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FAQ

Common questions and solutions for Power Profiler.

My device stays on 'no profile'

The app needs at least 3 completed cycles before scheduling is available.

Check that your start threshold matches your appliance. If your appliance peaks at 40W and the threshold is 50W, the app will never detect a cycle. Lower the start threshold in device settings.

Run your appliance normally a few times and watch the Cycles profiled counter on the device dashboard.

Make sure the smart plug is actually reporting power. Check if you see a non-zero Power value on the dashboard when the appliance is running.

The energy price seems wrong

Different providers include different components in their price:

  • EasyEnergy shows raw spot prices, excluding VAT and taxes
  • EnergyZero / ANWB / Mijndomein include VAT
  • Frank Energie shows all-in pricing (spot + energy tax + sourcing + VAT)

If you use EasyEnergy, add a cost markup in app settings to include energy tax, transport, and VAT. See App Settings for details.

Prices update hourly (or every 15 minutes with quarterly providers). The dashboard shows the current slot's price.

The schedule keeps changing

This is by design. When new day-ahead prices arrive (typically after 13:00 CET), the app re-evaluates whether a better window exists.

If the new optimal time differs by more than 1 minute from the current schedule, it's updated automatically.

The device dashboard always shows the current scheduled time.

Before real prices arrive, the app uses historical averages (shadow prices). Once real prices arrive, the schedule may shift to the actual cheapest window.

Solcast forecast doesn't match my actual yield

During the first ~7 days, the correction factor is still learning. Forecasts may be off by 20–30%. This is normal.

After about a week, the correction stabilizes and forecasts become accurate for your specific installation.

Check the Correction factor on the PV Profiler dashboard — a stable value between 0.7 and 1.3 is typical.

If the factor seems very low (< 0.5), double-check your panel capacity and orientation in Solcast. A mismatch causes permanent bias.

How does scheduling work across midnight?

Cross-midnight scheduling is fully supported. If you schedule at 22:00 with a deadline of "8 hours", the app considers all times from 22:00 to 06:00.

When tomorrow's prices aren't available yet, the app fills the gap with shadow prices (historical averages per hour). Once real prices arrive, the schedule is re-evaluated.

"Schedule cheapest start by time" also works across midnight — setting a deadline of "07:00" at 22:00 correctly spans the overnight period.

My appliance's cycle gets split into two

This happens when your appliance briefly drops below the end threshold mid-cycle (e.g., between wash and rinse phases).

Increase the cooldown in device settings (try 3–5 minutes). The cooldown keeps the cycle "alive" during brief power dips.

Lower the end threshold (e.g., from 50W to 20W) so the app doesn't consider mid-cycle dips as the end.

Check the Avg. cycle duration after adjusting — it should match the full program time of your appliance.

Scheduling says 'no prices'

Day-ahead prices for the Netherlands are typically published between 13:00 and 15:00 CET.

Before this time, only today's prices are available. Scheduling still works within today's remaining hours.

If it's after 15:00 and you still see "no prices":

  • Check that the correct provider is selected in App Settings
  • The provider's API may be temporarily unavailable. The app retries every hour.
  • Restart the Power Profiler app to force an immediate price fetch: Apps → Power Profiler → ⚙️ → Restart