Matter Adapter
Bridge Matter-enabled thermostats and smart home devices to eBus for energy shifting and demand response.
Overview
Matter is the new unified smart home standard backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance. Many thermostats, smart plugs, and appliances now support Matter for local control without cloud dependencies.
The eBus Matter adapter bridges Matter devices to the eBus ecosystem, enabling HEMS and other eBus riders to monitor and control these devices for energy management purposes. This is particularly valuable for HVAC systems, which represent a significant portion of home energy consumption.
Architecture
eBus Matter adapter architecture showing integration with HVAC thermostat
How It Works
- Matter Controller: A Matter controller (which can run on a Raspberry Pi or other Linux device) commissions and communicates with Matter devices on the local network.
- Device Discovery: The Matter adapter discovers Matter devices via the controller and maps their capabilities to eBus/Homie topics.
- State Publishing: The adapter subscribes to Matter device state changes and publishes them to MQTT topics following the Homie Convention.
- Control: An eBus HEMS can send commands by publishing to the device's command topics. The adapter translates these to Matter commands and sends them to the device.
Supported Device Types
The Matter adapter supports various device clusters including:
- Thermostat: Temperature setpoints, modes (heat/cool/auto/off), fan control
- On/Off: Simple switch control for smart plugs and switches
- Level Control: Dimmable lights and variable-speed devices
- Temperature Measurement: Ambient temperature sensors
- Occupancy Sensing: Motion and presence detection
Energy Management Scenarios
Pre-Cooling Before Peak
When electricity prices are low or solar production is high, the HEMS can lower the cooling setpoint to "bank" coolness in the home's thermal mass. When prices rise, the setpoint is raised, reducing HVAC runtime during expensive periods.
Load Shedding During Grid Events
During demand-response events, the HEMS can temporarily adjust setpoints or switch to fan-only mode to reduce load while maintaining acceptable comfort.
Solar Self-Consumption
The HEMS can coordinate with solar PV and battery status to run HVAC when there's excess solar production, maximizing self-consumption and minimizing grid exports.
Note: Matter operates entirely locally - no cloud connection required. This makes it ideal for energy management where reliability during grid outages is critical.
Benefits
- Local control without cloud dependencies
- Works with thermostats from multiple manufacturers
- Enables sophisticated HVAC energy management strategies
- HVAC status visible to all eBus devices via standard Homie topics
- Integrates with broader home energy optimization
Requirements
- Matter-compatible thermostat or device
- Matter controller (can run on Raspberry Pi, Home Assistant, etc.)
- eBus MQTT broker on the local network