It’s a cold, rainy night. Lightning flashes outside your window and wind howls through the trees. The lights begin to flicker and suddenly your home is immersed in darkness. Food is already creeping toward spoiling, emergency tea lights are twinkling dimly as you search for a flashlight, all the while wondering how you’re going to keep the heat on. If your water pump is electric, you may not even have access to clean water.
This is a scenario many homeowners have experienced — the moment when one’s reliance on the power grid becomes a sudden liability. Now imagine that lightning is flashing, thunder is booming, and suddenly the entire neighborhood goes dark. But this time, your home is shining like a beacon in the night. Why? Because it’s equipped with a smart energy management system.
Energy Management Systems
An intelligent energy ecosystem is the next generation of home automation. The ecoLinx system by sonnen launched at the CEDIA Expo this year, offering installers and integrators a revolutionary new product with remarkable implications for sustainable energy consumption.
The all-in-one ecoLinx smart energy management system incorporates home automation, residential solar, and energy storage in one intelligent energy ecosystem, enabling the system to effectively manage and optimize energy usage. The breakthrough tech also helps protect against power grid outages and helps lighten the load on the existing power grid.
How ecoLinx Works
The system incorporates energy storage with intelligent circuit breakers and solar power to create a comprehensive management system with multiple backup power options. For example, the homeowner can select how long stored power will last in the event of an outage.
The interconnected nature of the system allows the software to understand how much power each circuit needs to run devices and how much energy each circuit will consume per hour. This data is then compared to how much stored energy remains in the battery and how much solar power is being generated to present homeowners with a variety of backup options during an emergency scenario.
Founder of cyberManor and former CEDIA board member Gordon van Zuiden describes the new system as a “marvel of electronic integration.” The interconnected nature of sonnen’s ecoLinx allows it to speak with smart devices in the home and minimize energy usage, particularly during peak energy periods.
ecoLinx Batteries and Scalability
The ecoLinx uses its solar production to offset peak hour energy consumption, or charges the lithium iron phosphate battery system for later use. Further, by communicating with connected devices in the home like the thermostat or lighting, the system is able to automatically adjust settings to maintain homeowner comfort while discharging stored off-peak power to meet the majority of the home’s power load.
The fully scalable sonnen ecoLinx can store 10kWh to 20KwH using lithium iron phosphate batteries, the safest and longest-lasting battery chemistry available to consumer markets. The tech is paving the way for clean energy and grid innovation by automating energy consumption and offering consumers a transparent system for monitoring their power usage. Zuiden says of the advancement, “For the first time ever, with ecoLinx, home automation integrators finally have the tools to enhance the environment of our client’s homes and help protect the environment in which we all live.”
