Switching from NetZero?
NetZero made Powerwall control possible without running Home Assistant, and it’s been the serious choice for years. If it does everything you need, keep it. This page is for the day you ask it for something it can’t do.
It can run the whole strategy for you
NetZero gives you rules. SolDial gives you a choice of how much thinking you want to do yourself.
Tell it about your home. It builds everything else.
Pick your utility and rate plan (SolDial matches it to the published tariff), connect your cars if you have them, and choose a goal — savings, energy independence, backup readiness, or balanced. That’s the whole briefing. Autopilot builds and maintains the entire rule suite around it — every rule written out in plain English, nothing hidden, re-tuned as seasons and tariffs change. You don’t need to know what a TOU window is. It does.
It proposes. You approve.
One idea at a time, each with the reasoning attached — “your peak starts at 4 PM; hold reserve until then.” Approve it and it becomes a rule. Ignore it and nothing happens.
Type any rule. Or dictate it.
Want no AI strategy at all? Skip both — the builder turns one sentence into a complete rule, and it’s still faster than building by hand anywhere else. That’s the next section.
One sentence, one rule
Even if you never touch the AI, the manual experience isn’t close.
A real example: on weekdays between 9 PM and 6 AM, if the Powerwall is above 80% and a car is plugged in — start charging it, cap the charge at 70%, and set the Powerwall to Self-Powered.
| In SolDial | In NetZero |
|---|---|
| Type — or just dictate — that sentence. The builder returns the whole rule: the weekday window, both conditions, and all three actions in order, shown for your review before you save. In seconds. | One trigger and one action per rule. The plugged-in condition isn’t available, actions can’t chain, and a charge limit isn’t an action — you’d approximate parts of it across several rules and do the rest by hand. |
Watch it, timed
The same rule, built live in both apps. The clocks start together and freeze when each app finishes — the videos play on so you can see the results.
Every trigger and action, side by side
| SolDial | NetZero | |
|---|---|---|
| Time of day (clock, sunrise/sunset) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Day-of-week, date-range, and hour limits on a rule | ✓ | ✓ |
| Powerwall state of charge | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vehicle starts / stops charging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Power-flow thresholds (home / solar / grid / battery) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Electricity-price thresholds | ✓ | ✓ |
| Grid outage / restore & daily grid import | ✓ | ✓ |
| Weather & estimated solar generation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vehicle plugged in / unplugged | ✓ | — |
| Vehicle battery level (one car or any car) | ✓ | — |
| Wall-charger sessions (incl. non-Tesla OCPP) | ✓ | — |
| Combine 2–3 conditions in one rule (and / or) | ✓ | — |
| Choose the firing moment (pinned edge vs any order) | ✓ | — |
| SolDial | NetZero | |
|---|---|---|
| Set backup reserve | ✓ | ✓ |
| Preserve battery charge | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set operational mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set energy exports | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set grid charging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Start / stop vehicle charging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Send a notification | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set a vehicle’s charge limit | ✓ | — |
| Charge window / ready-by time | ✓ | — |
| Start / stop a wall charger (OCPP) | ✓ | — |
| Take the house off-grid / reconnect | ✓ | — |
| Several actions in sequence, one rule | ✓ | — |
On your wrist and homescreen
A live power-flow dial — complications, tiles, widgets. NetZero has no watch apps and no live power-flow view.
The rest of the gap
| SolDial | NetZero | |
|---|---|---|
| Savings math tied to your exact published tariff (~50,000 plans: TOU seasons, NEM 3.0 vintages, Critical Peak, hourly) | ✓ | — |
| A monthly note: what the app’s own decisions earned vs what you pay for it | ✓ | — |
| Live power-flow dial — 3-second updates when locally paired | ✓ | — |
| Homescreen widgets | ✓ | — |
| Powerwall Wrapped — monthly shareable card + collectible colorways | ✓ | — |
To be fair about the basics: local connection, backup events, storm handling — both apps cover these well. The differences above are the reasons to move; if none of them matter to your setup, NetZero remains a good home.
The switch, in practice
The same official Tesla connection NetZero uses. Your system, cars, and history appear on the dial.
It unlocks automations and the savings engine — and your rate plan gets matched to the published tariff on the way in.
SolDial rebuilds your rules and shows you each one — apply the ones you want (they land in an “Auto-Converted” group) and discard the rest. When the screenshots verify, your free switcher month applies automatically.
About the free month
NetZero gives new users their first month free. Our standard trial is a week — but if you’re coming from NetZero, you get the month too: when your uploaded screenshots verify, a full month of Pro is applied to your account automatically. You lose nothing by trying us that you’d have kept by staying.
And if it’s not for you
Then go back — genuinely, no hard feelings. NetZero isn’t going anywhere, your Powerwall doesn’t care which app it talks to, and nothing about trying SolDial touches your NetZero setup. The month is an experiment, not a commitment.
Want the long version? SolDial vs NetZero, feature by feature — written to be checked by NetZero fans.