Smart Power Mode Overview

Smart Power Mode has two functions.

  • It can keep your home’s instantaneous power use (measured in watts) below a preset limit.
  • When paired with compatible batteries, Smart Power Mode can also disable circuits within the home as the battery's state of charge decreases, allowing the battery to energize the remaining loads for a longer duration.


Currently, Smart Power Mode is only available when operating off-grid. But it will also be available on-grid in the future.


Smart Power Mode Power Management

When a grid outage occurs and Smart Power Mode activates, circuits will be managed according to their categorization:

  • Essential Circuits

    • Kept on throughout the outage and powered by the batteries

  • Optional Circuits

    • Powered by the batteries throughout the outage as long as Power Limit is not exceeded

  • Undesired Circuits

    • Immediately shed upon a grid outage and not re-enabled until five minutes after the return of the grid


Essential, Optional, and Undesired Circuits

How should I choose which circuits to classify as Essential/Optional/Undesired and how should I prioritize them?

Essential Circuits will always be preserved, so be sure that the total power consumed by these circuits will stay below the limit. These circuits don't have a sense of priority within the section–they are all treated as equivalently essential. These work the same as Protected Circuits did in Lumin’s Off-Grid Mode.


Optional Circuits are more dynamic–the circuits at the top of that section have higher priority than those below. A best practice is to place loads that will automatically resume, such as thermostatic loads (HVAC, water heater, etc.) or EVs, at the bottom of the list since they will be interrupted more often, and are good at recovering. On-demand circuits (dryer, oven, etc.) should be placed towards the top of the list since often interrupting these appliances will reset whatever cycle they were attempting (or have other side effects). When idle, they will have a minimal footprint and allow the lower loads to cycle on and off. When active, the higher loads will take priority usage of the power and will force the lower ones to be temporarily disabled (if necessary). Note that even the highest priority Optional load is still considered available for interruption if the Power Limit is exceeded (likely by Essential Circuits) after disabling all other Optional loads.


Undesired Circuits are circuits you explicitly want to shed for the duration of the outage (unless overridden, explained below). Disabled circuits are not automatically resumed until five minutes after the grid outage is over.


How long will Optional Circuits remain disabled?

Any disabled Optional Circuit will remain so until there is enough available power to cover the predicted max power of that circuit. Please note that there is a minimum disable time of five minutes to avoid rapid cycling of appliances.


How do I override control of a circuit?

Any disabled Optional or Disabled Circuit can be manually re-enabled via the app by either the Home screen or Smart Power Mode Configuration screen. However, if the Power Limit is exceeded again, the circuits will be re-disabled in ascending order. If you want this circuit to take more sustained precedence over other circuits, you can reorder the circuit to be higher on the list.


Smart Power Mode Power Limit and Monitor These Circuits

What is the Smart Power Mode Power Limit? 

The Power Limit can be set by the installer or the owner of the system by expanding Mode Settings. If power on the Monitor These Circuit(s) exceeds the Power Limits, Smart Power Mode will disable Optional Circuits in ascending order. Typically, the Power Limit should be set at or slightly less than the maximum continuous power output capacity of either the inverter or the battery, whichever is less (typically the battery-based inverter). Note that in some systems, such as the Tesla Powerwall and the Sonnen Core, the battery and the battery-based inverter are packaged together in a single enclosure that system owners likely think of simply as their “battery”. In these cases, there will be only one continuous power output rating provided by the manufacturer. 

In addition to continuous output capacity, all leading inverters also have a surge output capacity so that a total load greater than the continuous output capacity can be powered for a short time as motors and compressors start. To accommodate this, Smart Power Mode will allow the Monitor These Circuit(s) to draw as much as 125% of the Power Limit for two seconds. The amount of surge allowance and the duration in seconds will be adjustable in future updates to Smart Power Mode.


Smart Power Mode Power Limit Example
The Smart Power Mode screen of the Lumin Smart app. It shows information and options on Essential, Optional, Undesired and uncontrollable circuits. 
By setting the off-grid Smart Power Mode Power Limits to match inverter or battery maximum discharge limits, a larger number of circuits can be available off-grid without risk of tripping the inverter or damaging the battery. When the Power Limit is reached, Optional Circuits will be shed in ascending order (bottom of list to top) until power demand is once again safely below the limit. When power demand is safely below the Power Limits, Optional Circuits will be re-enabled in descending order (top to bottom) as long as each circuit’s predicted needs can be met by the available power supply. Five minutes after the grid is restored, Smart Power Mode will return all circuits to their original pre-outage state. 


What are Monitor These Circuits? 
Monitor These Circuits are the circuits Lumin monitors and compares to the Power Limits. For most installations, the Monitor These Circuit(s) should be the circuit(s) that delivers battery power to the load center/electrical panel that Lumin controls. Smart Power Mode will sum up measurements from any circuit(s) designated as a Monitor These circuit and compare that instantaneous total power reading to the Power Limits. Note that in some cases where the Monitor These circuit set contains both PV and battery output, this limit will be extra conservative from a battery/inverter protection perspective, as some of the measured power could be coming from solar and not straining the battery inverter's output capacity.


Do I have to choose Monitor These Circuits and Power Limits?
No. These selections are only necessary if you want to designate some circuits as Optional. If no Monitor These Circuits or Power Limit is set, all circuits will either be Essential or Undesired. A Lumin Smart Panel (LSP) set up this way will work the same way as one with legacy Off-Grid Mode. The Optional power management features enable you to use more circuits during a grid outage than would be possible if a Power Limit and Monitor These Circuits are not designated.


Smart Power Mode and CT Configuration

How should CTs be configured for proper Smart Power Mode operation? 
Lumin CT configuration depends on the type of energy storage system and several other factors. The following are several basic configurations that will work properly with Smart Power Mode:

Two diagrams displaying two different types of Lumin CT configurations. On the left is a Main CT-Only Configuration, which includes: an LSP, an electrical panel, Main CTs, an MID/ATS, a battery, a PV and an M. On the right is a Main + Aux CT Configuration, which includes: an LSP, an electrical panel, a MID/ATS, Main CTs, Aux CTs, a battery, a PV and an M.

  • Main CT-Only Configuration
    • Designate Main CTs as the Monitor These Circuit(s) in Smart Power Mode.
  • Main + Aux CT Configuration
    • Designate the Aux CT circuit as the Monitor These Circuit(s) in Smart Power Mode.
      • Note that this circuit may have been renamed to something like "Solar + Battery".


If your installation does not resemble the drawings above, please see the following article for more information:


Further advice on proper CT placement and special configurations is available by contacting Lumin support at 888-421-0616 or support@luminsmart.com.


How does Smart Power Mode work if there is more than one Lumin Smart Panel at my location?

Smart Power Mode currently runs independently on each LSP and can only interact with the circuits (both Monitor and Control) measured by that LSP. When more than one LSP is installed at a location, all LSPs will be triggered by the same off-grid event detected by a single Grid Detection Circuit (GDC) branching off to each LSP. Within the Lumin Smart app, there will be one Smart Power Mode per LSP installed at the location, and each Smart Power Mode instance will only control one LSP.  


Please note that each LSP that requires Optional Circuits requires a dedicated Monitor These Circuit, or set of Monitor These Circuits. This may mean that CTs from multiple LSPs are landed on the same wires within the Energy Storage System (ESS). 

Diagram of a multiple-LSP CT configuration (PV and battery not separately monitored). It includes: two LSPs, an electric panel, two sets of Main CTs, an MID/ATS, a PV, a battery, a GDC, and an M.

In a multiple-LSP CT configuration (PV and battery not separately monitored):

  • If Optional Circuits are desired within Smart Power Mode, each LSP should have its own set of Main CTs. Main CTs should be set as a Monitor These Circuit. If both LSPs control the same electrical panel, the CTs from both LSPs will be on the same feeders.
  • To reduce installation complexity, a single GDC connection can be made to wiring that will not be powered in a grid outage. This single GDC can be spliced into multiple branches to provide grid sense to multiple LSPs.


Diagram of a multiple-LSP dual service panel CT configuration (PV and battery not separately monitored). It includes: two LSPs, two electric panels, two sets of Main CTs, two MID/ATS, two PVs, two batteries, a GDC, and an M.


In a multiple-LSP dual service panel CT configuration (PV and battery not separately monitored):

  • If Optional Circuits are desired within Smart Power Mode, each LSP should have its own set of Main CTs. Main CTs should be set as a Monitor These Circuit.
  • To reduce installation complexity, a single GDC connection can be made to wiring that will not be powered in a grid outage. This single GDC can be spliced into multiple branches to provide grid sense to multiple LSPs.


Smart Power Mode Energy Management

Lumin's energy management feature prolongs the runtime of your home's battery in a grid outage by shedding Optional Circuits as your battery discharges past 50% and re-enabling those circuits as the state of charge increases beyond 50%. Adjustable setpoints other than 50% will be available soon.


This feature requires information about the battery's state of charge, which is accessed via an API request to the storage system. As not all battery manufacturers publish an API that is accessible to third-party platforms, this feature is restricted to those systems that do. See the list below for storage brands that currently offer this feature:

  • SolarEdge
  • Enphase


For more information on this feature and API access with the respective storage brand, see:


If you have additional questions about Smart Power Mode, please contact support@luminsmart.com or call us at 888-421-0616.


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