How does Alva LINK differ from a smart meter readers like Home Wizard P1 dongle?

P1 Dongles reads your meter. Alva LINK controls your devices. That's the fundamental difference.

A smart meter reader like Home Wizard P1 (or Homey's Energy Dongle) connects to the HAN or P1 port on your electricity meter and sends real-time consumption data to an app. It shows you what is happening: how much electricity your home is using right now, and what it costs. That's useful information, but it doesn't change anything. Your heat pump still runs when it runs. Your EV still charges when you plug it in. Your hot water tank still heats on its own schedule.

Alva LINK is a controller, not a monitor. It connects directly to your energy hardware: heat pump, EV charger, solar inverter, home battery. Using industrial-grade protocols (Modbus TCP/IP, Modbus RTU, OpenTherm, OCPP 1.6, SG-Ready, and outdoor temperature sensor spoofing). It doesn't just observe your energy use. It actively decides when each device operates, based on:

• ★Tomorrow's electricity prices — pulled from day-ahead market, updated continuously with intraday adjustments
• ★Weather forecasts — anticipating solar production, outdoor temperatures, and heating demand
• Your comfort preferences — minimum temperatures, EV departure times, hot water needs
• The state of every connected device — battery charge level, heat pump output, solar production

Here's a practical example. At 13:00 on a Tuesday, Alva LINK sees that electricity prices will spike from 0.30 kr/kWh to 1.80 kr/kWh between 17:00 and 20:00. It also sees that tomorrow morning will be –8°C. So it pre-heats your home to 22.5°C during the cheap afternoon hours, then coasts through the price spike — your house loses perhaps 1°C over three hours thanks to its thermal mass. Your heat pump barely runs during peak pricing. You didn't adjust anything. You didn't open an app. The house was warm the entire time.

A monitoring device shows you the price spike. Alva LINK makes sure you don't pay for it.

That said, Alva LINK and your energy provider like Tibber work well together. You can use whatever electricity supplier you like ( for maximum savings with their spot-price tariff) while Alva LINK handles the device-level control. The energy company provides the price signal. Alva acts on it.