Lowtide

In London, power is cheapest at 13:00 today.

Lowtide reads every half-hourly electricity price and the grid's carbon forecast, and tells Alexa when to run the dishwasher, the washing, the hot water and the car.

Ask Alexa on the EchoAdd to Claude or ChatGPT

The next 24 hours in London, one fin per half hour, machined from the live Octopus Agile prices. Taller costs more. Cobalt is the cheapest quarter, graphite the dearest; the pin is now. Drag to turn it.

Cheapest hour
13:00
10.3p/kWh
Dearest hour
18:00
48.1p/kWh
Dishwasher this morning
11:00
11p instead of 35p at 6 p.m.
Everything, next 24 hours
£3.46
£11.73 if it all ran at 6 p.m.

Run the dishwasher at 11:00

11p instead of 15p now

Ask, and it answers twice.

Out loud, in one sentence. And on the Echo Show's screen, as tonight's prices with the run marked on the rim.

  1. Alexa, when should I run the dishwasher?
  2. Run the dishwasher this morning at 11 a.m. It costs about 11 pence, 5 pence less than starting now.
  3. Yes, save it.
  4. Saved. Run the dishwasher this morning at 11 a.m.

Produced minutes ago by the live tools, for London. Not a script.

Choose what to move.

Every load costs a different amount each half hour. Pick one and the object re-cuts itself: cobalt marks when it should run.

Start
11:00
Switched on now
15p
At the cheapest time
11p
Saved in a year, daily
£16.84

0.9 kWh over 3 h, priced with the live Octopus Agile rates for London. The yearly saving assumes every day's prices look like today's, so read it as a rough guide.

From the kitchen to the grid in seconds.

Lowtide is an MCP server, the open standard Alexa+ uses to work with services. Four steps, every number read live.

  1. You ask

    “Alexa, when should I run the dishwasher? It needs to be done by seven.”

  2. Alexa+ calls Lowtide

    plan_appliance with finish_by: 07:00, over Streamable HTTP.

  3. Lowtide prices every start

    From the half-hourly tariff and carbon forecast for your postcode, keeping only starts that finish in time.

  4. The Echo answers

    It says the time and the saving, and shows the day with the run marked (an MCP App).

plan_appliance
The cheapest or greenest start for an appliance, optionally done by a deadline.
schedule_run
Saves the plan for the household once the person says yes.
check_now
Whether this half hour is a cheap or dear time, and when it drops.
get_tide
The next day of prices and grid carbon, with the cheapest and dearest hours.
list_runs
What the household has planned.
cancel_run
Cancels a planned run.
get_savings
Money and CO₂ saved by running at the cheap hours.
set_home
Sets the postcode or city, which picks the tariff.

Works in any assistant that speaks MCP.

Alexa+ integrations are in preview for brands, so the Echo on this site is simulated. The server is real: add it to Claude, ChatGPT or VS Code and the same view renders in the conversation.

Guest endpoint. Prices and plans; add a postcode or city to your question.
https://lowtide-energy.vercel.app/api/mcp

For saved runs and savings, make a household link. Free, no account, just a postcode or city.

Questions

Where does it work?

Britain on Octopus Agile (every postcode, all 14 regions), northern Illinois on ComEd Hourly Pricing, and Germany on dynamic spot tariffs. On a flat tariff, ask for the greenest time: the carbon forecast still moves through the night.

Does it switch the dishwasher on?

Not yet. It plans the run and keeps it in the household's list; most dishwashers and washing machines already have a delay-start button. Matter smart plugs and appliance APIs are next.

What does it know about me?

The postcode or city you give it and the runs you schedule. No account, no name, no meter data. A household is a random link.

Are these real prices?

Yes. Every number and every object on this site is cut from the published feeds within the last few minutes.