Huawei Releases Home Energy Management System to Put Your House at Work

Huawei is stepping into the home energy management market with the release of its “Fusion Home Smart Energy Solution”. The new product is being launched in Australia with the first customers expected to install in this quarter.

Steven Zhoutao, General Manager for Huawei’s Smart PV Business Residential Solution, told PV- Tech News: “We believe we will contribute our expertise to the residential market, better develop the residential solar technology and provide strong support for a sustainable development and technical advancements of the global PV market.”

"Imagine your home producing enough energy for the whole family, never having to worry about rising electricity costs or your household carbon footprint."

FusionHome aims to a be holistic system that will help domestic residences not only generate and manage power but also store power. The system also aims to monitor the quality of power consumption and provide an easy-to-understand experience of using renewable energy in the home.

Huawei describes the system saying: "Imagine your home producing enough energy for the whole family, never having to worry about rising electricity costs or your household carbon footprint. With Huawei Fusion Home Smart Energy Solution, you can cut down power bills and contribute to a better environment, without compromising your lifestyle.”

Monitoring and Control

The system combines domestic solar panels and intelligent monitoring systems with smart domestic appliances. The ‘smart energy center’ allows communication between rooftop solar and intelligent home appliances, so power consumption is optimized. Huawei says the system means domestic consumers won’t need to invest in expensive battery storage devices while their price remains high.

But the system does already have built in a DC-coupling storage interface should the user wish to retrofit batteries. Fusion Home also says that it will increase inverter efficiency up to 98.6%.

EMS critical to home energy generation

Home Energy Management Systems (EMS) are increasing in popularity as a way to maximize the potential of photovoltaic panels. On the most basic level, these systems do two things: Monitoring and Control.

First, a good Energy Management System must let you see how energy is being both manufactured and used within your home. Depending on the type of system you have installed, your EMS should be able to tell you how much energy is being used and generated. A comprehensive system will allow for monitoring of consumption, solar and batteries.

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In terms of control, a good EMS should let the user be able to control at least one factor in the way energy flows within your home. This can range from the very simple enabling of switching devices on or off to the more complicated that incorporates an algorithm that automatically maximizes the efficiency of the use of available power within the home.

Australia is a big solar consumer and the industry is growing rapidly. The clean energy council reported that in 2016, 17.3 percent of Australia’s electricity was provided by renewable sources, the most in any year. Solar power makes up a significant percentage of this. Solar panel roof installation is also increasing. March 2017 saw the industry post its quarter for rooftop solar installation since August 2012.