

This is one of the most common questions we get, and it's worth taking a few minutes to check before assuming either way. The range of compatible hardware is expanding, so if your battery isn't on the list right now, it may well be added in the future as the product develops.

If you're not sure which brand your battery is, it'll usually be marked on the unit itself or in the documentation you received when it was installed. Your installer should also be able to confirm the make and model if you can't find it.

Your internet connection.

Next Optimise communicates with your inverter through your home Wi-Fi. That means your inverter needs to be connected to the internet, and the signal needs to be reasonably stable at the location where the inverter is installed.

This trips some people up. The inverter might be in a garage, a utility room, or on an external wall, and Wi-Fi signal in those spots can be patchy. A weak or intermittent connection is the most common cause of SmartShift communication errors, and it's also the easiest to fix. A Wi-Fi extender positioned near the inverter usually solves it.

If you've recently changed your router or your Wi-Fi password, you'll also need to update those settings on your inverter before getting started. The system can't pick up those changes automatically, so it's a quick manual step worth doing in advance. Once the connection is stable, Next Optimise should run without needing any ongoing attention from you on the network side.

One thing to do before you sign up: Disable existing schedules.

This is the step that catches the most people out, and it's worth flagging clearly.

If you've already set up time-of-use schedules or charging timers in your battery manufacturer's app, whether that's the Tesla app, the AlphaESS app, or any other manufacturer's interface, you'll need to disable those before Next Optimise can take over properly.

If your old schedules are still running in the background, they'll conflict with the SmartShift automation. The system will be trying to respond to wholesale prices in real time, while an old timer tells the battery to do something different. It doesn't cause any lasting damage, but it does mean you won't be getting the full benefit of what Next Optimise is designed to do.

Disabling the schedules in your manufacturer's app is a straightforward step, and the Next Optimise setup process will walk you through exactly what to do. It's worth doing this before you sign up rather than after, so the system can start learning your home from day one without anything getting in the way.

The first 30 days.

It's worth knowing upfront that Next Optimise gets smarter over time. When you first sign up, the system starts with a general forecast while it builds a picture of your household's specific energy habits: when you tend to use power, how your solar output typically looks across different times of day, and what your usual patterns are week to week.

After about 30 days, the algorithm has enough data to personalise its approach to your home. The decisions it makes after that learning period tend to be more precisely tuned to your specific setup, and savings typically improve as a result.

This doesn't mean the system isn't doing useful things from day one. It is. But if you're comparing your first few weeks to what you might have expected, it's worth knowing that the numbers after the first month are a more representative picture of what Next Optimise can do for you over the long run.

What about EVs?

If you drive a Tesla, Next Optimise can connect to your car as well as your battery, which means it can automatically schedule your EV charging to take advantage of cheaper overnight grid prices or excess solar during the day. You don't need to manage that separately or remember to set a charging schedule yourself. This feature currently works with all Tesla models except pre-2021 Model S and X.

We’re working to bring this functionality to more EV brands over time. If you don't drive a Tesla, you can still sign up and use your car's built-in scheduling features to charge at cheaper times, which works alongside Next Optimise rather than through it.

Not sure if your setup qualifies?

The quickest way to find out is to use our eligibility checker. It takes a couple of minutes and will confirm whether your solar panels, battery, and meter setup are all compatible.

If you're unsure about any of the requirements above, or if you've got an unusual setup and you're not certain how it fits, it's worth getting in touch with us directly. We can look at your specific situation and let you know what, if anything, needs to change before you're ready to go. Most households with solar and a battery from a supported brand will qualify, but it's always better to check than to assume.

Think your home qualifies?

Ready to get more from your battery? Next Optimise is open to any household with compatible solar panels and a home battery. See if yours is one of them.

Savings figures are based on data from our early pilot and modelled projections. Actual savings will vary depending on your energy usage, equipment, tariff, and market conditions. Past performance is not a guarantee of future savings.