Understand Smart Home Energy Add-ons

Smart home skills are now called smart home add-ons. No action is needed, and your existing integration will continue to operate normally.

You can use the Alexa APIs to report energy usage and manage automation of devices that consume energy. The smart home energy interfaces are intended to help users manage their energy usage with the Alexa energy dashboard. You create smart home energy add-ons the same way you create any other smart home add-on. For details, see Connect Your Device Cloud with Smart Home Add-ons and Steps to Build Smart Home Add-ons.

Note: The smart home energy interfaces are available in the United States (en-US) only. Currently, the Alexa energy dashboard displays daily usage converted to the PST timezone.

Utterances

The smart home energy interfaces are different than other Alexa interfaces. Your add-on doesn't support voice user interactions with Alexa. Instead, your add-on communicates with Alexa about energy usage and device automation. These interfaces don't define user utterances.

Alexa interfaces for smart home energy add-ons

Implement the following Smart Home APIs in your Alexa add-on to enable users to control your smart home energy devices.

Alexa.AutomationManagement — For devices that support automation, such as thermostats.
Alexa.DeviceUsage.Estimation — For devices that don't measure energy use directly, such as thermostats.
Alexa.DeviceUsage.Meter — For devices that measure energy use directly, such as electric and natural gas meters.
Alexa.ThermostatController.HVAC.Components — For a thermostat device or a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

Note: Energy consumption reported with the Alexa.DeviceUsage.Estimation interface doesn't display on the energy dashboard.

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Last updated: Nov 22, 2023

Understand Smart Home Energy Add-ons

Utterances

Alexa interfaces for smart home energy add-ons

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