[Blueprint] Hydro-Québec: 3-Stage Dynamic Peak Manager (Preheat, Shed, Recovery with HVAC, Water Heater, HRV Lockout, & Solar Lighting)

Blueprints Exchange
1

Hydro-Québec 3-Stage Dynamic Peak Manager (Preheat, Shed, Recovery)

Automate Hydro-Québec winter dynamic pricing events (Tarif Flex D, Crédit hivernal, or Hilo) across the entire home in three distinct, automated stages:

  1. Preheat Phase ($T-2\text{h}$): Temporarily boosts heating setpoints, charges the domestic water heater tank to 100% capacity, and pre-ventilates indoor air.
  2. Peak Event (Load Shedding): Lowers thermostats to setback, turns off high-draw 240V water heaters (Sinopé RM3500WF / Calypso), pauses HRV/air exchangers, engages optional hardware button lockouts to prevent accidental cold-air boost triggers, and sheds non-essential lights.
  3. Recovery Phase: Restores comfort setpoints, reactivates the water heater, releases hardware lockouts, resumes ventilation, and conditionally restores evening lights if the sun is below the horizon.

Open your Home Assistant instance and show the blueprint import dialog with a specific blueprint pre-filled.

Features

  • Negative Calendar Trigger Offset: Uses native calendar triggers with configurable offset (default: -02:00:00) to fire preheating ahead of peak events automatically.
  • Dual Triggering: Operates reliably via calendar events (calendar.hydro_quebec_peak_calendar or ics_calendar) AND binary sensors (binary_sensor.hydro_quebec_*_critical_peak_active).
  • Thermal Battery Management: Takes advantage of the 40–60 gallon water heater tank and thermal mass of walls/floors to eliminate electricity draw during 53¢/kWh peaks without comfort sacrifice.
  • Ventilation / HRV Hardware Lockout: Automatically stops sub-zero outdoor air infiltration and physically disables manual wall/bathroom buttons during the peak window.
  • Solar Recovery: Checks sun.sun post-peak so evening outdoor/ambient lighting only resumes if it is actually dark outside.