Home battery scheduling software in the UK: what owners use
There are five ways to decide when a home battery charges, empties and sells: the maker’s own app, a routine you set by hand, a supplier that runs it for you, Predbat, and Orza. Here is what each one is, what it costs and what it needs, and what three of them were worth over a full year of 20 homes.
How a battery is scheduled changed what it saved more than twofold.
The same 9.5 kWh battery and 4 kWp of panels in each of 20 homes, through the same year on Agile with Outgoing Octopus’s fixed export rate. Saved is against the same home with no battery.
Saved a year, average home
- Self use, the maker’s default: £170.99Stores spare sun and empties into the house. Nothing to set.
- A routine set by hand: £246.20Filling in each night’s cheapest half hours and selling at the day’s best, reset every day to that day’s prices. Better than self use on every home, and short of the planned battery on every home.
- Planned by Orza every half hour: £431.13Around each day’s prices, the roof’s own sun forecast and how the home uses power.
What each one is, costs and needs.
From each product’s own pages, read on 13 October 2026. Prices and the batteries they support change, so check the link before you choose.
| Option | What it does | Cost | What you need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your battery’s own app | Self use: stores spare sun and empties into the house. Most also let you set times to charge from the grid. | Free with the battery | Nothing more |
| A routine set by hand | Charge and sell times you choose in the maker’s app. On a tariff whose prices change daily, you change them too. | Free | Time, every day on Agile |
| Intelligent Octopus Flux | Octopus charges and empties the battery for you, as part of the tariff. | The tariff’s own rates | Solar panels and a battery Octopus lists (AlphaESS, Ecoflow, Enphase, Fox ESS, GivEnergy, Hanchu ESS, Huawei, Sigenergy, SolarEdge, SunPower). On 13 October 2026 its page said it was temporarily unavailable. |
| Predbat | Plans charging and export around time of use tariffs such as Agile and Intelligent Octopus Go. | Free for personal use on Home Assistant. Predbat Cloud, the hosted service, has a 30 day free trial; its price wasn’t on its home page. | Home Assistant running at home, or the Cloud service. Supports GivEnergy, Fox ESS, Solis, SolaX, Sigenergy, Tesla Powerwall and others. |
| Orza | Plans every half hour around your tariff’s prices, your roof’s sun forecast and your home’s use. Shows each decision and what it saved, and runs the battery when you choose. | Free during the beta | Nothing installed: it reaches the battery through the maker’s own cloud. Sigenergy, SolarEdge, Tesla Powerwall, FoxESS, Solis, Sunsynk, SolaX, Deye, AlphaESS and GivEnergy, on tariffs from Octopus, British Gas, OVO, E.ON Next, EDF and ScottishPower. |
Orza is not affiliated with Octopus Energy, Predbat or any battery maker. Each product’s details are as its own page gave them on 13 October 2026.
Start from your tariff.
What a battery can earn depends on how much its tariff’s prices move, so that is the first question.
- One price all dayThere is little to plan. A battery’s job is storing spare sun for the evening, which self use already does.
- Prices that change through the day: Agile, Go, Flux, CosyThis is where planning pays, and where a routine set once falls behind as the prices move.
- You want your supplier to run itIntelligent Octopus Flux, if your battery is on its list and the tariff is open to new customers.
- You run Home Assistant and like to tune itPredbat is built for that, and is free for personal use.
- You want nothing to install, any of those suppliers, and to see what it savedThat is what Orza is for. It connects through your battery maker’s own cloud and starts in Monitor only, so you can see its plan before it runs anything.
What is Orza?
Orza is free smart scheduling software for home batteries in the UK. It plans your battery every half hour around your tariff’s prices, your solar forecast and how your home uses power, through your battery maker’s own cloud, so there is nothing to install. Free during the beta.
Can I use two of these at once?
Not to control the battery. Two planners sending it different instructions undo each other. You can watch with one while another runs it: Orza starts in Monitor only, which reads the battery and shows its plan without sending anything.
Do I still need my battery maker’s app?
Yes, keep it for warranty registration, firmware updates and safety alerts, whichever of these you use.
Which tariff should I be on?
Over our year of 20 homes, Agile with a fixed export rate gave the typical home the lowest cost, and Flux came first with more panels. Five Octopus tariffs compared.
What does Orza cost?
Nothing during the beta, and no card is needed to join.
See your battery’s plan before it runs anything.
Free during the beta. Connect in a few minutes, and start in Monitor only.