New Kit - Sunny Home Manager

[harbrimar]

Looking at the SMA Solar web site and noticed an interesting bit of kit called the Sunny Home Manager which will be available in early 2012. Link can be found here SUNNY HOME MANAGER. SMA Solar Technology AG. It appears to be a sophisticated monitoring device that allows automatic switching on and off of appliances both remotely and automatically according to amount being generated. There is also another bit of kit called Sunny Backup which appears to be able to temporarily store excess power. Will be interested to know how much it will be. It seems to be the answer to many problems such as intelligently dumping excess power, remote monitoring and also capable of measuring what is being drawn from the grid as well. Worthwhile downloading the brochure from the site.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Thats why I like SMA, little more forward thinking. Was told about this a couple of weeks back, and it just uses bluetooth socket adaptors to switch.

Ive been doing it for a while through the built in multifunction relay!!!

 

[TonyL]

I would say fantastic except that I can find no mention of price so I will stick with a Hooraay!

I have been looking at the EMMA device but it is far too expensive. To have an integrated piece of SMA kit is an excellent idea.

 

[DomB]

@Graeme Harrold, I like the plan of using the built in relay - what circuits are you hooking that up to?

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Doing it rough and ready. Out put from the inverter (MFR) to a load switching relay. this kicks the immersion on when the inverter output rises above 1.8kW. The inverter circuit also has a diode in series to effectively chop the wave making it a 1.5kW element.... All cost about £40.

Pricewise Ive heard the Sunny Home Manager is in the region of 1300 euros

 

[Eco Deal]

price out april

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Any news on projected price?

 

[Eco Deal]

no not yet !!!! cant be much more than webbox price when that first came out £600 ish ?????

 

[Blueflash]

I would say fantastic except that I can find no mention of price so I will stick with a Hooraay!

I have been looking at the EMMA device but it is far too expensive. To have an integrated piece of SMA kit is an excellent idea.

We have two EMMA's running, one single phase (15kw), one three phase (50kw). Both are very complicated to build and configure, with Cool Power making too many site visits to correct faults!

 

[Glen Powell]

For systems like this to work at their most effective we need the likes of washing machines and dishwashers to be activated remotely (I have not looked to see if this is possible), this would be far more effective when you are out at work, Wash load done, Clean dishes, hot water, pity about the ironing though.

 

[SibertSolar]

This is an exciting area of progressive growth in the renewables industry as far as I can see. I've spoken to a couple of inverter manufacturers who have smart appliance switching on their technology roadmap (via bluetooth or power-line perhaps) and efficient/smart energy management is one of the main topics people are discussing at the moment.

 

[SolarCity]

I have been thinking about this a lot recently.

Seeing as the renewable sector is growing like it is, I wonder if there is enough market out there for smart appliances which can be set up to purely use PV power?

Imagine a washing machine that received a remote signal from the inverter yet could actually operate at a lower power for a longer time. That way it could perhaps use 1kW while the weather was dull yet automatically adjust to use any extra power that is generated if the sun broke out from the clouds.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

This is one solution Im looking at. Its not 100% there with regards to solar integration, but it can allow you o remotely switch appliances, lights etc...

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