Apple Home is expanding its energy management features
Apple's smart home didn't get a single nod during the WWDC keynote, but it turns out there are some interesting developments coming to the Home app around energy management.
In a video posted to the Apple developer site this week, the company outlined its new EnergyKit framework, which allows developers to integrate energy data from Apple Home in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 to reduce or shift the electricity usage of their devices to prioritize cleaner and/or less expensive energy. So, for example, your thermostat can reduce its energy use when prices are higher, and your EV can generate a charging schedule based on forecasted prices to save you money.
The Home app can already display your electricity usage and electricity rate, plus the availability of clean energy via the Grid Forecast widget, when connected to your utility provider. (Currently, PG&E is the only supported utility company.) With EnergyKit, developers can use a feature called EnergyKit Guidance that uses these data points to create actions for their devices to reduce or shift energy use.
Apple's documentation says EnergyKit is currently designed to work with EV chargers and smart thermostat apps. Today, several individual products offer these features. Ecobee and Google Nest thermostats can shift their energy use based on factors such as clean energy availability and rates, and work with demand response programs, and most EV chargers have apps that can create schedules based on energy data.
While EnergyKit is designed to bring data securely from Apple Home into the manufacturer's app, you can see the potential here to one day manage all of these devices and functions from within Apple Home. It could be laying the groundwork for Apple Home to eventually become a home energy management system (HEMS): a system that can monitor, control, and optimize your energy usage.
We're already seeing this implemented in smart home platforms like Samsung SmartThings with its AI Energy Mode, Homey (owned by LG), and others. Apple has a lot of catching up to do, as its platform doesn't currently support energy monitoring from connected devices.
This could lay the groundwork for Apple Home to eventually become a home energy management system
This is likely why EnergyKit is focused on allowing developers to integrate the data from Apple Home into their own apps, as Apple Home doesn't support EV chargers or energy monitoring of thermostats. However, with Apple's deep involvement in the Matter smart home standard, it's possible that support for these devices might come to Apple Home.
Matter recently added support for most major appliance types as well as energy-intensive devices like heat pumps and electric water heaters, all of which could now more easily be integrated into Apple Home via Matter. The standard also supports battery energy storage systems and solar power devices such as inverters, panels, and hybrid solar / battery systems. When you connect the dots, it seems that this could be a natural next step for Apple's smart home ambitions.
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