I have had solar panels for 3 years and this is how I control my energy consumption from my mobile

The mobile phone has become a universal tool, it is used for almost everything. Even to control the energy expenditure of an entire house: I use mine just for that. Also to know how much electricity do my solar panels generateI have a handful of apps for homework. Home automation is one of my passions.

Since I live in a single-family home and I am the only one who decides everything that happens there, I ended up installing solar panels, an ambition that had been on my mind for decades. Because I like being autonomous, because I try to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible and because, I won’t deny it, solar panels are cool. Especially because they open the door to total control over what happens in the house they move into.

The Investor App: The Big Brother of Electricity Consumption

I currently have a 3 kW solar installation with a 5 kW/h battery. The inverter is one of the most common in Europe: the Huawei Sun2000. And it offers an application that allows you to see at any time how much electricity is produced, how much is imported, how much surplus is paid into the network

and all the histories. Its name is FusionSolar and it is not on Google Play: you have to download it from the Huawei page.

Although the brand was vetoed by the United States and gradually disappeared from the smartphone market, in Europe Huawei is very present in solar production. In most installations, their devices are used, both the inverter and the batteries (in addition to other vital components for the installation). This is my case for example. And the truth is that it works very well, at least in my experience.

FusionSolar is an application for Android and iOS (downloadable from the App Store) that, once connected via the inverter, uses the Huawei cloud to store consumption and production data. This data remains accessible so that you can consult it. And I also have access to the investor himself; which allows me see in real time what is happening at home.

This electricity consumption is high and I am not at home? I can check the measurements in FusionSolar and unplug the sockets through which the most current flows: I can do this with my home automation center. Because solar panels have become the ideal complement to all the connected objects in my home: I can know the status of the installation remotely and act accordingly

. Everything from your smartphone: having these possibilities on vacation seems extremely practical to me.

In addition to real-time consumption, from the Huawei application I access historical data, I know how much I will save on the electricity bill by configuring the cost of surpluses (I have contracted a solar tariff with the supplier) and also I can configure my entire electrical installation in detail. For the second I have to be at home, because these settings are done by directly connecting the mobile phone to the inverter with a WiFi access point.

The more you know about your consumption, the easier it is to save electricity.

I admit that home automation is confusing me. Having radio-controlled sockets, knowing how much a smartphone’s charge consumes or knowing the temperature of each room in the house in real time, for example. In addition to satisfying my curiosity, all this data They help me save on my electricity bill

. In fact, when the days get longer, my electricity costs are zero: since March, I no longer pay for electricity.

This all sounds good, but it also has its downsides: currently, with a fairly cheap electricity price on the regulated market, having solar panels is not profitable in terms of profitability. The investment is still very high and it takes too many years to pay it back. However, knowing that I can consume all the electricity I want without having to pay future bill shocks gives me great peace of mind, especially now that the season of 24/7 air conditioning has arrived. And I know that all the energy I spend is green, which also satisfies me (besides, I help generate more of it, since I throw away the surplus).

I always have the FusionSolar app easily accessible on my phones: I find it perfect for staying constantly informed. In addition, I manage expenses with the distributor’s app (Octopus in my case) and, if I need to access the electricity meter, I also have instant and historical readings with the distributor’s app. The more informed I am about what is happening at home, the better.

Cover image | Ivan Linares

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