Compatibility & Ecosystem

Focus. Alva Link is a compact, purpose-built optimisation hub — not a general smart home controller, not a luxury thermostat, not bundled with a full installation service. At €99 pre-order (€249 retail) vs €599 for 1KOMMA5° Heartbeat and €249.99 for tado°, the price reflects a narrower job done well. Alva Link talks to the equipment you already own via open protocols — no proprietary ecosystem lock-in.

Essential includes every local protocol: Modbus TCP/IP, Modbus RTU, OpenTherm, SG-Ready, sensor spoofing, OCPP 1.6, and community-built Modbus. If your device connects locally, you get full control for free, forever. Autopilot (€4.99/mo) adds cloud APIs for closed ecosystems like Tesla, Sonnen, and Enphase plus the intelligence layer — dynamic pricing, weather prediction, multi-asset coordination, thermal learning.

Not for Essential features. Five of six protocols — Modbus TCP/IP, Modbus RTU, OpenTherm, SG-Ready, and sensor spoofing — run entirely wired. OCPP for EV chargers also runs locally. Autopilot needs internet for price forecasts, weather, and vehicle APIs. If your connection drops, Alva Link falls back to the last known schedule until it returns.

The claim is about architecture, not perfection. Alva Link supports open industrial protocols rather than any one manufacturer's ecosystem, so one device connects to dozens of brands. Popular brands get native plug-and-play; less common ones may need a community template or a few minutes of register mapping. Closed ecosystems like Tesla, Sonnen, and Enphase require Autopilot for cloud access. No supplier lock-in across energy, heat pump, inverter, battery, or EV charger.

Three categories don't work: air-to-air split AC units (no Modbus, OpenTherm, or SG-Ready interface), fully closed ecosystems with no local or cloud API (rare in Europe), and standard non-smart appliances like ovens or washing machines. Alva Link targets hydronic heat pumps, solar, batteries, EV chargers, and water boilers. Bridge mode still exposes supported assets to smart home platforms.

Yes. The community Modbus mapping tool is built for installers, power users, and device owners. An installer can map a regional heat pump brand once, publish it, and every future customer with that model installs it in one tap. This is how Alva's compatibility library grows beyond what the engineering team ships directly.

A visual register-mapping tool that lets anyone map an unsupported Modbus device. Connect via RS-485 or Ethernet, define each signal (register, data type, scaling), and validate against live values. Save the mapping to use it locally, or publish it to the community library where other users install it in one tap. Verified submissions get promoted — compatibility grows beyond the official list.

Matter support for temperature sensors and radiator valves is planned via a future OTA firmware update — not available at launch. For energy assets, Alva Link uses industrial protocols (Modbus, OCPP, SG-Ready) that offer deeper control than Matter currently supports. When Matter ships, Alva Sense sensors and Alva Valve radiator controls will connect directly through the Matter protocol.

Yes. Bridge mode exposes your connected energy hardware to Home Assistant, Homey, and other platforms — making devices that were previously locked behind proprietary interfaces accessible for your own automations. Unlike general-purpose hubs, Alva Link handles energy optimisation out of the box. Power users get data and control points; everyone else never needs to touch them.

Yes. Each Alva Link connects to one energy asset over a direct physical link — Ethernet, RS-485, relay, or analog wire. Different devices sit in different locations and speak different protocols. The good news: one Autopilot subscription (€4.99/month) covers every Alva Link in your home, so hardware scales but the subscription doesn't.

Each Alva Link connects to one asset, and they coordinate through the Alva cloud under Autopilot. The system builds a 24-hour plan across all devices at once — charging the battery overnight, pre-heating before the morning peak, routing midday solar surplus to the EV first, then hot water, then battery, then grid. Multi-asset savings exceed the sum of individual savings by a wide margin.

Because there's no local way to read your car's battery level — EVs only share data through manufacturer cloud APIs, which cost Alva real money per call. Without Autopilot, Alva Link still controls your EV charger locally via OCPP or Modbus (start/stop, power limits, time-based scheduling). SOC-aware features like "charge to 80% by 7 AM at the cheapest rate" need the cloud API.

Yes, with an Autopilot subscription. Alva connects to your car's cloud API to read battery state, charging status, and range — the data needed for real smart charging. Roughly 40 brands are supported, covering about 90% of EVs on European roads. This powers features like SOC-aware departure scheduling and multi-day charge optimisation.

Almost certainly, yes — if your charger supports OCPP 1.6, Alva Link can control it regardless of brand. OCPP is an open industry standard covering start/stop, power limiting, and scheduling. Many commercial and prosumer chargers also expose Modbus TCP for direct power control. Check the charger's spec sheet or ask your installer.

35+ brands at launch, covering an estimated 70–80% of the European market on the free Essential tier. OCPP 1.6 JSON runs locally — no cloud, no subscription. Native support includes Easee, Zaptec, go-e, KEBA, Wallbox, Garo, Charge Amps, Heidelberg, ChargePoint, Enel X. Community templates add 16+ more. Tesla Wall Connector, Elli, and Smappee require Autopilot.

Yes, with an Autopilot subscription. Tesla runs a closed ecosystem with no local control protocols, so Alva connects through the Tesla Fleet API. This enables charge/discharge scheduling, price arbitrage, and coordination with your other assets. Not available on Essential because it requires ongoing cloud connectivity and paid API access.

27+ battery brands. Native (Tier 1): BYD, Huawei LUNA2000, Pylontech, LG Energy Solution, plus batteries paired with SMA, Fronius, SolarEdge, Sungrow, GoodWe, Growatt, and Victron inverters. Cloud-connected via Autopilot: Tesla Powerwall, Sonnen, Enphase IQ Battery, EcoFlow, SENEC. Community templates add Varta, Alpha ESS, E3/DC, Pixii, FENECON. Roughly 45–55% free-tier coverage, 90–95%+ with Autopilot.

Yes, with an Autopilot subscription. Enphase uses closed local protocols, so Alva connects via their cloud API for full monitoring and control. Read-only Modbus is available through the IQ Gateway for basic monitoring on Essential. This cloud-API path applies to a handful of closed ecosystems — Enphase, Tesla, EcoFlow — while most inverter brands run fully local on the free tier.

38 solar inverter brands at launch — 65–70% of the European market free, 95%+ with Autopilot. Native (Tier 1): SMA, Fronius, SolarEdge, Sungrow, Huawei, GoodWe, Victron, Growatt, Solis/Ginlong. Community templates (Tier 2): KOSTAL, Sofar, SolaX, Deye, Ferroamp, Fox ESS, Hoymiles, Solarwatt, plus more. Closed ecosystems like Enphase and Tesla require Autopilot for cloud API access.

tado° optimises heat pumps only — Alva Link optimises heat pumps, solar, batteries, EV chargers, and water boilers as one coordinated system. tado° supports a handful of brands; Alva Link covers most via Modbus plus universal SG-Ready and sensor spoofing fallbacks. Pricing is €99 + €4.99/mo vs €249.99 + €5.99/mo, and Alva connects over open protocols that don't break when a vendor changes their API.

Yes. Four fallback paths cover almost every case — SG-Ready (500+ certified models, check waermepumpe.de), OpenTherm (common in the Netherlands and on brands like Vaillant and ATAG), community-built Modbus via the visual mapping tool, or outdoor sensor spoofing for units with no digital interface at all. At least one of these will connect to your heat pump.

Very reliable by design. Alva Link connects to your heat pump locally over a physical cable — no cloud middleman, no manufacturer API that can break, no third-party app in the loop. Cloud-based heat pump integrations notoriously fail when vendors change APIs or cloud services go offline. Modbus, OpenTherm, SG-Ready, and sensor spoofing are industrial protocols that don't depend on anyone's cloud.

Depends on your brand and model — the app picks the right method during setup. Options are Modbus TCP/IP (Ethernet), Modbus RTU (RS-485), OpenTherm (two-wire), SG-Ready (relay contacts, 500+ certified models), or outdoor sensor spoofing for legacy units. The deepest digital integration is used when available, with SG-Ready and sensor spoofing as universal fallbacks.

Almost certainly, yes. Alva Link covers roughly 95% of European heat pumps through six connection methods — Modbus TCP/IP, Modbus RTU, OpenTherm, SG-Ready, and outdoor sensor spoofing. For older models with no digital interface, Alva acts as the outdoor temperature sensor. All connections run locally with no subscription required.