What are equivents?

equivents are events or periods of time during which equiwatt remotely manages your connected smart meter & smart-enabled appliances or EVs & rewards you for avoiding the use of expensive, polluting energy.

How long do equivents last?

equivents generally last for 1 hour (although they can last longer) and are aimed at saving peak-time energy without being inconvenient to users. Users can manage the duration of participation for their smart-enabled devices through the app and override them if needed. 

What are peak times? 

There are certain busy times during the month when a large number of people use electricity in their homes at the same time. For example, around 7 pm when people get home from work and start cooking dinner or charging their Electric Vehicle (EV).

To avoid people going hungry or being left with no charge in their cars, energy providers have to turn on additional power plants to meet demand. These power plants are traditionally heavy CO2 producers and expensive to run.

Updated UI - equivent live & graphIncentives for saving peak energy

To avoid this, energy companies offer incentives for those that can help to reduce electricity usage during busy peak times. It costs less for them to invest in these initiatives to reduce electricity usage rather than turn on additional power plants.

equiwatt helps users to take advantage of these incentives by holding peak time energy events which reward them for using less energy to power household appliances or EVs during peak times.

What are equivents?

We call these peak time energy events 'equivents' and they run more than 7 times every month for around 1 hour at a time. 

Users earn points according to peak energy saved and CO2 reduced, which can then be redeemed for a range of rewards from the in-app gift store. The more energy you shift, the more points you will earn!

You can find out more about points earnings here.

Types of equivents

Here at equiwatt, we run a number of different types of equivents. The main difference between the different equivents is the amount of notice we give you before they begin.

1) powerDOWN

For powerDOWN events, we will send you a notification in advance to let you know when it is going to take place and give you the chance to opt in via the app. We may also send reminders to take part via email and social media.

2) instant powerDOWN

For instant powerDOWN events, we will not give you advanced notice. Instead, you will only receive a notification once the event has started and another one when it has finished.

Ways to take part

Manual (smart meter) participation in equivents

If you have a compatible smart meter connected to the equiwatt app, we will notify you when an event is happening to let you know when to turn off your appliances and notify you again at the end to let you know when to turn them back on again. 

Automated (smart)  participation in equivents

If you have an appliance connected to the equiwatt app via a Kasa smart plug, IFTTT or another of our integrations, we will remotely turn it off for the duration of an equivent and turn it back on when it ends. 

TIP: Automating your participation is the best way to make sure you never miss out on taking part in any instant powerDOWN events. Learn more here.

TP-Link KP115 Smart Plug Landscape

PLEASE NOTE: You can find out more about manual participation here.

Electric Vehicle (EV) participation in equivents

If you have an EV connected to the equiwatt app, your charging will be paused automatically for one hour and resume when the equivent ends.

You can find out more about EV participation in equivents here.