How savings are calculated

Your savings show how much money the energy optimizer has saved you compared to running your home without it.
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Every 15 minutes, we measure your actual energy use and compare it against the real electricity spot price in your area. To make the calculation reflect what you actually pay and earn, we apply the price settings you entered when setting up the Sourceful optimizer for your site — including any fixed surcharges (such as energy supplier markups or grid fees), export compensation, and VAT if enabled.

Your optimizer uses your own solar production and battery to reduce how much electricity you need to buy from the grid. It also shifts energy usage to hours when the spot price is lower. Home savings is the difference between what your home energy would have cost at spot price versus what you actually ended up paying for grid import.

When your system produces more energy than your home needs, the surplus is exported and sold to the grid. Your export earnings are calculated using the spot price at the time of each export, plus any additional export compensation you entered when setting up your site (such as grid benefit payments).

If you have a connected EV charger, the optimizer schedules charging during the cheapest hours of the day instead of during the typical evening peak (4–10 PM). The saving is the difference between what your charging would have cost at average peak-hour prices versus what it actually cost with optimized scheduling.

You can view your savings for the last 7 days or 30 days. All amounts are shown in your local currency. in a future update, we will add support for longer time periods so you can track your savings over years.

A spring day in SE4

Lisa has 10 kW solar panels, a 20 kWh home battery and an EV charger, all managed by the Sourceful optimizer. Her price settings include energy supplier fees, grid fees, and 25% VAT.

At night, electricity is cheap (1.00 SEK/kWh after fees and VAT). The optimizer takes advantage of the low prices and charges Lisa's EV with 30 kWh — instead of charging the evening before when prices were 3.00 SEK/kWh. The household also uses 12 kWh during the night, all imported from the grid since there is no solar production.

During the day, the solar panels produce 50 kWh. This powers the household (18 kWh), charges the battery to full (20 kWh), and 15 kWh of surplus is exported to the grid.

In the evening, electricity is expensive (3.00 SEK/kWh after fees and VAT). Instead of buying from the grid, the optimizer drains the battery. The 20 kWh battery covers all 12 kWh of evening household use — nothing is imported from the grid. The remaining 8 kWh of battery carries Lisa through the late night (4 kWh used).

Without the optimizer, all 46 kWh of household use would have been bought from the grid at each hour's price, totalling 76 SEK. With the optimizer, solar and battery covered almost everything — only 12 kWh was imported during the night for 12 SEK.

15 kWh of surplus solar was sold to the grid at 0.88 SEK/kWh.

Charging 30 kWh at the previous evening's peak price (3.00 SEK/kWh) would have cost 90 SEK. By charging at night, Lisa paid just 30 SEK.

Individual days can sometimes look better or worse than expected. This is because the optimizer plans ahead.

For example, it might hold back battery charge today to take advantage of higher prices tomorrow, or charge the battery from the grid overnight to prepare for a cloudy day with no solar.

A decision that reduces today's savings can increase tomorrow's. Looking at savings over a full week gives you a more accurate picture of your actual benefit.