We produce our own solar electricity (& wind soon) and my aim was to manage our energy consumption in order to maximise the use of this free energy, minimise the purchase of expensive grid electricity and save money.
We don't get payments for exporting electricity to the grid so it's important to make the most of our renewable investment.
In our home, all items that consume significant amounts of electricity are allocated a priority. However, that priority is adjustable depending on in-house conditions. All this is managed by a credit-card-sized SBC (a Banana Pi BPi-M5) and multiple Arduino microprocessors with attached sensors feeding live data back to the Banana Pi and it's database.
Importantly, these all run on just a couple of watts, far less than a typical home computer/laptop so they can run 24/7 with no impact on home consumption.
Lets say our solar panels are outputting 1000 watts (1kW) of electricity. Most kettles consume around 3kW. When this kettle is switched on we have to buy 2kW from the grid.
We replaced our 3kW kettle with an 800 watt caravan style kettle. As you may see from the real-time graph above, all the energy used by our 800w kettle was free, although boiling took a little longer. So what? (excuse the awful pun!).
Kettles are high consumption units, frequently used and the water in them frequently, and unnecessarily, boiled many times. It was an obvious area for us to improve our energy management.
This simple exercise needs no fancy electronics, computer or sensors. To help, all you need is some sort of energy usage display, e.g. an Owl energy monitor or a Smart-meter display.
We prioritise which, and when, 'electrical units' are on/off. The essential items, e.g. domestic water pressure pump, will always operate. We also have a 1.5kW burn-water pump that pumps water into a tank for use in the toilets. This is of low priority - until the tank level falls below 30% full. Below 30% the pump will buy grid electricity to keep the tank topped up to 30%. As soon as there is more than 1.5kW of free energy available the pump will automatically pump the tank to 100% full.
In reality, the pump rarely buys off the grid.
And whilst pumping on free electricity, should another, higher priority item start-up, the water pump will stop and wait for the next opportunity to pump for free.
When you produce your own electricity, how do you divert energy otherwise lost to the grid and ensure it's used efficiently in your home?
This is a vital part of good energy management and is a topic discussed in full => Energy Diversion
View and control your energy management on your computer/mobile devices - make your own app. There is no need to involve third party companies, keeping it in house offers better security and is more energy efficient.
We prioritise which, and when, 'electrical units' are on/off. The essential items, e.g. domestic water pressure pump, will always operate. We also have a 1.5kW burn-water pump that pumps water into a tank for use in the toilets. This is of low priority - until the tank level falls below 30% full. Below 30% the pump will buy grid electricity to keep the tank topped up to 30%. As soon as there is more than 1.5kW of free energy available the pump will automatically pump the tank to 100% full.
In reality, the pump rarely buys off the grid.
And whilst pumping on free electricity, should another, higher priority item start-up, the water pump will stop and wait for the next opportunity to pump for free.
When you produce your own electricity, how do you divert energy otherwise lost to the grid and ensure it's used efficiently in your home?
This is a vital part of good energy management and is a topic discussed in full => Energy Diversion
View and control your energy management on your computer/mobile devices - make your own app. There is no need to involve third party companies, keeping it in house offers better security and is more energy efficient.