Choose the battery strategy that matches your home.
Battery protection during daytime Octopus EV charging is applied across all modes, where your devices support it. The smart control you choose mainly decides what 1app does with the battery for the rest of the day: cover the home first, balance value automatically, or follow fixed manual behaviour.
Private beta rollout
The mode choice matters, but it sits underneath the flagship fix.
1app's first job is still protecting the battery during daytime Octopus EV sessions where supported. These smart controls explain what the system should optimise outside that conflict window, once the battery is no longer quietly paying for the car.
Start with the operating goal
The right choice depends on whether the home cares most about self-use, adaptive Autopilot optimisation, or fixed manual behaviour.
Mixed homes usually want Autopilot
Homes with EV charging, solar, battery, and heating demand often do best with one adaptive Autopilot mode rather than extra value-style choices.
Manual is the exception
Manual Control is there for advanced users and temporary overrides. It is not the recommended default for most battery homes.
All modes
One hub for every smart control.
These pages explain what each mode is trying to optimise, who it suits, and when to stay in one adaptive Autopilot mode instead of switching to a more manual strategy.
Autopilot
The best starting mode for most homes. Autopilot decides when to charge, hold, or export by balancing tariff value, home coverage, refill confidence, solar context, and your protected minimum battery SoC.
Best fit
Best for mixed-device homes where EV charging, battery use, solar output, and heating demand all change across the day.
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.
Best fit
Best for battery homes that care more about using their own stored energy well than about squeezing every export or arbitrage opportunity from the tariff.
Manual Control
A support-style page for advanced users. Manual Control keeps the automation framework in place but follows your fixed current choices more directly, with safety caps and backend guardrails still applied.
Best fit
Best for advanced users who know the exact current behaviour they want and need predictable override-style control rather than automatic strategy selection.
How to choose
Four quick questions to narrow the choice.
Do you want the safest default first?
Start with Autopilot if you want one smart mode that adapts without daily tweaking or extra setup choices.
Is the battery mainly for the home?
Choose Home First when home coverage and lower grid dependence matter more than export upside.
Do you want a mode that responds to changing value?
Stay in Autopilot when you want the system to adapt automatically as export rates, refill confidence, solar, and home demand change.
Do you need fixed behaviour instead?
Choose Manual Control only if you already know the exact current behaviour you want and are comfortable managing it directly.
Blog guide
Which smart control mode should you use?
Read the comparison guide if you want the quickest plain-English explanation of when each mode tends to win and where it can go wrong.
Read the comparisonProduct context
See where smart controls sit in the wider platform.
The mode pages explain battery strategy. The product page shows how those strategies sit alongside the flagship daytime drain fix, reporting, and whole-home visibility.
Open product pagePriority access
Tell us your setup and the operating goal you care about.
We can review whether the current rollout supports your hardware safely and which smart control mode is most likely to fit the home.
No payment needed · No spam · You stay in control