This is true, even if it is not "cheaper," in the long run... it is much more practical after a tropical storm. I rely on electrical for HVAC, lighting, computer/Internet/TV and clothes drying, that's all. Everything else is LPG, with all of the salt and sand, here, NG is a non-starter, hell, we can't even keep the water mains and pressure sewers working for long between failures. We are served by an electrical cooperative and prior to the last major hurricane, their vendor Duke Power shut down the two nuclear reactors providing power for 2 weeks. We had to drive to Myrtle Beach just to see electric lights. Wish I had a "smart LPG gage" that I could access, mine phones home through 4G.
PS
Agreed that nobody around here is going to install breakers outside in the weather. That's nutz (and dangerous).
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Watched a short segment of it, he reiterated some of the arguments I made above. Truth be told, any new home built today in the US will have a 150 - 200 amp service feed to start with. Even my 100-year-old beachside bungalow was upgraded to 150-amp service after Hurricane Sandy flooded us. And having some major appliances use natural gas is more economic than electric in certain parts of the country (like where I live). I also like not being reliant on one power source, if the electric grid goes out, I can run a backup generator off of NG. Power management is still needed then since a reasonably priced residential backup generator will never deliver all the power needed for a modern home.Originally posted by jon00 View Post
The application that appeals to me is power management to accommodate EVs, as battery and charging technology progresses, there will be a need for heavy duty charging circuits (>50amps) to do super fast charging. Power management becomes essential then.Leave a comment:
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Funny, I follow the Technology Connections guy on YT and he was discussing this in his latest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVLLNjSLJTQ
Just FYI.Leave a comment:
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Not my comment, a requirement of the OP. And that SquareD panel looks like a strictly California type of product with the utility meter integrated into it... who the heck wants to go outside to reset a breaker or something else when it's raining/snowing/cold? In Cali it might not be a big deal, but other parts of the country...Leave a comment:
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Actually, I got my initial position from your comment, "The smart panel must provide an interface for local control (via a REST API or similar industrial standard) and all must be documented." My assumption was that this would not be required if the utility didn't intend to use it. Maybe I got that wrong. Anyway, SquareD claims to have the "smartest" panel. YMMV.
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That's the key statement, given the ability. Who says you have to? I know that even though I got a discount for my smart thermostats through my local utility, nobody forced me to sign up for their energy conservation program which would have given them the ability to do set-backs during peak demands. I'm not sure why you're implying that by getting a smart energy management system that you have to give up local control/autonomy.Originally posted by ewkearns View Post
The pluses to having a smart panel is automatic management and conservation of backup power during outages. The system will automatically prioritize what circuits are most important to you based on your input, without having to run extension cords, unplug things, etc. There's also prioritization of charging EVs overnight via stored power from your solar panels. Automatic monitoring of major appliance circuits to determine abnormalities which might indicate a future repair.
While it might be difficult to justify the cost of retrofitting, given a new home build, I can't see why anyone wouldn't want a smart panel (unless it breaks their build budget).Leave a comment:
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Do y'all really want to make the public electric utility a controlling partner in your HA scheme? I know, if given that ability, our local utility will turn off HVAC (etc.) during times of peak load, allowing the house to get hot and causing the HVAC to struggle to bring the temperature back to a comfortable temperature (and in the depths of the summer that isn't going to happen until the wee hours of the AM). I can only guess that in cold weather the result would be similar, but the lowest it has been here this year is 26° F (so, no data).
For my part, my carefully crafted scripts have dropped my electric bill well over $100 since the first month I was here in this house. I don't need the utility circumventing that for their own (cross) purposes.Leave a comment:
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Though I don't currently have one, I'm a big fan of the SPAN smart panel.
SPAN® Home | Smarter energy is here
They are currently finalizing a public API, many folks in the Home Assistant community have been interacting with the Span product manager, it's a long thread but worth reading through:
Integration with Span? - Feature Requests - Home Assistant Community (home-assistant.io)
I plan on building a new home in the next couple of years and fully intend to have a smart electrical panel and EV charger as part of the build.Leave a comment:
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Smart Electrical Panel
I am contemplating upgrading our electrical panel (and sub panel) to smart panels. Has anyone done this and integrated it into HS? Note that our city has some rebates when upgrading to smart panels but there are of course conditions incl.
a) The smart panel must provide an interface for local control (via a REST API or similar industrial standard) and all must be documented.
b) The panel must have an automatic load management system.
Searching the forum sparkman mentioned Leviton (https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...uit-monitoring) but I am not sure if there is an open API for it. I don't see anything on their website (https://www.leviton.com/en/products/...l/load-centers) and there is no plugin for it so I suspect it doesn't qualify due to a) above.
Does anyone use a smart panel that also integrates into HS?
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