What happens if my internet goes down — does Alva LINK stop working?

No. If your internet drops, Alva LINK continues running the last optimization schedule it received from the cloud. Your heating doesn't stop because your ISP has an outage.

Here's how the architecture works:

1. The Autopilot optimization engine runs in the cloud. Price forecasts, weather data, your comfort preferences, and learned thermal models are processed in Alva's cloud infrastructure, which generates an optimized schedule — a detailed plan of what each connected asset should do and when. This schedule is then sent to your LINK device. The cloud handles the heavy computation because the LINK hardware is deliberately kept compact and affordable. Running full Autopilot optimization locally would require significantly more processing power, which would drive up device cost and size.
2. LINK executes the schedule locally. Once the schedule arrives, LINK stores it and carries it out autonomously — sending Modbus commands to your heat pump, managing charge cycles, adjusting setpoints — all over its local wired connections. This execution does not require an active internet connection. The commands travel over Ethernet and RS-485 cables directly to your assets.
3. If the internet drops, LINK keeps executing the last received schedule. If connectivity is lost at 14:00, LINK already has the current plan (which typically covers the next 24 hours based on day-ahead prices published at 13:00 CET). It continues following that plan. What it cannot do is update the plan — it won't receive fresh price data, revised weather forecasts, or recalculated optimizations until the connection is restored. If the internet outage continues it will revert the equipment back to normal state with no optimization to ensure your equipment is working reliably.
4. When connectivity returns, LINK re-syncs automatically. No manual reconnection, no factory reset, no re-pairing. It fetches the latest schedule and resumes full cloud-enhanced operation seamlessly.

What you lose temporarily during an outage

• New optimization schedules (the plan can't be recalculated without cloud access)
• Intraday price updates (adjustments to the day-ahead plan)
• Fresh weather forecast data
• Remote app access (you can't monitor or adjust from your phone)
• Cloud-connected EV features (vehicle API status requires internet)

What keeps working

• Execution of the last received optimization schedule
• Fuse protection and load balancing (fully local, always active)
• Temperature setpoint control
• SG-Ready signals
• Bridge mode — Home Assistant, Homey, and MQTT integrations run entirely on your local network and continue working without internet

How long is the schedule valid? The cached schedule is based on day-ahead electricity prices, which cover the next 24 hours. If your internet is down for a few hours, the impact is minimal — the plan is still current. If the outage extends beyond the schedule window, LINK falls back to basic time-of-use logic and safety functions (fuse protection, setpoint maintenance) until a fresh schedule arrives. Your home stays heated and protected; the optimization just becomes less precise.

This is still meaningfully better than competitors. Many cloud-dependent smart home devices lose all functionality when the cloud is unreachable, a known pain point across the category. With Alva LINK, the worst case during an outage is that your optimization runs on a slightly stale plan rather than a live one.

Will full local optimization be possible in the future? We're actively working toward bringing more of the Autopilot intelligence closer to the home, so that optimization can continue updating even without a cloud connection. We can't commit to a specific timeline or solution yet, but it's a top priority on our roadmap.

Firmware note: Firmware updates require an active internet connection and are delivered over-the-air (OTA). Updates are staged — downloaded in the background and applied during a safe window when no active control operations are running. A failed OTA update rolls back automatically. The device never enters an unrecoverable state from a firmware update.