Now With the effects of climate change and global warming, Its a must to find viable options to reduce our carbon footprint. So With that in mind  – Today, I’m going to show you how technology and sustainability can come together and work hand in hand in My Smart Home. 

Where we have installed solar panels that generate clean energy to a rainwater harvesting system that cuts down our water usage by 200%, everything we’ve implemented helps make our home eco-friendly and efficient. So Let’s get started!

Hello & Welcome back to my channel! And as part of my smart home journey series  – this one focuses on reducing our impact on the environment and save us money at the end of the day. 

So First up, let’s talk about these beauties – my solar panels. These panels are the heart of my home’s energy solution, converting sunlight into clean electricity. 

Not only are they reducing my carbon footprint, but they’ve also significantly cut down my electricity bills. The system is super efficient, even on cloudy days, and I’m able to monitor everything in real-time, which is amazing. 

However to reap the benefits of using Solar Panels for our home – we first had to ask ourselves basically these 5 questions. They were –  

  1. Did we want an off-grid or a on-grid system ?
  • Given the homes locations, It was clear that we wanted to have a on-grid system that was connected to the local grid and we didnt want to have the overhead cost of owning and maintaining Battery Storage. In Brazil we follow the Net Metering system where we are allowed to send the excess energy the panels generate to the local grid in exchange for credits which is in KiloWatts which then reflect in our monthly electric bills. These credits can be consumed over a period of 5 years. As of today we have around 1.7 Mega watt in credit since the system was installed.  
  1. Then we asked What is the best solar panel system ?
  • For this one, We knew we would receive a mixed bag of answers and I also needed a system that would work with Home Assistant as well. Thankfully, a colleague of mine from work started a new business with Solar Panels and once I came to know of it I said to myself of what better way of supporting his new venture. He proposed a system which composed of using Canadian Solar Panels connected to a APsystem micro inverter which then uses the zigbee protocol to connect and send data to its proprietary hub. So Before making a buying decision, This is a true fact actually –  The first thing I checked if there was any Home Assistant add on and to my surprise there was one. Eyes closed I asked my friend to build a project for my home which led us to the next question – 
  1. How many solar panels would we need?
  • To figure out how many panels we needed for our home and also build a solar panel project, all we had to do was provide a list of all the appliances we’d be immediately using in our smart home which would be the essentials as well as to consider an electric vehicle and an electrical pool heater for future use. Based on that information – The project confirmed that we would need 8 Canadian Solar 660W Panels & 3 AP System Micro inverters with all the necessary installation structure, cables and accessories. However for immediate use – we would move forward with 6 panels & 2 Micro inverters only and allowing us to upgrade in the future. Once we had the project in our hand – we then knew on 
  1. How much the solar panel system would cost? 
  • Well after all the Colleague discount was added – The entire system would cost us around 4500 US dollars and it included a system with a power of 3.96 kWp. An Average monthly generation of 435 kW, totaling approximately to 5.22 MW yearly, which represents an annual saving of approximately 800 Dollars in energy bill expenses. After reading all those numbers in the quote obviously we then asked on 
  1. What would be the Payback Period ?
  • Based on our usage on the current installed panels – our pay back period would be around 5 to 6 years. Well Only time will tell us if that was true or not. However since the time we moved in which is Dec 28 2023 – we been paying the minimum electricity bill of 100 Kw as part of the net metering system and anything consumed on top of that was deducted from the generated credit Kilowatts. After I did my calculations- I think we have saved so far around 500 dollars – almost there 

Now with the solar panels generating clean energy – This is where the technology part starts kicking in. Where I am able to monitor everything in real time either thru the web interface or thru the app itself and it gives me a clear overview of how much energy we’ve been producing on a daily, monthly & yearly basis. 

Additionally, It also allows me to view and download summary reports as well as provides me with all the Environmental Benefits we have achieved so far. And another cool feature is that I can play a timeline of how much each panel generated for that day. 

But Thats not it – Together With the power of Home Assistant, the data the solar panels are generating and the data generated by the Shelly 3EM to measure electric consumption – I can easily consolidate, view and navigate thru the homes energy dashboard. Where I can clearly see the homes consumption & Production allowing me to truly understand our daily needs. Which is amazing and it was all setup effortlessly. 

But we didn’t stop there – Generating energy and consolidating data is just one part of that equation. We also focused on minimizing consumption by using the smartness this home possesses.  

As I have said in the previous video – Our house was always positioned perfectly to take advantage of natural sunlight, so we’ve basically optimized the window placement to reduce the need for artificial lighting.

Then we went ahead and installed energy-efficient smart LED bulbs all over the house and I found this amazing Home Assistant add on that I could apply the adaptive lighting function to any smart LED Bulb. This function allowed us to experience cooler color temperatures during the day, gradually transitioning to warmer colors at sunset until sunrise.

And once I added and configured that feature to the internal Xiaomi lighting fixtures – The lights do come on when it’s sunset but they also adjust intelligently the brightness and color of the lights.  While still allowing for full manual control in the apple home app. 

Now, The benefit of Adaptive Lighting is that it maintains your natural circadian rhythm and trust me you can see the positive effects on the kids, also leads to improved sleep, mood, and overall well-being.  And most importantly, allowing us to reduce our electricity consumption. 

I then partnered the smart switches with the smart sensors together with the power of Automations where We can turn on and off lights for specific locations based on motion and when only necessary. 

Additionally our blinds can also be automated – we can move them up and down using the apple home app, based on the position of the sun as well as the time of the day. By Doing this – During the day we can reduce the heat that comes into house as well as use less energy to cool down the house. 

Next up is our Swimming pool pumps – These can to be turned on either thru the apple home app or thru the press of a button.  Currently I have a automation to turn on the pool pumps at a specific time and to turn off after 2 hours of use but I also added a condition to it – that is also to check the next hours solar production. With the value I inputted & thanks to technology, I can then use that forecasted data to turn on the pool pumps automatically and consume clean energy which is pretty cool and takes away the hassle of knowing when is the best time to turn them on. 

With regards to our Home appliances, beside the induction cooktop, microwave, oven, dish washer and washing machine – The rest of the home appliances are Class A products meaning out of the box they are energy efficient, they are smart IoT devices as well as they can be automated as well. 

However, we keep the refrigerator at an optimal temperature between 3 and 7 degrees, and we also use cold-water programs on the washing machine, which are short cycles  but super efficient. With regards to the dish washer – we load them completely to maximize its use which also results in  reduced water consumption as well. 

Now Let’s move on to the other side of sustainability which is water conservation. Living in a tropical country like Brazil, we get plenty of rain, so we installed two 1000-liter tanks to capture rainwater from the roof only . Why We installed 2 1000 liter tanks well its too match up to the 2 fresh water 1000 liter tanks installed in the roof. 

Basically with the captured rain water – we are currently using it to fill the swimming pools, irrigation and cleaning the outside space which reduces our dependency on the fresh water provided by the city as well as reducing our water bills. For a house of this size – our monthly water utility bill is 8 dollars compared to my neighbors who pay around 50 dollars or so.

The only thing we didn’t do is connect the tanks to flush toilets as well as reuse the water from the washing machines – to be honest we really didn’t find a qualified company to do it for us. Now with regards to technology – I am still executing a proof of concept to capture our fresh water consumption  by using a sensor and a esp board but its still a hit n miss to provide the data in Home Assistant and I also have a project to add proximity sensors to each of the rain water tanks to report the water levels in them. I guess one baby step at a time. 

Closing – 

So there you have it! This is how technology and sustainability can work together to create a more eco-friendly, cost-effective Smart home. We’ve managed to reduce our energy and water usage dramatically which is not just good for the planet but good for our wallets, too! while still enjoying modern conveniences. 

Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe for more updates on our home-building journey and other exciting DIY smart home projects.

Until The next time, cheers and happy automation

💡Watch as I walk you through these eco-friendly systems and show how simple tech upgrades can make a big impact on both your wallet and the planet! 🌱💰

If you’re passionate about sustainability, looking to reduce your home’s energy and water usage, or simply curious about how to create a greener home, this video is for you.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️:
================
00:00 Opening
00:42 Solar Panels Generation
01:18 Off-Grid or On-Grid Solar System?
02:03 The Best Solar Panel System?
02:54 How many Solar Panels Do we need?
03:45 What is cost of a Solar Panel System?
04:19 What is the Pay Back Period?
04:57 How to Monitor Solar Panel Data?
05:31 Power Of Home Assistant
05:56 How my Smart Home uses Clean Energy
08:10 Other Energy Saving Initiatives
08:49 Our Homes Water Conservation
10:18 Closing

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