The American power grid is electrifying through renewable energy proliferation, and homeowners are following suit by replacing gas powered vehicles and appliances with electric-powered options. However, certain homes are encountering the conundrum of having too high of an electrical load and not enough electrical service to back it. Savant is a recognized leader in both smart home and smart power solutions, developing solutions for balancing electrical loads in the age of in-home solar and storage. Ian Roberts, VP of sales excellence at Savant, is on this episode of Solar Spotlight to discuss the viability of energy load management.
A written portion of this podcast is below but be sure to listen to the full episode on your preferred podcast service.
SPW: For our listeners unfamiliar with your company can you tell us a little bit about Savant and what you do?
Ian Roberts, VP of sales excellence, Savant
Savant is a smart home brand that’s been around for about 20 years. We started in 2005 really looking to create an intuitive experience for every homeowner for all their technology within the home. Our background comes from telecom and revolutionizing soft switching in that industry. Our expertise lent to standardizing the practices in that space and becoming the leader in things like smart lighting, entertainment and other technologies in the home. More recently, we’ve applied that to the power in the house, pulling together all the technology that we see popping up in the market now today.
What products do you offer solar companies and homeowners looking to harness the power of the sun?
We have a full suite of power solutions. At its heart is our Power Storage 20, an energy storage system that scales to any size home. The key difference with other solutions that solar contractors may be using today is it’s something that can address the full home’s load, essentially back up the entire house. So, if there’s a homeowner that wants to have a seamless operation of everything that’s powered in the home, we can deliver that. We can, of course, fill a partial backup solution as well.
It turns out that many solar owners also drive EVs. However, not every homeowner can install a charger. Why is that?
If you think about the standard home that’s built however long ago, the electrical service that was put into that home was really designed around everything in the house when it was built. As you fast forward, new technologies come into the place. People are looking at new energy efficient heating systems or adding that new electric vehicle, which just didn’t exist when the home was built. They just don’t have that overhead in their electrical service to power these new things over and above their existing home appliances and everything else that’s been built into their electrical panel.
How many homes are we talking about? What are the barriers and options for those homeowners?
Our research shows that over 50 million homes out there have less than a 200A electrical service, and so this is a challenge for the many people who are looking to upgrade appliances or pull a new EV into their driveway but have the best experience by being able to charge at home. It’s for those 50 million homes, but this is really a technology for anybody with an electrical service that is maxed out.
The traditional solution would be to pursue a costly electrical service upgrade with the utility, which could be in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and take significant time to execute.
So, what is Savant doing differently to help avoid service upgrades?
We are using our load management technology that we’ve had in the market for several years now in a new, unique way that we call Savant Smart Budget. It allows a homeowner to use their existing electrical service but decide what elements of the home they’re powering at any given time. We know that the homeowner might not need everything powered around the clock, and this is what makes room for them to add that EV charger and be able to direct their available power where they need it most.
Savant’s Smart Budget feature prioritizes how power is used in the home by monitoring live consumption, shedding unnecessary loads, and balancing usage within a limited electrical service. This powerful solution starts at a modest $1,499 and can scale to monitor and manage any or all circuits in the home. Savant will be at RE+ at Booth 63069 where you can learn more about Smart Budget and the entire Savant Power System.
This podcast is sponsored by Savant