More about the program
Earn rewards for charging your EV or heating/cooling your home at the best times for the grid, with UI Smart Home.
United Illuminating (UI) are partnering with Kraken Technologies to bring smart control of EVs and heat pumps to up to 300 UI customers, through the UI Smart Home program.
The UI Smart Home program closed on August 31, 2025.
UI Smart Home
Take a look through some frequently asked questions below for the most common queries.
If you still need help, you can contact the team at any time via email: hello@uinet-kraken.energy
Take a look through some frequently asked questions below for the most common queries. If you still need help, please email the UI Smart Home support team on hello@uinet-kraken.energy. The phone line has now closed.
Contact Us
Frequently Asked Questions
Program details
Participants will receive the total value of rewards they've earned throughout the program. This will be applied through a UI statement, and will appear as a bill credit within 2 billing cycles following August 31, 2025.
The program closed on August 31 2025.
We expect Participants to remain on the program, and actively participate for the full duration. If you leave the program before it finishes, you'll risk forfeiting the rewards you've earned.
You can disconnect your device in the Settings of the UI Smart Home app. If you'd like us to remove you from the program, you should email our customer support team on: uismarthomehelp@kraken.tech
UI are partnering with Kraken Technologies to deliver the UI Smart Home program. If you're interested to find out more about Kraken, you can find details here: About Kraken.
Electric Vehicles
UI Smart Home connect to your EV via cloud control. We require you to authenticate your device during onboarding in the UI Smart Home app, which is how you grant access for UI Smart Home to choose when to charge your car. UI Smart Home then uses signals from the grid to determine the best times to charge your EV.
Customers will set their preferences in the UI Smart Home app. Specifically, you'll set a:
1. Target charge (e.g. 80%)
2. Ready by time (e.g. 8a.m.)
UI Smart Home will always put the customer preferences first, choosing when to smart charge your EV at the best times, in order to reach your preferences.
Yes - the UI Smart Home app shows live status updates about your EV.
You can boost charge your car at any time, by tapping the boost charge button in the UI Smart Home app.
Note that if you boost charge too regularly in a month, you could forfeit your reward for that month.
After plugging in your EV, it will charge for a short period before the UI Smart Home smart charging schedule takes over. There are a few reasons why your car might continue to charge for longer after plugging it in:
1. The charging plan has started when you plug in, so all is according to plan! You can check the charging schedule in the app to check if this is supposed to happen.
2. Something else is causing the car to charge, such as a charging schedule in the car, or smart charging features on the charger. You should turn these off in order to guarantee smart charging by UI Smart Home.
3. UI Smart Home may not be stopping your charge because it believes your car isn’t at home. We currently identify ‘home’ as your car’s location when you signed up to UI Smart Home. If your car was not at home during your onboarding, then you will need to disconnect your car in the UI Smart Home app and go through the connection process again while your car is at home.
4. UI Smart Home checks in on your car at regular intervals to monitor your charging status. If the car is plugged in just after one of these checks, it could mean up to 30-minute delay in us stopping the charge.
Please check the following:
1. The charge cable is properly connected to both car and charger - unplug at each end and try plugging in again.
2. The car and charger used are the ones you’ve registered with UI Smart Home.
3. Make sure any other charging services aren’t controlling your car.
4. We might think your car isn’t at home. We currently identify ‘home’ as your car’s location when you signed up to UI Smart Home. If your car was not at home during your onboarding, then you will need to log out of your car in the app and reconnect it while your car is at home.
UI Smart Home charging plans won’t impact your battery any more than regular charging. Car batteries are designed to handle this pattern of charging, and should also be covered by your car's battery warranty.
To smart charge your car we’ll need to wake it up. We let your car go back to sleep (to avoid battery drain) as often as possible. We recommend keeping your car plugged in at home to help it go to sleep more often and for longer periods.
Rewards
Participants will earn a "sign up" reward of $100 for connecting an EV or heat pump ($150 for connecting both) as a credit on their bill. This will be applied to your UI statement within 2 months after starting the program.
"Starting" is defined as the date that your device connects through the mobile app. For EVs, this refers to successfully completing the test charge step.
Participants can also earn monthly rewards of $25 per connected device (EV or heat pump). These accumulate throughout the program, and will be paid out as a lump-sum credit on a UI statement within 2 billing cycles from the close of the program, on August 31, 2025.
Participants can earn $25 each month that their EV is connected. Those joining in July 2024 can earn up to $300 in monthly rewards.
Participants will forfeit their monthly reward if they boost charge (for longer than 2 minutes) more than 3 times in a given month.
Participants can earn $25 each month that their EV is connected. Those joining in August can earn up to $325 in monthly rewards.
Participants will forfeit their reward if they suspend control (for longer than 24 hours) more than 3 times in a given month.
If you connect both an EV and heat pump for the duration of the program, you'll receive a $150 reward for signing up, and can earn up to $700 in monthly rewards - totalling $850 in bill credits.
Participants will be sent monthly emails during the program, to update you on your performance.
Participants can stack the rewards they earn for each device type. This means they can earn both $25 rewards each month, totalling $50.
Participants will forfeit their EV and heat pump rewards for boost charging and suspending control too often, as described above.
Ⓒ 2025 AVANGRID
Marketing for this pilot is paid for by UI customers through a portion of the Public Benefits charge which funds the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s Innovative Energy Solutions program.
Please contact the UI Smart Home support team via email: hello@uinet-kraken.energy
Information collected by this site is handled in accordance with the applicable terms of UI's privacy policy and Kraken Technologies Limited's privacy policy.
Heat Pumps
UI Smart Home connects to your heat pump via cloud control. We require you to connect your device in the UI Smart Home app to grant UI Smart Home access to send instructions to your heat pump.
UI Smart Home will create a smart heating or cooling schedule for your heat pump based on the preferences you set in the UI Smart Home app.
Participants will set their preferences in the UI Smart Home app. Specifically, you'll set a:
1. Target temperature (e.g. 68°F).
2. Start time and end time for the period in which you'd like the target temperature to be met (e.g. 7am - 9am).
Note - your cooling and heating slots must share the same start times and end times. For example, if your heating schedule has a slot of 7am - 9am, then your cooling scheudle must also have a 7am - 9am slot too.
During smart control, UI Smart Home will always put customer preferences first.
You can manually switch between heating and cooling from the UI Smart Home app.
"Cooling" and "Heating" are standard actions your heat pump will take in order to meet your requested temperature, in the timeframe set in your schedule.
"Smart Cooling" and "Smart Heating" takes place ahead of your schedule to cool or warm the home at times where there is less pressure on the grid.
Adjusting the temperature of the home prior to a period of high grid constraints (e.g. high demand). The goal is to shift energy consumption to a period of lower demand on the grid, which then reduces energy consumption during typically higher demand periods.
UI Smart Home cools the home by reducing the target cooling temperature on your heat pump during periods when there is less pressure on the grid.
UI Smart Home warms the home by increasing the target heating temperature on your heat pump during periods when there is less pressure on the grid.
You can suspend smart control at any time, by heading to Settings in the UI Smart Home app. Note that if you suspend control too regularly, you risk forfeiting your reward for that month.
If your required temperature is outside of the range available in the via UI Smart Home, you might need to suspend control in the UI Smart Home app, and set this via the the Kumo cloud app.
You'll find your smart control status in the UI Smart Home app, this will tell you whether the heat pump is "Heating", "Smart Heating", "Cooling" or "Smart Cooling", or "Idle".
Here, the "Idle" status suggests that UI Smart Home is no longer instructing the heat pump to perform heating or cooling activity, since the home should be heated / cooled sufficiently to reach the target temperature you set in the app.