Sabaidee, Welcome!
This is a community for promoting sustainability in tech and computing. This includes: understanding the impact that our tech/computing choices have on the environment; purchasing or re-using devices that are sustainable and repairable; how to properly recycle or dispose of old devices when it is beyond use; and promoting software and services that allow us to reduce our environmental impact in the long term, both at work and in our personal lives.
This isn't a competition, it's a reminder to stay grounded when making your decisions. Remember: The most sustainable device is the one that you are already using.
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Thanks to Emporia's excellent tools, I have outlets and usb chargers in my house that only work when I'm generating excess solar. I don't need my power banks every day so they get plugged into those outlets.
Oh, and my car. My car only charges as fast as my solar generation permits. I love Emporia.
Interesting, though isn’t most of your power going towards heating air, cooling air, or heating water?
I can't imagine charging a phone would even be noticeable on the power usage. Seriously, what's a phone charger, like 5 watts?
If it's houses connected solar (as opposed so some tiny phone charging panel), then a single panel will generate hundreds of watts. Most people would have several or even dozens of panels. I don't understand why you'd pay for this system instead of an extra panel. It doesn't seem worth the effort.
Except the car. As someone with solar and an electric car, man that thing sucks up energy.
I've got a 5kW array of panels so yea, piddly stuff like charging USB is nothing - it's more the principal of the thing.
My EV charger is definitely the biggie. The system will dynamically adjust charging current in 1A steps to make use of available excess generation. It works pretty well - 16kWh spinning my meter backwards would earn me a whole $1.50 - instead it added ~20% charge to the car.
I'd love to have smartedr charging of the car. Currently we just use a plug in portable charger, which actively advises against putting anything between it and the socket (e.g. no smart plugs).
One day we will get a nicer car and then install an appropriate charger that can connect to home assistant 😍