[00:00.000 --> 00:06.880] A warm welcome. [00:06.880 --> 00:12.280] This is a hurried up presentation on deploying energy management in households and on challenges [00:12.280 --> 00:17.720] that we have encountered from hardware to software stack all the way up to layer 8. [00:17.720 --> 00:21.880] The household owners, those are. [00:21.880 --> 00:27.000] Analyzing the potential for energy savings, it's on average three major consumers worth [00:27.000 --> 00:35.000] investigating and once you will have exchanged your fossil heating for heat pump, all of [00:35.000 --> 00:41.560] those are electric, so saving the planet from a term is all about saving electric energy. [00:41.560 --> 00:47.080] Well, sure of going wagon maybe, but I love my daily burger. [00:47.080 --> 00:53.000] So it's the car and just like in computing, it's climatization and the big iron appliances [00:53.000 --> 00:56.080] to cost the most headache. [00:56.080 --> 01:01.680] Exchanging those for more efficient models means a major invest and usually it doesn't [01:01.680 --> 01:05.480] really buy you any relevant savings in energy. [01:05.480 --> 01:08.520] But there is hope, the royal voices. [01:08.520 --> 01:12.400] There is still potential for energy cost savings. [01:12.400 --> 01:18.320] If you have PV power and have proper control over when you consume that power. [01:18.320 --> 01:20.560] So how does that work? [01:20.560 --> 01:26.280] For example, doing the washing typically takes around a kilowatt hour. [01:26.280 --> 01:29.720] I myself just got a raise to four to six cents. [01:29.720 --> 01:35.160] So that's my energy cost when I'm doing my washing at night using power from the grid. [01:35.160 --> 01:41.200] Now if you have an energy management system postpone the washing round to around noon the [01:41.200 --> 01:47.480] next day or more precisely to when there is excess power, PV power available from your [01:47.480 --> 01:49.000] roof. [01:49.000 --> 01:54.280] And cost is only like a feed-in compensation, that's seven cents in my case. [01:54.280 --> 02:02.360] Figures will vary between countries in Germany moving all your clothing and dish washings [02:02.360 --> 02:06.920] will save you more than a hundred euros a year. [02:06.920 --> 02:11.320] Potential savings in EV charging and heating are even larger. [02:11.320 --> 02:17.440] And now here's your bonus for listening rather than just skipping through abstracts. [02:17.440 --> 02:24.640] This would also work without a solar plant if you're using a variable power tariff. [02:24.640 --> 02:32.400] And those you might know them, you pay about the price of the power stock exchange plus [02:32.400 --> 02:40.320] a transmission fee and savings are less, however, still well worth it. [02:40.320 --> 02:42.880] Now on to the challenges. [02:42.880 --> 02:48.480] First is getting hold of an EV or a new time of a heat pump and a competent installer. [02:48.480 --> 02:52.080] That's a problem of its own, let alone for a good price. [02:52.080 --> 02:54.800] Well, let's skip that. [02:54.800 --> 02:56.360] Next is housing. [02:56.360 --> 03:01.880] In apartment buildings there's unresolved problems in describing cost of PV and EV charging [03:01.880 --> 03:09.840] energy to single users and only building owners will possess the required information on wiring. [03:09.840 --> 03:17.960] This electric and HVAC devices contracts with utility companies and contractors and so on. [03:17.960 --> 03:25.600] And often they will not give any renter the allowance to modify anything, let alone property [03:25.600 --> 03:31.480] management companies that fight even balcony plants just for the look of it. [03:31.480 --> 03:36.320] So effectively energy management deployments are limited to home owners that have physical [03:36.320 --> 03:41.160] and logical access to all relevant devices. [03:41.160 --> 03:45.560] So how does it work once your home qualifies for it? [03:45.560 --> 03:50.480] You need a computer on-site that can talk to inverter, EV charger, heat pump and your [03:50.480 --> 03:52.080] white goods devices. [03:52.080 --> 03:56.120] So the first hurdle is to physically connect to those. [03:56.120 --> 04:03.360] Local control rules, running in the cloud is unreliable for technical and other reasons. [04:03.360 --> 04:10.200] Finding a proper state machine is a challenge and you probably know all the risk to operations [04:10.200 --> 04:18.000] and financials with cloud services when suddenly that company drops out of service. [04:18.000 --> 04:22.480] Almost all inverters on what was based most only have a serial connector and there's [04:22.480 --> 04:26.440] serial to LAN or Wi-Fi adapters to take care of. [04:26.440 --> 04:32.640] So technically it is not a big deal but often it's a deal breaker when the installer on-site [04:32.640 --> 04:37.760] doesn't know and the ones in the know, the software people, they don't have access to [04:37.760 --> 04:40.560] the site physically. [04:40.560 --> 04:45.080] Modbus is a simple protocol but then again every vendor has its own list of registers [04:45.080 --> 04:46.080] and logic. [04:46.080 --> 04:54.620] To be fair, most are offering specs for downloads, however not so much about the logic but information [04:54.620 --> 04:59.040] is often incomplete and hard to get hold of. [04:59.040 --> 05:03.080] But the harder part is that there's no standardization in that. [05:03.080 --> 05:09.240] So implementers like ourselves have to figure out for every single device. [05:09.240 --> 05:15.080] For chargers there's no wireline equivalent and those put up another kind of challenge. [05:15.080 --> 05:19.440] There is no single unified logic in talking to those. [05:19.440 --> 05:26.040] There are also next-gen protocols such as eBus or OCPP and those become available in [05:26.040 --> 05:29.840] more and more field-deployed hardware. [05:29.840 --> 05:36.440] Chargers, they all can be controlled because that used to be a prerequisite in many countries [05:36.440 --> 05:45.240] to get the installation government funded, however, control usually means app only, right? [05:45.240 --> 05:51.440] Some even use the Bluetooth link and both are challenges to make them become part of [05:51.440 --> 05:54.560] any automation. [05:54.560 --> 06:00.600] Now connecting devices is where OpenHUB and even more so its community are great. [06:00.600 --> 06:03.280] This is what we use in our product. [06:03.280 --> 06:09.000] In the energy device domain there's OpenHUB bindings for more or less every officially [06:09.000 --> 06:10.920] published API. [06:10.920 --> 06:17.320] Bindings are modules to translate device-specific communications to the abstract representation [06:17.320 --> 06:21.120] layer that OpenHUB is based on. [06:21.120 --> 06:28.320] Many source-minded people have figured out how to control their own devices and thankfully [06:28.320 --> 06:30.920] shared all of this information. [06:30.920 --> 06:41.280] So together we have compiled a pretty good knowledge base. [06:41.280 --> 06:49.040] For chargers we moved on to EVCC, EV Electric Vehicle Charge Controller, that's another [06:49.040 --> 06:52.240] great open-source software. [06:52.240 --> 06:57.280] It's dedicated to handling charging and it has a web API too. [06:57.280 --> 07:06.080] So now we only have a single API, albeit more complex, and a unified logic layer to cope [07:06.080 --> 07:09.280] with for chargers. [07:09.280 --> 07:17.320] Oh yeah, this one is my favorite low-light slide. [07:18.040 --> 07:21.760] To inverters in the field it's often limited. [07:21.760 --> 07:30.500] All relevant device settings are such as to enable external control, all modbos at SG [07:30.500 --> 07:34.600] Ready related parameters, they are on admin level. [07:34.600 --> 07:42.280] You might know that from the HVAC industry but with inverters most installers don't even [07:42.280 --> 07:49.480] hand the password of the device to the owner of the device. [07:49.480 --> 07:55.080] With some inverters the admin account is even linked to the installer personally and he [07:55.080 --> 08:01.720] signed with a vendor that he would not pass his own so he is really taking that seriously. [08:01.720 --> 08:07.840] And all of that is a fact of successful lobbying in the past. [08:07.880 --> 08:15.480] Grid operators, for example, they denied certifications to inverter vendors and if they don't implement [08:15.480 --> 08:21.680] this sort of crappy restrictions. [08:21.680 --> 08:27.520] And installers are also very much intimidated by grid operators and afraid of losing support [08:27.520 --> 08:35.120] or to get sued or whatever, although there is absolutely no contextual relationship from [08:35.120 --> 08:38.040] the installer to the grid operator. [08:38.040 --> 08:44.560] That only exists with the home owner, the guy to own the device, but he in turn is denied [08:44.560 --> 08:49.000] access to that. [08:49.000 --> 08:52.160] It's particularly nasty when it comes to battery control. [08:52.160 --> 08:58.400] Some greedy energy companies, albeit regulated on that, don't want users to feed the grid [08:58.400 --> 09:03.840] from battery and they manage to prevent this from happening that way. [09:03.840 --> 09:07.120] Unfortunately, there is still hope. [09:07.120 --> 09:13.080] At least in Germany there have been major changes starting this year, but let's see [09:13.080 --> 09:19.040] how long it will take for them to apply to the installed base. [09:19.040 --> 09:25.120] Another low light along those lines is smart meter usage. [09:25.120 --> 09:29.640] Proper energy management requires to meet a consumption, but you have to install your [09:29.640 --> 09:32.200] own smart meter. [09:32.560 --> 09:38.680] Even though you get an official one installed together with your solar plant, but you effectively [09:38.680 --> 09:43.480] cannot access that one's ratings, let alone in real-time. [09:43.480 --> 09:50.320] Even with the so-called intelligent meters, those have a gateway because the data of that [09:50.320 --> 09:54.520] one is only being sent to the grid operator. [09:54.520 --> 10:01.440] That one makes it available in a portal if you're lucky, but you don't get it in real-time. [10:01.680 --> 10:06.400] Ultimately, you have to install another meter of your own. [10:06.400 --> 10:12.200] That in turn requires you to get an electrician normally, while there's some sensors like [10:12.200 --> 10:18.720] a Shelly that you can install yourself, but to many owners, the electric cabinet door [10:18.720 --> 10:22.960] is really the line they don't dare to cross. [10:22.960 --> 10:27.840] There are complex electric setups out there with multiple inverters, usually from different [10:27.880 --> 10:34.480] brands, that we often encounter in upgraded older installations, and I'm not even counting [10:34.480 --> 10:36.840] balcony plants. [10:36.840 --> 10:42.080] Owners of heat pumps or night storage heater also often make use of dedicated taverns, [10:42.080 --> 10:45.560] and those require another meter. [10:45.560 --> 10:51.880] Connecting to heat pumps themselves, it's rather simple using the G-Ready interface. [10:51.880 --> 10:56.960] That's a two-bit wireline interface to signal cheap power is available. [10:57.240 --> 11:06.360] Nonetheless, in reality, only very few HVAC installers set up SGR because to them it's [11:06.360 --> 11:13.200] the electrician's job, and that one of course doesn't care to return once the PV is working. [11:13.200 --> 11:17.200] Any layman is allowed to set it up himself. [11:17.200 --> 11:23.800] It is low voltage, which means you won't risk your life and insurance, but few know [11:23.800 --> 11:31.800] it's badly documented, and so most home owners are unaware or afraid of doing it themselves. [11:31.800 --> 11:34.240] And devil is in the details. [11:34.240 --> 11:39.360] During recent installation of my very own heat pump, they have put wires but didn't connect [11:39.360 --> 11:44.560] them on the pump side, so I had to call support and they sent me a picture of where to connect [11:44.560 --> 11:52.920] the low voltage wires, and got warned that opening the enclosure alone would expose me [11:52.920 --> 11:57.440] to the risk of touching 400 volts DC. [11:57.440 --> 12:06.320] So should there not be any FOSSTEM presentation of my next year? [12:06.320 --> 12:11.880] There are drawbacks to SG-Ready, but the worst thing about it is that energy management [12:11.880 --> 12:15.920] happens inside the inverter, and it is one-on-one only. [12:15.920 --> 12:22.440] So cheap power assignment to a heat pump competes and conflicts with all other major consumers [12:22.440 --> 12:25.640] such as the EV charger. [12:25.640 --> 12:30.880] Device vendors will keep improving their capabilities, but inverters will keep failing to get the [12:30.880 --> 12:37.720] comprehensive picture right, and that's needed to coordinate all household devices. [12:37.720 --> 12:40.760] There's many competitors to power. [12:40.760 --> 12:46.120] Chargers likewise, there's some that already do their own metering to allow for excess [12:46.120 --> 12:52.880] only charging, but this also will be short-lived kinks at best. [12:52.880 --> 13:01.400] Now with variable tariffs latest coming up, local control like that can even have a negative [13:01.400 --> 13:09.120] impact on cost, because cheapest times will be shifting around and will often be at night, [13:09.120 --> 13:16.920] and that is right when the existing excess power-based control will result in right the [13:16.920 --> 13:21.840] opposite of what it is supposed to accomplish. [13:21.840 --> 13:27.000] I'm anxiously waiting to tell my classic grid operator goodbye. [13:27.000 --> 13:32.520] I really believe that Tibber is the new Twitter. [13:32.520 --> 13:38.480] Final slide, saving on energy and cost is fine and having features such as notifications [13:38.560 --> 13:43.440] when the washing is done are a bonus, but they are not enough to get people to change their [13:43.440 --> 13:47.120] long-awaited practice of operating household appliances. [13:47.120 --> 13:51.520] They would rather stop using a new system than change their habits. [13:51.520 --> 13:58.800] So for an energy management system to get accepted, it must not enforce changes to handling. [13:58.800 --> 14:02.080] Connecting existing white goods is surprisingly simple. [14:02.080 --> 14:08.960] You don't need new smart home connector-like devices, because any washing program of classic [14:08.960 --> 14:16.240] white goods devices once started can be interrupted and proceeds when you restore power. [14:16.240 --> 14:22.880] So any Shelley or other plug socket switch with metering capabilities will do. [14:22.880 --> 14:28.240] Automation is more consequent than any human, and it doesn't get tired of doing the savings [14:28.240 --> 14:29.800] math. [14:29.800 --> 14:35.680] So you no more have to worry and remember all day long when to start your electric appliance [14:35.680 --> 14:36.680] as best. [14:36.680 --> 14:44.240] For those to know this type of problem, automation can really get you some peace of mind. [14:44.240 --> 14:50.480] So to conclude, deploy your own energy management system, an open source based one of course, [14:50.480 --> 14:55.520] and get peace rather than expensive, intelligent devices. [14:55.520 --> 14:58.720] Become the sovereign of your energy usage. [14:58.720 --> 14:59.560] Thank you for listening.