When we talk about solar energy systems, electrical panels may not be the first appliance you consider. Solar panels and battery storage tend to take center stage, but your electrical panel plays a crucial role in directing the flow of energy within your home. If you’re considering an electrification project for your home, a smart electrical panel should be part of your plan. Let’s take a look at what an electrical panel does within your home energy system, and how a smart panel can supercharge your home electrification project!
What are Electrical Panels?
Electrical panels are functionally the bridge between the energy grid and your home's electrical systems. Your solar energy system is also connected to your electrical panel, which safely distributes both purchased and generated energy throughout your home. Electrical panels are often also referred to as breaker boxes.
How Do Electrical Panels Work?
Generally speaking, the electrical panel takes energy from the grid and directs it to the circuit breakers throughout your home. When you have a solar system on your home or property. That power is also routed through your electrical panel and distributed to the various circuit breakers in your house, ensuring that you are able to use the power you are producing and storing as needed. With a typical electrical panel, you can manually turn breakers on and off, and in the event of a power surge, breakers will trip and turn themselves off, thereby preventing a potential fire hazard, but that is roughly the extent of their function.
With smart electrical panels, you have an opportunity to contribute directly to the strength of your solar system and your electrification plans as a whole. With a smart panel, you can reduce your energy consumption and create a more efficient system which you can control with the touch of a button, all while receiving valuable insights into energy usage in your home.
Your Electrification Project
Products like SPAN’s smart electrical panel enable you to enhance your solar and battery storage systems by prioritizing energy usage whether the power is on or off. When the grid is up, you can activate and deactivate circuits as needed to ensure nothing is drawing power unless you want it to be, and when the power is off, you can isolate your essential energy usage to ensure that your stored power lasts as long as possible.
Electrification projects thrive on efficiency and connectivity, and a smart electrical panel is a prime example of just how much value you can realize when all the systems in your home are working together to save you money. As rate hikes continue to drive up the price of power, you can’t afford to waste your electricity - and a smart electrical panel is just one of the ways you can control your costs and reduce your energy consumption.
The Power of Electrical Panels
As we’ve said before, “the strength of an electrification project is that your investment in energy efficient appliances leads to a marked reduction in your electricity costs.” With a solar system on your roof generating clean renewable energy, a battery storage system capturing that energy for use throughout the day, and a smart electrical panel directing the flow of electricity to only the most essential appliances, you can start to see how the whole project begins to hum.
Not to mention, with all these efficient appliances working together, you can start to see just how much money you’ll save on your electricity costs! The new utility rate hike is in full swing, and two more hikes are rumored to be coming this year, so now is the time to invest in a solar enabled electrification project. Contact our expert energy consultants if you’re interested in getting started on your own energy conservation project.
