Just into my mailbox:
Keynote: Octopus tariffs are the most popular third-party integration. This remains available for free on the Standard Tier, since Octopus are billed for access directly. Second is HomeAssistant/GivTCP. This also remains available for free on the Standard Tier, because they access your inverter locally
GivEnergy Premium
Two weeks ago, we sent out notice that we’re introducing a Premium Tier for some features of GivEnergy software. We asked for feedback to help shape our plans, and received over 16,000 responses to our survey – and couldn’t be more grateful.
Since then, GivEnergy Software’s parent company, GivEnergy Ltd, has been placed under administration. This has made funding software from hardware sales impossible, so GivEnergy Software must implement a funding model that keeps our software available to all customers who rely upon it – with core functionality always available for free.
As promised, we want to take the time to be transparent about the survey results, answer the many questions raised, and bring some clarity to what the plans mean for you.
Results of the survey
93% of respondents use the app at least sometimes, and 58% use it at least once a day.
Your chosen three most popular features remain available for free on the Standard Tier while you’re at home.:
visualising the current power flow
battery state of charge
manually setting charge/discharge schedules.
The next three top features are available on the Premium Tier:
historic energy graphs
power graphs
smart tariff automation
Octopus tariffs are the most popular third-party integration. This remains available for free on the Standard Tier, since Octopus are billed for access directly. Second is HomeAssistant/GivTCP. This also remains available for free on the Standard Tier, because they access your inverter locally. Other third-party integrations rely on our cloud API – which costs us to run, while they earn a subscription from the customer. Such services will become Premium tier options.
53% of you felt that paying something – at least £2 per month – felt reasonable. However, only 20% felt that our final price point is reasonable – this means we have some work to do to earn it.
59% of you felt “disappointed but understanding”, or better, that we need to introduce a premium tier – although at the same time, we recognise that the rest of you feel deeply let down by it, and we hope that this email will answer your concerns.
Only 15% believe that our tariff automation will save you £5 per month off your energy bill. This represents a huge opportunity, because our data shows that it’s true for more than half our customers. We need to overcome this trust hurdle to empower energy freedom for all.We also received over 9000 questions and comments, which we have put together into the following FAQ.
We hope that this will bring clarity and comfort, and that you will support us with patience, understanding and hopefully subscription as we make this transition.
What does the software actually do?
This question really stood out because it means that too many of our customers are not getting the most out of their battery investment!
In short: GivEnergy saves you money by storing energy when it is cheap, then releasing it when it is less cheap.
You can save money by adding a schedule to charge your battery at the same time every night on an electricity cheap rate (a feature that remains available on the free Standard Tier). But, for optimal savings, you need to consider expected usage, solar generation, tariffs, and many other factors. A basic version of this has previously been available as “Smart Tariff” – GivEnergy Premium will extend this feature, to automate savings to the next level.
Previously, GivEnergy Software existed primarily to support hardware sales. This resulted in a neglected software experience. Now, it exists solely to support existing customers with top-quality software. This is an opportunity for us to bring software to you that makes managing your GivEnergy equipment easier and more lucrative than ever before.
Will GivEnergy Premium really save me money?
That’s the goal. Simulations show that our new optimisation software can much more than offset the cost of the subscription for the majority of customers.
This is evidenced by the similar services on the market which make use of the GivEnergy Cloud API. These use our platform’s resources to save you money – and earn their subscription from you. They will still be able to do this, but the costs must be borne fairly to ensure this will be possible for all into the future.
Can you charge for software? It was advertised as free, and it feels unfair.
Yes. As set out in our EULA, access to software “is provided at the sole discretion of GivEnergy. The purchase of GivEnergy hardware does not entitle you to use GivEnergy software.”
Some have noted that we have old brochures advertising software that is “free forever”, and others located an old pricing document which indicated free software for customers within warranties. Neither of these representations are contradicted by our plans: we undertake that for at least as long as GivEnergy Software exists, there will be a free Standard Tier.
Also in our EULA, we explicitly reserved the right to offer a “Premium Tier” at a paid monthly subscription. This is what we are rolling out in May. Our EULA mentioned a 90-day notice period for changing the price of the Standard Tier - but this was and remains free. No notice is required for changing or introducing a Premium Tier. We allowed a month’s notice at our discretion to prepare customers for this change.
Do you have to do this?
Yes. With GivEnergy Ltd going into administration, there is no access to funds from hardware sales, which was the previous funding model. Until now, the software used by existing customers has been paid for by new customers buying hardware. The ongoing cost of cloud services must be covered by the users who rely on them, or the platform will be lost entirely.
What about warranties, and customer support?
GivEnergy Software Ltd is not responsible for either warranties or hardware support.
We understand that the inner workings of the GivEnergy group companies is not clear – nor interesting – to customers, and ideally customers needn’t know the difference between the entities. But, the reality is that GivEnergy Software has neither the ability, legal responsibility, nor indeed authority to assist in these matters. Questions regarding these topics must be directed towards GivEnergy Ltd and/or its administrators.
What happens if the administrators liquidate and shut down GivEnergy Ltd?
Your hardware will continue to operate as usual. The software will continue to operate as usual.
GivEnergy Software is a separate entity and will continue for as long as we are able to fund our costs.
Plan A is that our GivEnergy Premium subscription will be attractive and valuable enough to you, that you will choose to support us and ensure that the GivEnergy software - both free and Premium tiers - remains available to all.
What happens if GivEnergy Software Ltd also enters administration?
This is something we are explicitly looking at, as a Plan B.
Unlike many manufacturers of smart devices, we believe that when you purchase a product, it’s yours and should be usable forever, regardless of what happens to the company. That’s why we have always supported open source, direct control of your equipment.
Today, you can view telemetry in the official app completely offline, and you can control your hardware directly over your home network - but you need some technical know-how to do this.
With GivEnergy Premium, we’ll be investing part of your subscription fee in developing simple, user-friendly, local control within the official app, prior to cloud login. We have already started – if you log out, you’ll see a new way to connect to your inverter marked “offline mode”. We’re working on adding control to this very soon.
If we can fund ourselves long enough to complete this project, “offline mode” will continue to operate no matter what happens to GivEnergy Software in the future.
Can’t you fund the software in another way, like…
- Advertising?
The economics don’t add up. Ad revenue is paid per-impression. This works well in an attention economy, like social media – where you have many hundreds of thousands of views per day. GivEnergy customers are an exclusive bunch, who use the app only occasionally – in fact, if the Premium automation is working well, you should almost never need it except out of curiosity!
- Using part of what I paid for the hardware to run the software?
With hindsight, we would have structured things differently. We didn’t ringfence the cost of multiple years of software operation into the hardware cost, and this was not transferred from GivEnergy Ltd to GivEnergy Software Ltd.
- Could you charge only new customers, and ‘grandfather’ old customers to retain access to the platform?
With our parent company in administration, we have to plan for the scenario that there may be no more new customers.
What does “local” and “remote” mean in software?
“Local” means that the software is communicating with your hardware, directly from your device (such as your phone) to your inverter, over your home WiFi or network. “Remote” means that you are communicating with your hardware via “the cloud”, which really just means our computer servers in a data centre. We have to pay thousands of pounds each month for the use of these servers – which is why we need to charge our customers for their use. But, if you have the technical know-how and are willing to pay for it yourself, you can run your own server at home!
What will be in the Standard Tier (free) vs the Premium Tier (paid)?
Standard Tier:
Free forever.
Monitoring of your system’s current power, with the official app, while at home.
Monitoring of your system’s battery state of charge, with the official app, while at home (pre-login already available).
Controlling your inverter’s settings, like charge slots, with the official app, while at home (pre-login coming soon).
Free remote access supporting at least the above functionality, for specific hardware configurations which do not support local control (like those with 4G dongles or unsupported hardware).
Firmware updates, if made available from other Group companies.
Third party software integration over your home network (like GivTCP).Premium Tier:
Monthly subscription.
Monitoring your system while at home and while away.
Viewing historical data, graphs, and reports.
Automation tools that save you money, like Smart Tariff.
API access (including third-party integrations via cloud).What about the EV charger (EVC)? And Smart Plugs?
Complete, remote EV charger functionality will be included in the free tier from the outset, because local control is not fully supported.
We’re looking at ways to improve local EVC control, which will benefit tinkerers as well as app users. We reserve the right to move more of the EVC control over to direct local mode, avoiding the cloud costs, in the future.
GivEnergy’s Smart Plugs have been discontinued and will no longer be able to be set up within the app after next month. They were produced in partnership with Tuya, and can be set up controlled with the Tuya app available for free on the App Store.
I have heard that the GivEnergy EV Charger (EVC) won't function if it can't connect to the GivEnergy servers. How can I ensure it continues to work?
There is currently no expectation of the EVC servers going offline. However, if you want to ensure that your GivEnergy EVC will still work even if it's disconnected you can do either of the following:
- Register your id tag(s) to your EVC using the GivEnergy App or Portal and tap it on the EVC to start or stop a charge. This will continue to work even if the EVC is offline because the EVC itself keeps track of registered tags.
- Create and enable a schedule on the EVC using the GivEnergy app or Portal that charges the car at the times you require. This will cause the EVC to start a charge at the scheduled time as long as a car is plugged in, regardless of whether the EVC is online, because schedules are stored on and executed by the EVC itself. If your vehicle supports setting a schedule, it is recommended to set a 24-hour schedule on the EVC and a more specific schedule on the vehicle.
Please note, Plug and Go (also known as Plug and Charge) will not function if the EVC is not online as this functionality is provided by the GivEnergy servers. You don't need to turn it off, but please be aware that plug and go will not activate if the EVC is offline. If you would like a charge to start as soon as your EV is plugged in, you can create a 24-hour schedule as described above.
I don’t live in the UK. How does this affect me?
The Premium tier applies globally, and our secure payment provider will accept payments from all countries where GivEnergy hardware is active. We will cover local sales tax, Forex and bank fees – so the price you pay will be exactly equivalent to the price in British Pounds. If for any reason payment is not available in your country, we’ll provide free Premium access until we can make it available for you, too.
I am a commercial or large project partner. How does this affect me?
Commercial systems vary between sites. You may or may not have good local control, and the per-user price model may not be appropriate for you. For the time being, such systems are excluded from these plans and will continue to operate exactly as before. If you would like to discuss a special business arrangement, please contact us at premium@givenergy.co.uk with “Commercial Premium” in the subject line and we will get back to you in the coming weeks.
I only use basic features. Will I still be able to use my hardware if I don’t pay?
Yes. If you only need monitoring and manual control while you’re at home, you’ll be able to continue using your system without a subscription.For users who want remote access, data analysis, automation, and optimisation, the paid tier is designed to deliver value beyond its cost.
Do I need GivEnergy Premium to use the Octopus tariff controlling my battery?
No. Energy providers are charged separately for access to the API, so they will continue to have access to your inverter. However, we hope you may choose to subscribe to GivEnergy Premium for some of the other features it offers.
How much will it cost, and how did you decide on that?
We are launching in May for a price of £4.99 per month. This includes VAT and payment processing fees. This price reflects an honest assessment of the platform costs, divided by our expected userbase of GivEnergy Premium, given the survey feedback.
All revenue will go to supporting the software and building new features that will save you more money. We don’t intend to make a profit from this, and we will review pricing in the future if this happens.
Why should I pay when support has been poor?
This feedback has come through very clearly, and is a fair challenge, though difficult to hear. GivEnergy Ltd’s level of support was not where it should have been, and we recognise that this contributed to the difficulties the company finds itself in.
On the software team, our ability to impact customer support is both legally and practically very limited. We’ve aimed to improve it through creating the new Health Check feature, and we’ll look at more improvements in future. With GivEnergy Ltd in administration, GivEnergy Software can only directly support with software issues – we’re not authorised to help with hardware and firmware.
Will firmware updates still be free?
Firmware is generally not maintained by GivEnergy Software, and it’s unclear at this time what the future of firmware will be. However, GivEnergy Software will undertake to provide any firmware updates we are given, for free and at the customer’s discretion. There is no plan to force any payment changes through firmware updates, as some have questioned.
Will my installer still be able to support my system, for free?
Yes. All installer accounts will be provided with a free Premium subscription, and they will be able to view and debug your system as before.
Can I subscribe later if I don’t sign up immediately? And can I unsubscribe?
You may subscribe – and unsubscribe – at any time. A payment qualifies you for access to GivEnergy premium from the day of month the subscription began, to that day the following month (e.g. from the 7th of July to the 7th of August), regardless of the number of days in any one month.
Are you offering any discounts?
We’re offering an early bird discount – anyone starting a subscription during the month of May will get their first month completely free.
Registered charities may email supporting documentation to premium@givenergy.co.uk to receive permanent free access to GivEnergy Premium - please use “Charity Premium” in the subject line.
We reserve the right to offer further discounts in the future.
I don’t want to pay. How can I use the free Standard Tier app?
That’s OK! Log out of the app and you’ll see a new option to use the local features on the sign in page.
I’m in! How do I sign up for the Premium Tier app?
Thanks for your support! We’ll follow up with a link to our payment page and new Ts and Cs when it is ready in May. Note that we can’t link to payments from the app due to app store restrictions, so after login, if you see a paywall you’ll need to follow the link to the payment portal in our next email.
I have another question not answered here!
Please direct any questions to premium@givenergy.co.uk with “Question About Premium” in the subject line, and provided the question is about Premium we aim to get back to you within 2 weeks.
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