The House Detox?

We're delighted to welcome Ellie Horwitch-Smith as our guest blogger this week.  Ellie is a Director at Adecoe and is an expert in energy and housing: she's recently been busy helping Birmingham develop their district heating offering and has a keen eye for technical detail.  She believes that if you bring the right people together, you can always find a solution - a woman after SE2's heart!

I recently completed a nine-day body cleansing detox – the first I’ve ever done. It was easy to follow, I didn’t suffer gnawing hunger and day by day felt the benefits: no more peaks and troughs in energy, more alert, and I admit less grumpy at the end of the day. Pretty impressive actually. But why on earth am I talking about body detox’s? Well, because when following this programme and observing first-hand the improvement in overall physical and mental health in spite of significant reduced calorie and food intake, it made me think about the synergies between wasted food energy and home energy use (I am an energy consultant after all). I’ve had my own mini-food energy revolution since my detox and I think we’re at the cusp of a domestic energy revolution as well; one that will drive energy reduction, better balanced supply and demand, and where we manage energy much more efficiently.  

Needing less

We all have different likes and habits, but eating the right things is more important than the quantity we eat. Fewer calories can deliver equal, if not better, results. The same applies to home energy use. Yes all homes and lifestyles are different, but the technology market is moving at rapid speed to bring new, proactive energy management tools to the home – ones that don’t have complicated programme settings, but that adjust your heating, washing, lighting etc. to accommodate to your daily behaviour or to the price of energy. Using less and processing it better.

Take the Nest Thermostat for example; after a few days it has written a personalised daily schedule with built in sensors to track when you’re in or out. And their latest advance - Time Savings - means Nest can now adjust electricity use when it’s most expensive via a direct link to supplier energy prices. The Nest Time Savings product is currently only available in the US, but ‘time of use’ tariffs are also being launched in the UK – take British Gas’ recently launched HomeEnergy FreeTime tariff offering free weekend electricity. Whilst this may be a way to secure long term customers via seemingly cheap electricity, it is the first major retail supplier to bring time of use pricing via smart meter technology to the domestic market. Which leads on to my next point…

Achieving better balance

The price we pay for energy is reflected by the wholesale price of energy. The more volatile the wholesale price, and the less energy suppliers know about when and how much energy is being generated and is required, the more risk and the higher the retail price. By better balancing supply and demand, energy suppliers can better manage risk.

The issue of balancing is intrinsically linked to the use of renewable energy verses fossil fuel or nuclear energy generation. Many renewable energy sources are intermittent and there is significant cost to integrating multiple small generation sources to the grid. However, the need for more flexibility in the grid to accept the growth in intermittent energy generation, advances in energy storage and robust demand management solutions is revolutionising opportunities for home energy management. Imagine your rooftop solar panel generating electricity, the surplus being stored in your home battery for use when prices are high and your smart devices controlling when energy is required, where this is sourced and when to buy and sell from the grid. Oh, and throw an electric car in there as a second electricity store during daytime peaks and you might find suppliers paying you for energy!

Tempus Energy is one such example of a business emerging out of this new era of energy management, and we daily hear about the next major industry player investing in battery storage. Early days for the domestic consumer, but definitely one to watch. And, going back to the food theme – the slower burning and more effectively the body can use the food (remember the GI diet?), the fewer the highs and lows of energy during the day and more efficient your system. 

More efficient use

Efficient use has been a theme throughout this blog, but fundamentally the more aware you are of your energy needs and the more you can control when the energy you need is used, the more opportunity you have to actively manage use and (in the not too distant future) how much your energy costs. The smart meter roll out will quite simply tell you what energy you are using and when. To see this in practice, switch your kettle on and watch the electricity use go up and back down again when it’s boiled. Back this up with an online tool to view your energy use patterns, bring in new time of use tariff offers and you can soon identify actions to reduce energy use when prices are high – if you’re a British Gas customer, how about doing all your washing at the weekend?

However, home energy management can be much more sophisticated and proactive – I’ve mentioned Nest but there are hundreds of devices being developed or refined for the smart meter world just round the corner, like CoControl and Labradour. Smart devices, commonly referred to as ‘Connected Home’ devices, might manage the time your washing machine switches on, or even operate a full home energy system including renewables and storage, but there is no reason why every home shouldn’t be able to benefit in better energy awareness and lower energy prices (we will have to put aside concerns around accessibility of technology, internet connectivity and security for another time).

Our experience with live renewable energy generation, domestic storage and ‘connected home’ devices is showing the ‘tip of the iceberg’ potential of this domestic energy revolution. Whether for our own home or those we manage, the wealth of potential merits serious consideration.

Ellie Horwitch-Smith is a Director of Adecoe, an innovative and forward thinking company creating and delivering new energy opportunities for housing organisations and their customers. www.adecoe.co.uk