I don’t know if Schneider Electric will be the one to crack it, but I like what it promises here at CES 2023 – a smart home where the electrical circuits himself are smart enough to power your home, save on your energy bill, manage solar energy and charge electric vehicles, all through a single app.
Schneider Electric isn’t a household name, but chances are you have one of its Square D circuit breakers in your home — the company says four in 10 U.S. households already have one. Today, it heralds an ecosystem of gadgets which will not be hidden within your walls, including:
- a very clever main electrical panel called the Schneider Pulse, which can control its own relay and act as the brain
- a 7.6kW inverter big enough for whole house solar and a pair of batteries, with a dedicated EV charging port
- a wall-mountable, stackable 10 kWh battery called the Schneider Boost that fits right under the inverter
- an 11.5 kW level 2 EV charger
- a range of smart sockets, dimmers and light switches that the system can both control and monitor and work with Alexa and Google Home
“What’s the problem?” you may wonder. “Can’t you buy all those pieces from any number of companies?” Yes you can, and some systems try to balance solar power, battery backup, and auto-charging to some degree.
But if you buy two or more of these “Schneider Home” products, the company promises a snazzy synergy.
Want to know how much power each individual device in your home consumes? Combine the main panel and outlets and you can measure that in three different ways – it can calculate not only the consumption at each outlet, but also at each circuit breaker. and it has an integrated algorithmic energy monitor (powered by Sense) which can try to estimate what each individual device is using by listening to its electronic signature.
Power failure? If you have the inverter and battery backup, the app promises to let you selectively choose which devices to keep running and which to turn off at the circuit, outlet, switch, or light fixture level. In Schneider’s example, it will even encourage you to make choices that can make a difference, such as turning off an air conditioner remotely or charging electric vehicles. Then it will tell you when power returns so you can continue.
And with the main panel and inverter, Schneider claims, homeowners can install an EV charger even if the power line to their home would normally be too small for the job.
I can relate! I wanted to get a 200A main panel upgrade myself for such upgrades, but my solar company told me my service line was too skinny and PG&E wanted an incredible sum of money to tear up my front yard and have a thicker one dug under the sidewalk. “You can only upgrade the panel itself, not the electrical service, and save a lot of money,” Schneider VP Jaser Faruq tells me.
That said, upgrades like this will still cost a pretty penny. “Think in the order of $10,000 if you include all parts of the system here,” says Faruq, adding that installation costs will vary widely. The Pulse panel alone might cost $5,000 in labor and hardware, double that if you have to pay your utility to upgrade a service line, and a full home battery backup could mean four batteries and two inverters if you have a 12 want to go. – hour blackout.
On the bright side, there are some federal credits: The Inflation Reduction Act gives you a 30 percent tax credit on the battery, as well as 30 percent (capped at $600) for a smart electrical panel.
You’ll also need an electrician to install most of these pieces and/or a solar contractor if you want solar panels, since Schneider doesn’t sell that piece of the puzzle itself. In addition, the company admits that most of these upgrades require an inspection by your local municipality.
If, like me, you already have solar installed, you may also need to factor in the sunk cost of your existing inverter, which you’ll need to replace to reap the full benefits of Schneider’s offerings. “We are the first to focus on customers entering this world of solar energy and electrification,” says Faruq. “Because more than 90 percent of homes in the US don’t have solar or energy storage, that’s the big priority.”
However, he says people don’t have to buy all the components to get benefits, and parts of the system are interoperable with third-party components. You should be able to connect most batteries, solar and EV chargers to the panel and/or inverter, and they even have a miniature backup switch that you can choose instead of the main panel if you only have a battery and inverter want. But the goal, he says, is to control everything with a single app and a minimum of boxes on your garage wall.
Schneider’s new parts are still in the process of certification, but it is planned to start the first installations this summer and start up in the second half of 2023.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.