Scheduler Device

The Scheduler is the main device type in Power Profiler. It monitors a real appliance — like your washing machine, dryer, or dishwasher — through its smart plug, learns the power consumption pattern over several cycles, and then finds the cheapest time to run based on energy prices.

Your device dashboard

When you add a Scheduler device, you see a card on your Homey dashboard with the following information:

What you see	What it means
Status	The current state of the scheduler (see below)
Power	Live power reading from your smart plug, in watts
Current price	The current energy price from your provider, in EUR/kWh
Cycles profiled	Number of completed cycles the app has recorded
Avg. cycle duration	Average length of a cycle in minutes
Avg. energy	Average energy per cycle in kWh
Next start	When the next scheduled start is (e.g., "14:30" or "Thu 14:30")
Estimated cost	What the scheduled cycle will cost at the planned time
Estimated savings	How much you save compared to running right now
Total energy	Cumulative energy across all scheduled runs
Total cost	Cumulative cost across all scheduled runs
Total savings	Cumulative savings across all scheduled runs

Tip

The total counters (energy, cost, savings) track all your scheduled runs over time. You can reset them with the reset button on the device.

Status values

Status	Meaning
Idle	The scheduler has a profile and is ready to schedule
Profiling	A cycle is currently running — the app is recording power data
Scheduled	A cheapest start window has been found and the scheduler is waiting for it
No Profile	Not enough cycles recorded yet — run your appliance a few more times
No Prices	Energy prices are not available — check your price provider in App Settings
Expired	The scheduled window has passed without firing — this can happen if Homey was offline

How cycle detection works

The app watches the power readings from your smart plug to automatically detect when your appliance runs and record its consumption pattern.

Here is how it works:

1. Starting a cycle — When power rises above the start threshold (default: 50W), the app knows your appliance has started. It begins recording the power consumption every few seconds, building a minute-by-minute profile.

2. During the cycle — The app continues recording as your appliance goes through its phases. A washing machine, for example, heats water at high power, then washes and rinses at lower power, then spins at medium power.

3. Mid-cycle pauses — Some appliances briefly pause between phases (a washing machine may pause between washing and rinsing). A short cooldown period (default: 2 minutes) prevents the app from thinking the cycle is over during these pauses. If power rises again during the cooldown, the cycle continues.

4. Ending a cycle — When power drops below the end threshold and stays there for the full cooldown period, the cycle is complete. The app saves the consumption profile.

5. Filtering false starts — Cycles shorter than the minimum duration (default: 5 minutes) are discarded. This prevents brief power spikes — like opening the door or turning the plug on and off — from being recorded as real cycles.

The diagram below shows a typical washing machine cycle with the detection thresholds and cooldown periods:

The app keeps up to 20 recorded cycles and combines them into an average profile, which it uses for scheduling.

Why you need at least 3 cycles

Before the scheduler can find a cheapest window, it needs to know how long a cycle takes and how much power it uses. The app requires at least 3 completed cycles before it activates.

Why not just 1 or 2?

• Your first run might have been a quick program, and your second a full load. With only 1-2 cycles, the profile might not be representative of how you normally use the appliance.
• After 3 cycles, the app has enough variation to create a useful average that accounts for different program types and loads.
• More cycles means better predictions. The app keeps improving as it records more data, up to 20 stored cycles.

Tip

Just run your appliance normally a few times. The app records cycles automatically — there is nothing to configure during the learning phase.

Device settings

You can adjust the detection settings on the device's settings page. The defaults work well for most appliances, but you may need to tweak them depending on your specific appliance.

Start-of-cycle threshold

Default: 50W

Power must exceed this value to start detecting a cycle.

• Lower this if your appliance uses less power when starting — for example, a dishwasher that begins at 30W with a water fill phase.
• Raise this if standby power from the smart plug or appliance causes false detections. Some appliances draw 10-15W in standby, which could trigger detection if the threshold is too low.

End-of-cycle threshold

Default: 50W

Power must drop below this value to consider the cycle finished.

• Lower this to capture low-power phases that happen at the end of a cycle — for example, a dryer's tumble-only cooldown phase (~30W) or a dishwasher's eco-dry program.
• Keep it below the start threshold if your appliance has distinct power phases with very different power levels.

Minimum cycle duration

Default: 5 minutes

Cycles shorter than this are discarded.

• Prevents brief power spikes from being recorded as real cycles.
• You generally don't need to change this. Increase it only if very short false cycles are being recorded.

Cooldown period

Default: 2 minutes

After power drops below the end threshold, the app waits this long before considering the cycle complete. If power rises again during cooldown, the cycle continues.

• Increase this if your appliance has longer pauses between phases. Some washing machines pause for 3-5 minutes between the wash and rinse phases.
• Decrease this if you want faster detection of completed cycles and your appliance has no mid-cycle pauses.

Timeline events

The device logs events on the Homey timeline so you can see what happened:

• Profiling started — the app detected a new cycle beginning
• Cycle complete — a cycle finished recording (shows the duration and energy used)
• Schedule created — a cheapest start window was found
• Schedule fired — the scheduled start time arrived and the trigger was fired