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Automation reference: every trigger & action
The complete list of everything SolDial’s automation engine can watch for and do — every trigger and every action. Build rules by describing them in plain English, or pick these directly on the New Automation screen.
How a rule works
Every automation is when a trigger happens → do an action. You can combine up to three triggers with AND / OR, and stack multiple actions on one rule. A few actions that can affect your utility bill (exports, grid charging) ask for a one-time permission in Account → System Info. You can build any of these by typing what you want in plain English on the New Automation screen, or by picking them directly.
Triggers — what a rule can watch for
Time
| At a set time | Fire at a specific clock time, on the days of the week you choose. |
| At sunrise / sunset | Fire at local sunrise or sunset, with an optional offset (e.g. 30 min before sunset), on chosen days. |
| Between two times | True for a whole start–end window (wraps past midnight). Fires once when the window begins — and inside AND/OR combinations it gates the other conditions for the full span (“solar above 5 kW between 10 and 4”). |
Powerwall
| Charge rises to / falls to | When Powerwall charge crosses a level you set — charged up to X%, or discharged down to X%. |
| Reached backup reserve | When the Powerwall discharges down to its backup-reserve floor. |
Vehicle (EV)
| Car charge reaches % | When a car’s charge hits a level you set — any car, or a specific one. |
| Charging started / stopped | The moment a car begins or ends charging — any car, or a specific one. |
| Car plugged in / unplugged (Tesla) | When the car’s charge cable is connected or removed, at any location. As a condition, “is plugged in” guards a charge-start so the rule only runs when there’s actually a cable to charge through. |
EV charger (OCPP)
| Charger starts / stops charging | The moment a connected OCPP wall charger begins or ends a charge — any charger, or a specific one. Works for any EV brand plugged into it. |
| Charger goes offline / comes back | When the charger loses or regains its connection to SolDial — useful for a “charger dropped off WiFi” alert. |
| Car plugged in / unplugged | When a car connects to or disconnects from the charger. As a condition inside a combined rule, “has a car plugged in” guards a start so the charger only starts when a car is actually connected. |
Power flow
| Meter crosses a threshold | When a chosen meter rises above or drops below X kW. Meters: home use, solar, grid import, grid export, Powerwall charging, Powerwall discharging. |
Price
| Import or export price crosses | When your current $/kWh (import or export, from your rate plan) rises above or drops below a value you set. |
Grid, weather & solar
| Grid status change | When the system goes off-grid (an outage) or comes back on-grid. |
| Tomorrow’s forecast | When tomorrow is forecast sunny, partly sunny, cloudy, rainy, stormy, or snowy — pick one or more. |
| Solar estimate | When estimated solar generation for today or tomorrow is at or above / below X kWh. |
| Grid import today | When today’s cumulative grid import reaches X kWh — a “your bill is climbing” signal. |
Combine: join up to three triggers with AND (all must be true) or OR (any one). Inside a combination each trigger is evaluated as a state — "charging stopped" means "not charging right now", "goes off-grid" means "is off-grid" (the pickers re-word themselves accordingly). A combined rule can also pin its firing moment to one side: "when the car stops charging (while off-grid)" fires only at the car-stops moment, with the other conditions required to already hold — the editor’s Fires selector lets you choose either behavior yourself (“when all become true, any order” vs “only at the moment” of a chosen condition), and the plain-English writer sets it automatically for event-plus-condition sentences.
Actions — what a rule can do
Powerwall
| Set backup reserve | Set the Powerwall reserve to a fixed % (0–100). |
| Preserve Powerwall charge | Snap the reserve up to the current charge so the Powerwall stops discharging and holds where it is. (The classic “preserve my battery when the car starts charging” rule.) |
| Set operational mode | Self-Powered, Time-Based Control, or Backup-only. |
Grid connection requires Powerwall pairing
| Go off-grid | Disconnect your home from the utility grid and run on your Powerwalls — solar keeps charging them while islanded. Every rule carries its own safety floor, “only if Powerwall above N%” (minimum 5, default 20): if the battery is below it, the rule skips rather than islanding a low battery. If the home is already off-grid, SolDial skips the command entirely. |
| Reconnect to grid | Reconnect the home to the utility grid and resume normal operation. The switch-over is seamless, is never blocked by a charge floor, and is skipped automatically if you’re already on the grid — so a “reconnect when home drops below 5 kW” style rule can run freely. |
Exports & grid charging one-time permission
| Set energy exports | Solar only, Everything (includes battery), or None. “Everything” exports battery power and needs the battery-export permission plus a rate that compensates it (net-billing / NEM 3.0). |
| Grid charging on / off | Allow or prevent charging the Powerwall from the grid when it’s cheap. |
Vehicle
| Start / stop charging | Begin or end charging on a specific car. Plug-aware: if the car isn’t plugged in when the rule fires, the start is skipped with a plain “not plugged in” note (and a one-time nudge) instead of a confusing failure. |
| Set charge limit | Set a car’s target charge % (doesn’t force a charge to start). |
| Set charge window | A persistent “don’t charge before X” schedule — stays on the car until you change it. Clear it to let the car charge on plug-in. |
| Set ready-by time | A persistent “be ready by X” departure schedule. Tesla works backward to start charging at the right moment, optionally aligning to off-peak and preconditioning the cabin. |
EV charger (OCPP)
| Start / stop the wall charger | Command a connected OCPP charger itself — any EV brand plugged into it. Plug-aware: a start on an empty connector is skipped as “nothing to start” rather than sent. Chargers that haven’t proven remote control yet are marked untested; one that failed a control test is never commanded by the AI. |
Notify
| Send notification | A custom push notification + in-app banner. No Tesla command is sent. |
Most actions fire once, the moment the rule runs. Set charge window and Set ready-by time are persistent — they stay set on the car until a rule changes them. Export and grid-charging actions need the one-time permission in System Info, since they can change what your utility bills you.
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