Prepare Your Residential Customers for Winter with the SolarEdge Home Residential Load Controller
Winter is coming – or, dare I say, is here? And with it, we have the modern version of the White Walkers: inflated electrical expenses! Yet, all is not lost. A wee residential load controller may just be the thing that saves your customers’ proverbial kingdom!
Winter means we spend a great deal of time at home, using even more electricity. In from the cold, we heat our abode, turn on electrical lights (especially now that night comes in earlier), and cook our long-cooking winter stews. And isn’t winter all about warm homes, comfort food, and hot chocolate?
Winter also means we dry our clothes in a dryer instead of outdoors; we need more energy to heat the water for showers and for our dishwashers.
Yet, none of this would be a problem if we weren’t living through a shocking period of exorbitant energy prices, one that is exponentially more aggressive than in years past. Further exacerbating the issue, some of the electrical grids we depend on are not in the best shape. In these areas, even money isn’t always a guarantee that the electricity we all so desperately need will be available when we need it.
Fortunately for your customers, they can turn to you for answers. You’ll save them money and help them power their energy-intensive appliances throughout the winter and beyond by adding a residential load controller to their system. This device will give them access to smarter use of solar energy for increased savings.
The Hero: A Residential Load Controller
A residential load controller connects to selected devices to optimize home energy consumption. It enables a customer to monitor and control home appliances and take the best advantage of solar energy usage and TOU (time of use) tariffs (where applicable). In addition, customers can prioritize essential loads during outages and manage their preferences from an app. A residential load controller can also provide insights into consumption habits and empower homeowners to reduce their energy bills. Connected to an EV Charger (like the SolarEdge Home EV Charger) and a solar battery, a residential load controller enables even more energy flexibility.
And here’s the really lucky part…
The SolarEdge Home smart energy ecosystem includes its own robust load controller. The SolarEdge Home Load Controller is designed to provide ease of installation and allow for maximum scalability. As an integral part of the ecosystem, it integrates seamlessly with SolarEdge Home Battery, EV Charger and with other SolarEdge Home smart devices through the proprietary SolarEdge Home Network – no need to struggle with devices from other vendors and the associated incompatibility issues.
The SolarEdge Home Load Controller is available now and can be installed inside a standard electrical panel. It controls small and heavy loads, as well as permanently connected appliances and low-voltage control circuits (including SG-ready capable devices). The customer can control how best to use the solar energy they produce and how to protect themselves if the grid goes down.
How does it work?
Let’s say your customer has a SolarEdge system installed on their roof but is not home during the day to benefit from the solar production. They prefer to use self-produced energy instead of sending it to the grid. You recommend a SolarEdge Home Load Controller to manage the essential loads and maximize their solar energy, and your customer is thrilled. They choose to add Load Controllers for their heat pump, dishwasher, washing machine and refrigerator. They prioritize the order in which the devices will operate in the event of an outage – and if the grid stops functioning for an hour or more, their home continues to operate as smooth as silk.
For the day-to-day operation of their system, your customer decides to turn on the heat pump an hour before they come home at night, powering it with solar energy while the sun is still out, then using their battery-stored energy instead of the expensive energy from the grid. Load Controllers are integrated with the EV Charger, so the system knows that car charging is programmed to take place in the middle of the night when grid energy costs are lower and can balance how much battery energy to use for each need, in order to save the most money. The washing machine and dryer can be programmed to use home-produced solar before excess solar is diverted to the battery. The only thing missing is a robot to fold the washing when it’s ready.
Usage insights – a game changer
The SolarEdge Home Load Controller also gives your customer all the information they need to determine if their choices are the most effective at saving money and at optimizing their energy usage. They can update their choices on the mySolarEdge app to meet their energy goals and maximize the use of solar energy.
Energy Independence is coming
Today, we are accustomed to receiving electricity from an external source and are handcuffed to the vagaries of the market. With more homeowners joining the solar revolution, this scenario will become less prevalent, and solar producers will have the opportunity to take control of the energy in their homes.
The SolarEdge Home Load Controller is a small device that packs a big punch. It empowers homeowners to take control of the energy in their homes. Robust, intelligently designed with the features homeowners need, SolarEdge Home Load Controller plays a critical role in ensuring a homeowner controls their energy consumption and management. As part of a complete smart energy ecosystem, the SolarEdge Home Load Controller integrates seamlessly with production, storage and EV charging to provide homeowners with the ease and independence they seek.
