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Beginners
Guide to Energy
Efficiency
A complete guide to how you can run
a more energy efficient home.

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Chapter 9
Home Energy Management
Systems

Introduction
Home energy management systems (HEMS) are
rapidly gaining popularity around the world as the
technology behind them improves and as small-scale
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gy p
solar power and battery storage become more viable.
This section looks at what home energy management
systems are and what they can (or should be able to)
do.

Definition of HEMS
Like anything, the definition for ‘home energy
management system’ will differ slightly from
source to source, but we believe the below
neatly encapsulates the concept without being
too broad.

 A home energy management system is

a technology platform comprised of
both hardware and software that
allows the user to monitor energy
usage and production and to manually
control and/or automate the use of
energy within a household.

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Hardware
A home energy management system’s
hardware usually consists of a ‘hub’ device
which relays communications between
the goings on inside the house, the user
and in some cases the local utility or
electricity retailer. This hub is usually
installed on the home’s electrical board,
but may also be installed ‘virtually’ in
cases where the HEMS operates purely on
a wireless network. Other, less essential
components may include ‘smart plugs',
light & temperature sensors, and smart
devices within the home.

Software

The software used in a HEMS is what moderates

the ingoing and outgoing data and
communications. From a user’s perspective, the
software is the interface that allows access to
monitoring data and control functions of the
system. The interface usually takes the form of
an app or web portal. The software for some
HEMS has the express goal of increasing the
energy effectiveness or efficiency of the
household, while the focus of others is simply to
control devices remotely or automatically for
convenience or security purposes.

As for monitoring, the sophistication of the way

in which the data is displayed will vary, but will
usually include some variation of the below:

Device & appliance data – Which devices

are on and off? How much energy is each
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are on and off? How much energy is each
one using?
Granularity of time data – What is the
smallest time increment that the system
keeps track of – Do you see live data of
your electricity usage or do you see
intervals e.g. data every hour.
Insights delivered – Does the system send
notifications to tip off the user to trends
and issues that they may not pick up on
without parsing through the data
themselves?

As for control, a HEMS may allow a user to do a

range of things, including:

Turn devices on and off remotely

Set devices to operate on schedules
Set up conditional rules for device
operation
Manage the flow of energy from solar
panels (and other generators) through the
home or in and out of batteries
Allow ‘machine learning‘ to take over and
run the system semi-automatically

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What does a HEMS monitor

and manage?
Home energy management systems can vary
greatly in the breadth of their applications.
There are four main aspects of home energy
that a home energy management system can be
involved in. Some HEMS operate with all four,
while others may only work with one or two.
We’ve outlined each of them below.

 
Electricity Solar PV
The core functionality of a versatile home Solar PV systems (see Chapter 7) have
energy management system involves the use of become commonplace in many countries,
electricity within the home. A HEMS should give allowing homes to generate a portion of
the user the ability to ‘see’ what devices are their electricity on-site. Depending on the
doing and to remotely ‘reach in’ and turn them situation and the incentive structure, a
on & off or otherwise modify their operation solar system owner may make it a priority
(e.g. turning down the thermostat temperature to ‘self-consume' their solar energy
on an air conditioning unit). directly or to export it to the grid as much
as possible.
Provided that the HEMS is geared primarily to
save the user money, key considerations in

electricity use management will include grid A HEMS can show the user how much
electricity rates, whether the customer is on solar they are generating, using and
time of use billing, and whether there is solar exporting back to the grid. This
power or batteries available on site. information lets users change the times
they consume energy at home to make
A HEMS may also be required to operate in an the most of their solar.
off-grid scenario, in which case its role is even
more crucial in ensuring that energy is used The presence of solar battery storage (see
effectively so that it is always available when below) makes the equation even more
required. complex – making a home energy
management system an even more
attractive option than for a home with no
on-site generation.

 
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Battery storage Solar thermal

Battery storage (see Chapter 8) is the next Solar thermal – or solar hot water – is a
frontier in home energy, holding the key to popular technology that uses the sun’s
greater home energy self-sufficiency and lower power to heat water within a home (see
electricity bills – not to mention the future of our section 5). Solar hot water system often
electricity infrastructure itself. In order to operate mostly independently of the rest
maximise the value of a battery bank, however, of a home’s electrical devices, but a smart
it helps to have an intelligent management HEMS with the right connectivity &
system that can take into account multiple monitoring functionality can help to
variables – such as whether you’re on a time of improve their value even further.
use of flat rate tariff (see section 2), and whether
you have any incentive to sell stored energy into
the grid.

What to look for in a HEMS

There are five essential features every home
energy management (HEMS) system should
come equipped with. We look at each of them in
detail below.

 
Monitoring Control
You should be able to log into your HEMS’ user In addition to allowing you to see what’s
interface (usually a web browser or smartphone happening with regard to energy in your
app) from anywhere and see what devices are home, you should also be able to take
on and using energy in your home. For example: action, manually turning devices on and
Did you accidentally leave the heating on? Did off or automating their operation with
you forget to turn on the dishwasher? A HEMS timers or algorithms. Furthermore, you
should also allow you to view historic data to should be able to take these actions from
identify trends, changes and opportunities for anywhere you have access to the Internet.
improvement.

 
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Insights Integration with solar and

Your HEMS should tell you the story of your
batteries
energy usage in a way that you would not have
A home energy management system will
otherwise been able to work out. For example,
allow you to monitor and manage not only
what devices in your home are drawing power
the energy that you use, but also the
on standby when you’re not home? Are you
energy that you generate (and store), in
running your air conditioner or heater more
the most cost-effective way possible. Your
than necessary (see section 4)? Are any older
HEMS should know whether it will save
devices in your home accounting for a
you the most to pull energy from the grid,
disproportionately large portion of your energy
your batteries, or directly from your solar
bills – and may need replacing? A HEMS should
panels when the sun is shining.
be able to help you answer these questions –
and more. If you don’t have solar or batteries, your
HEMS should be able to help you to size
up a system that is well-suited to your
needs and budget – after helping you to
identify and eliminate inefficiencies within
your home.

We hope you found this guide useful! We’d love

your feedback on the guide, and suggestions for
additional information we could include in the
guide is very welcome. You can send us your
feedback here.

About carbonTRACK

carbonTRACK is an energy management and

Internet of Things (IoT) comapny that helps
businesses and households to use less power to
save money and the environment.

We envision a world where energy is consumed

sustainably, shared fairly, and everyone is
empowered to control their energy use.

Our mission is to develop intelligent energy

solutions that empower people and engender
sustainability through creative technologies.

Guide Contributors

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Authors: Rooj Kitisarn & James Martin

Designers: Luke Petering & Gabrielle Rea

   
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Congratulations on
making it through this
guide! If you’re still
curious about how a
HEMS can help you,
have a look at our how it
works page.

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