Helio - Smart Solar & Storage App with IoT Sensor Network from Prototype to Production
AI-Native Solar, Battery & Smart-Home Energy App
Built a consumer iOS and Android app for solar generation, battery storage, EV charging and smart-home device control - backed by an IoT sensor network and AI optimisation engine. Shipped from clickable AI prototype to App Store in 16 weeks.
Most of our work is under NDA. Per agreement, we can share the work but not the company details - all names and identifying information shown here have been changed.
Impact
2 weeks scope, 3 weeks clickable AI prototype, 11 weeks production build with IoT integration.
Live solar generation, battery state and per-device load streamed from on-site sensors over MQTT.
AI engine schedules water heater, EV charging and grid export based on forecast, tariff and battery state.
Net Worth, peak yield, CO₂ saved and household savings unified into one dashboard.
The Problem
Helio's customers had solar panels, batteries, EV chargers and smart-home devices from four different vendors - each with its own app and no shared view of generation, consumption, or savings. Optimisation was manual, and most users left meaningful savings on the table.
Our Solution
We delivered a single iOS and Android app that ingests live telemetry from on-site IoT sensors, unifies solar generation, battery storage, EV charging and smart-home device control into one workspace, and runs an AI scheduling engine that auto-optimises around forecast, tariff and battery state - validated through a clickable AI prototype before any firmware integration.
The Challenge: Multiple Devices, No Shared Brain
A modern Swiss home runs solar, battery, EV, heat pump and smart appliances - each with its own vendor app. Helio's users needed a single brain across all of it.
Fragmented Vendor Apps
Solar inverter, battery, EV charger and smart-home hub each had its own app with its own login, units, and update cadence. There was no shared source of truth for what the home was actually doing.
No Real-time Visibility
Generation, consumption and battery state were polled hourly at best. Users could not see live load shifts when an appliance turned on or solar production dipped behind clouds.
Manual Optimisation
Even motivated users struggled to time water heating, EV charging and grid export by hand. Tariff windows, weather and battery state changed faster than people could react.
Trust at the Hardware Edge
IoT sensors had to be commissioned, paired and updated in homes by non-technical residents. Onboarding and OTA updates needed to be bulletproof and explainable.
Our Approach: 3 Phases in 16 Weeks
Discovery & Scope
Weeks 1–2: embedded with Helio's product, hardware and field-engineering teams. Mapped every flow - onboarding, daily monitoring, scheduling, alerts - across solar, battery, EV and smart-home devices. Locked the production target and KPIs.
AI-Driven Clickable Prototype
Weeks 3–5: built a fully interactive iOS and Android prototype with mocked sensor data and AI scheduling, so the team could click through every flow - onboarding a new sensor, scheduling water heater, exporting to grid - before we wrote a line of production code or touched firmware.
Production Build & Launch
Weeks 6–16: shipped the production app for iOS and Android with live MQTT telemetry, IoT sensor commissioning and OTA updates, an AI scheduling engine, smart-home device control, push alerts, and the unified savings dashboard. Submitted to App Store and Play Store in week 15.
Why It Works: Outcome-Based Differentiation
Speed to Value
Most consumer energy apps take 12–18 months to ship to App Store. We delivered a clickable AI prototype in 3 weeks and a production app in 16, including the IoT firmware integration.
AI-First Prototyping
Every flow - sensor onboarding, daily dashboard, AI scheduling, alerts - was validated in the prototype before any firmware or production code. Helio's product, hardware and customer-success teams clicked through the actual app before we touched a sensor.
Single Accountable Team
Design, AI prototyping, IoT integration, mobile engineering and DevOps under one roof - no handoff between an app studio and a hardware integrator, no telephone game on edge cases between sensors and UI.
Outcome-Based Engagement
Helio paid for milestones and live functionality, not hours. Our incentives were tied directly to shipping a production app that homeowners actually opened every day.
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