1komma5° – a company whose global mission is to convert buildings to climate-neutral power, heating and mobility – has launched its energy optimisation platform into the midst of Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries boom, with the claim that it can accelerate home battery payback by up to $1,500 per year.
At an event in Melbourne on Thursday night, 1komma5° Australia unveiled Heartbeat AI to the local market as the “next layer of value” for homes with solar and battery storage, that monitors and optimises a households entire energy ecosystem, from hot water to electric vehicle.
The platform is also being pitched by 1komma5° as an alternative to “conventional” virtual power plant (VPP) programs, that makes the best optimisation decision for each individual home battery system, rather than being controlled by a retailer.
“The platform has access to wholesale electricity prices, weather forecasts and grid demand in real time, then automatically decides when to store, use or sell household energy for the best return,” 1komma5° says.
“The system requires no behaviour change from the homeowner. Once installed, Heartbeat AI runs continuously in the background, making thousands of trading decisions per day.”
The German-founded conglomerate – whose backers include Porsche Ventures, a founder of Tesla’s European operations, and the co-founder of German battery giant Sonnen – entered the Australian market in late 2022, when it took a controlling stake in the NSW-based solar and battery retailer and installer, Natural Solar.
Since then it has made a number of further acquisitions, including micro-inverter installer Solaray Energy in 2023 and home energy and air-conditioning outfit Kozco Energy Group in 2024.
The name of the game for 1komma5° is to offer a fully integrated energy ecosystem of its own software and hardware, including a stackable battery that the company installs and connects to the wholesale market through retail partner Amber Electric.
For those with have no interest in micro-managing their home energy system, 1komma5° steps in and “controls the full chain,” tuning the AI into each household’s energy profile and usage patterns.
By doing this, the company says Heartbeat AI can accelerate battery payback by up to $1,500 per year compared to a traditional retail energy setup. For existing Australian csutomers with a 1komma5° solar and battery system, HeartbeatAI is provided at no additional cost.
In Europe, Heartbeat AI currently optimises more than 60,000 connected assets – more than 600 megawatts (MW) – across Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, where the company says it has delivered more than €36.6 million in aggregated household value.
How it will fare in Australia, where households tend to tightly guard their home energy assets, remains to be seen.
The new product arrives as home battery installs through the federal government rebate sail past the 250,000-mark, and with just two months to go before changes to that rebate come into play, slashing the discount on offer for batteries sized above 14 kWh.
The industry is expecting a busy couple of months as households race to get the most out of the original rebate settings – and as the latest wave of global unrest threatens to once again send fossil energy prices soaring.
There are also fresh rumours swirling that further changes could me made to the home battery rebate in the May federal budget, as the Albanese government looks for ways to rein in spending.
“With Heartbeat AI, we’re at a turning point for home energy in Australia,” says 1komma5° Australia CEO Luke Stonach.
“Hundreds of thousands of households have invested in solar and batteries, but most of those systems are still operating well below their potential.
Heartbeat AI changes that. It turns a battery from a piece of hardware sitting in your garage into an active participant in the energy market, working around the clock to reduce your costs without you having to do a thing.
“This is what New Energy looks like.”
The company stresses the fact that its fully integrated system requires “no behaviour change” from the host household, which could be a key selling point ahead of the July launch of the federal government’s Solar Sharer Offer, which offers free electricity for at least three hours in the middle of the day.
“Most battery setups involve buying hardware from one company, software from another, and a market connection from a third,” Stronach says.
“When it underperforms, nobody is accountable. We built Heartbeat AI to work with our hardware from day one. That’s what allows the optimisation to deliver real savings, not theoretical ones while offering industry leading warranty on our products.”
1komma5° operates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT and South Australia, with local installation teams. The company also has a showroom in Abbotsford, Melbourne, where customers can see the full integrated system in operation.
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Sophie Vorrath
Sophie is editor of Renew Economy and editor of its sister site, One Step Off The Grid . She is the co-host of the Solar Insiders Podcast. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
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