Dynamic Assistant in detail

The Dynamic Assistant subscription helps you maximize savings on your electricity bill by making the most out of your dynamic or time-based electricity tariff.

It’s an additional system optimization based on load shifting, which means automatically adjusting the operation of your devices like heat pumps or battery storage to run rather when electricity prices are low.

This allows you to:

• Use electricity when it's cheap, reducing your grid consumption costs.
• Maintain your home’s comfort, as the system keeps temperature fluctuations to a minimal.
• Save time and effort as everything runs automatically in the background, eliminating the need to manually set schedules or check electricity prices.

With Dynamic Assistant, you can take full advantage of your energy system while lowering costs, stress-free and fully automated.

With the Dynamic Assistant subscription, you can significantly reduce your electricity costs by optimizing your energy consumption based on real-time electricity prices.

According to internal studies, users with a dynamic or time-based electricity tariff can achieve:

• Save up to 15% of annual energy costs
• Based on a household with an annual consumption of 7,500 kWh,
• A price level of 27.8 ct/kWh, and a price volatility (average-minimum) of 6.8 ct/kWh.
• Calculations assume a 15 kWh battery, 1.5 charges per day, and for simplification a 180-day heating season

Your actual savings depend on your tariff, system setup, and electricity market fluctuations, but the Dynamic Assistant ensures you always make the most of the low prices.

Stay tuned for more detailed insights as we continue analyzing real-world results!

You can choose between a monthly or yearly subscription plan, with corresponding payment options:
€7.99 per month or €79.99 per year.

Both plans can be canceled at any time: The monthly subscription remains active until the end of the monthly period, while the yearly subscription plan runs for 12 months and only ends after this period. Apart from the duration, both subscription models do not differ and offer the same features.

Take advantage of the free trial period
You can test the Dynamic Assistant free of charge for 6 months in advance. During this trial period, no costs will be incurred, and you can cancel the subscription at any time. Find out more here.

Which Dynamic Assistant features you can use depends on your system set up and Viessmann devices installed. The features available to you are listed in the subscription details in the ViCare app. The ones that are not available to you are listed directly below the subscription details under the button “Show unsupported features” (in the “Discover” section) - if a feature is unsupported, it means you’re missing the respective device in your system (e.g. no battery storage system).

This function overview is available to you even before you subscribe to Dynamic Assistant subscription. This means you can always be sure which features are supported by your devices.

The Dynamic Assistant is part of the ViCare app, i.e. you do not need to install any other application to use the automated load shifting.

The subscription itself is available only to users with Viessmanny Energy Management in the system and it’s mainly suited for users with dynamic or time-based tariffs (together with a smart meter integration). To be able to really benefit from the subscription, you need to add your tariff data to ViCare.

Also the functional scope of the Dynamic Assistant depends on the devices you have installed. The available features are listed in the subscription detail screen. Features that are not available to you are listed below unsupported features.

In addition, the latest software version is required on the hardware devices.

Further Information:

• Click here to learn what a smart meter is and why it is needed.
• Click here to learn how to add a tariff in the ViCare app.

Basically, you are free to choose your electricity supplier and there are no restrictions for the Dynamic Assistant subscriptions, meaning that all electricity suppliers are compatible.

However, to take full advantage of the Dynamic Assistant subscription, you need an electricity tariff with variable pricing. Specifically, this includes:

• Dynamic electricity tariffs – Prices change hourly based on the energy market EPEX Spot.
• Time-based electricity tariffs – Prices vary at different times of the day, such as peak and off-peak rates.

If you have a different type of tariff, you won’t benefit from the Dynamic Assistant's optimization.

At present, only very simple hourly dynamic electricity tariffs are supported. For example, the following extras are not (yet) supported: Tariffs with 15-minute resolution, price caps, cashback for flexibility, price guarantees under certain conditions, tariffs with monthly prices based on exchange prices.

You may want to consider switching to a dynamic electricity tariff. These tariffs can help you reduce costs by taking advantage of fluctuating electricity prices and make better use of renewable energy sources. If you're interested, check with your energy provider to see if a dynamic tariff is available for you.

The Dynamic Assistant subscription is currently available in Germany. However, other countries will follow.

Please note that the availability of the Dynamic Assistant depends also on your system setup. You need to be using Viessmann Energy Management and have a dynamic or time-based electricity tariff.

The Dynamic Assistant subscription enables the “Tariff Data Usage” optimization feature. Once you subscribe and add your tariff details to ViCare, the optimization automatically starts working in the background - no additional manual activation is needed.

Here’s how it impacts your system:
If you have a heat pump:

• The system adjusts heating operation based on electricity prices, meaning your heat pump runs more when energy is cheap and less when it's expensive.
• Despite these optimizations, your home’s comfort remains unchanged - the system ensures minimal temperature fluctuations.

If you have a battery storage system:

• In addition to storing solar energy, the battery can also charge from the grid when electricity prices are low, maximizing cost savings.
• This allows you to store cheap electricity and use it later when prices are high, reducing your overall grid consumption costs.

All optimizations work together intelligently to ensure you get the lowest costs possible, the highest self-consumption, and maximum efficiency - without manual intervention needed.

Our algorithms continuously evaluate the best possible way to operate your system at any given moment. They take into account factors like electricity prices, solar energy availability, weather forecast, and heating demand, ensuring that:

• Your system shifts energy consumption to cheaper times when beneficial.
• Photovoltaic excess energy is prioritized for heating or storage whenever possible.

Your system makes the best decisions for you, automatically.

Currently, the only way to disable load shifting is by switching off the "Tariff Data Usage" optimization in the Energy Management settings. However, this is not a temporary pause - if you want the optimization to resume the next day, you will need to manually switch it back on.

At the moment, there is no built-in option to pause the optimization for a specific time period or for selected devices only.

You can monitor how the subscription optimizes your energy consumption in a dedicated Dynamic Assistant Insights screen within the ViCare app. This screen helps you understand the relationship between your electricity price and grid consumption, giving you confidence that the optimization is working as expected.

Here, you’ll find:

• A comparison of your electricity price and grid consumption, showing how the system has adjusted energy use based on price fluctuations.
• Your average electricity price over the last 30 days, giving you an overview of how high or low your costs have been during this period. Click here to find out more about your average electricity price.

Where to find it?

• Via the "Analysis" tab in the bottom navigation.
• Through the Dynamic Assistant subscription details screen.

The "Your electricity price" value displayed under “Analysis” and in “Dynamic Assistant Insights” represents a consumption-weighted average of your electricity costs over the past 30 days. It helps you understand the average price you’ve paid for the electricity consumed from the grid, reflecting how well the optimization is working for you.

How is it calculated?

• Every hour, your electricity price is multiplied by the amount of electricity you consumed from the grid during that hour.
• These hourly values are then added up over the last 30 days.
• The total is divided by your overall grid consumption in the same period.

This means that your electricity price updates daily, always based on the most recent 30 days.

Important note:
The stated value is an estimate without guarantee. On the first day of each month, this value is based on the previous 30 days. If the previous month had 30 days, this corresponds to the monthly average. Nevertheless, there may be deviations from your actual energy bill, as both the electricity price and the amount of electricity purchased may vary.

The exchange price refers to the hourly electricity price set on the energy market, the so-called EPEX Spot Day-ahead market. If you have a dynamic electricity tariff, this price fluctuates, meaning it can be higher or lower at different times of the day.

To sum it up, your total variable electricity price consists of two main components:

1. Exchange price (Dynamic electricity price)
   • This is the hourly market price per kWh, retrieved automatically every day.
   • The price fluctuates based on energy supply and demand – higher during peak consuming times, lower when renewable energy production is high.
     
     
2. Additional price components
   • These include grid fees, levies, electricity taxes and other procurement costs that are added to the exchange price.
   • Overall, the additional price components remain constant across all hours.
   • The costs for grid fees and concession fees vary depending on the location.
   • Other costs such as levies, surcharges and electricity tax are the same for all users nationally.
   • Other margins, other procurement costs and any guarantees of origin vary depending on the provider.

These values are net and VAT will be added to them.

If you have a dynamic tariff added to ViCare, you can see a new tile displaying your current electricity price on the dashboard and behind it a screen with electricity prices for today and tomorrow. All these prices are your full variable electricity prices, which also include all the additional price components.

Sometimes the exchange price can also drop below zero, which means that electricity producers pay to feed electricity into the grid. This often happens due to a high suply of renewable energy such as wind or solar power and a low demand for electricity. If you have a dynamic tariff, this can mean that you actually get paid for the electricity you use during these times. The Dynamic Assistant is particularly effective at helping you to benefit from these fluctuations.

A smart meter is a digital electricity meter that is connected to the internet. It records energy consumption every quarter of an hour and automatically sends the data to your electricity supplier on a daily basis.

In contrast to conventional meters without an internet connection, which have to be read manually, smart meters provide a detailed breakdown of electricity consumption. In addition, data is transmitted to the electricity supplier continuously instead of just once a year, for example.

A smart meter is essential for the Dynamic Assistant, which optimizes electricity consumption from the grid based on fluctuating electricity prices. The reason for this is that you generally cannot use a dynamic electricity tariff without a smart meter. Without the automatic transmission of consumption data every 15 minutes, it would not be possible for the electricity provider to create a correct bill.

An exception may exist under certain circumstances and depending on the provider: Even without a smart meter, a dynamic tariff is sometimes possible. This works if your electricity provider reads and forwards the data from the infrared interface of your digital meter (without its own internet connection) via an additional device (with an internet connection).

You can only benefit from this optimization by Dynamic Assistant with a dynamic or time-variable tariff. Price fluctuations are used by flexibly adapting the electricity consumption of your energy system and the connected devices to favorable time windows.