homeops private beta
An iPhone app for a household's routine expenses. It reads the family's own utility accounts every day, works out what things cost at this home's own prices, and shows what would save money.
What it does
A utility bill arrives once a month, or every two months for water, and says almost nothing about why it is what it is. homeops reads the hourly meter data the utilities already publish to their customers, prices every hour at the household's own tariff, and presents four things:
- Overview. The latest day for each utility against what is usual for this home, the month so far, the year's bills, and what is coming up.
- Usage. Electricity, gas, water and solar hour by hour and week by week, with the prices the home actually pays drawn on the same charts.
- What we noticed. Things worth acting on, one at a time, each with the evidence and a short guide. The family answers in a tap or two; nothing is assumed about the house.
- Savings. Each change the family makes is measured from the meter against the home's own earlier habit, and counted only when the effect is clearly beyond the home's normal swing.
What it notices
Every finding is computed by code from the household's own readings. These are the ones built so far:
- Which of two PG&E rate plans is cheaper on this home's own hours, month by month, with the household's hourly charges reproduced to the cent before any recommendation is made.
- A scheduled watering program that was never turned down for the season, or one headed for the top water tier.
- Water running every night, with a step-by-step search that the nightly chart records.
- Something that started or stopped on a date, in water or electricity, and whether it went back to normal.
- Loads run in the expensive evening hours that could run at another time, priced on the home's plan.
- A home that draws several hundred watts all night, with the usual suspects priced on its tariff.
- The thermostat, priced from how much gas this particular house burns per degree of cold.
- A bill discount that started or ended, so the family can see what it changes.
- A landfill cart bigger than the family uses, and included pickups the family has not used this year.
- An internet promotion about to end, with the list price it jumps to and the date.
Coming up
Every bill the household pays on a schedule is listed before it arrives: the next PG&E and San Jose Water bills estimated from the readings so far, the solar True-Up, the property tax installments read from the county's public portal, the quarterly trash bill, the internet bill. When a bill lands it is checked against the estimate, and an open balance shows until the account says it is paid.
Where the data comes from
- PG&E — hourly electricity imports and exports, daily gas, bills, the rate plan and discounts on the account.
- San Jose Water — hourly gallons, bills, the account summary.
- Tesla — solar production in 15-minute steps, and the system's performance guarantee.
- West Valley Collection & Recycling — the city's trash rate card and the family's account.
- Xfinity — the internet bill, plan and promotion dates.
- Santa Clara County — the public property tax bill for the address.
- Open-Meteo — daily and hourly weather for the area, used to tell weather from behaviour.
The sign-ins for these accounts stay on the family's phone and are sent only to each provider's own website. The server receives readings and bill figures, runs the analysis, and sends the results back. How homeops handles data →
Principles
- Code does all the math. Every dollar figure is computed from tariffs with effective dates and validated against real bills. No language model computes a cost.
- Each home is its own reference. Models calibrate on that household's own history, not on an average home.
- Say so when the data is thin. A verdict based on three months says "based on 3 months"; a cloudy day is not judged.
- Ask, don't guess. The meter cannot tell a dishwasher from an oven. When it matters, the app asks the family one question.
Availability
homeops is in a private beta with a handful of households in Santa Clara County, where the tariffs and utilities it understands apply. It is distributed by invitation through Apple's TestFlight. To ask about joining, write to hank@niuroot.com.