According to the company, traditionally, homeowners simply check their solar inverters or look at their energy monitors in the home to optimise their appliance use – but energy bill management has proved a challenge from remote locations.
Energeno, the designers and makers of the Wattson solar Energy Monitor, has now developed two new complementary smart devices to help householders save money while they are away.
The optimmersion – Energeno describes this as is an intelligent controller that when added to a solar power installation, automatically diverts free electricity to the immersion heater when the Solar PV has produced surplus power. Installed between the immersion tank and the consumer unit, it supplies variable power for hot water depending upon the excess energy being generated. Typical savings are around £55 per year for a gas boiler and £80 for electrically-heated water.
The Optiplug – The company calls this a smart socket, that learns how much energy appliances round the home are using and switches power to them only when enough surplus energy is available to run them.
Both technologies are designed to ensure that householders have greater control over their energy use when they are not at home and ensure they are not paying for expensive electricity bought in on the day from their energy provider.
“Thousands of people who have had solar PV fitted have become armchair experts on when to use the free electricity they have generated and when they are selling it back to the grid to ensure they are cost neutral.” said Mark Elliott, director at Energeno.