SolarBot cuts electricity bills – smartly

SolarBot, an intelligent controller for home solar and battery systems, leverages AI and IoT to analyse household energy usage patterns, weather forecasts, and load shedding schedules to optimise solar energy consumption. This can potentially save homeowners up to 30% on electricity bills. The developer of the system, Plentify, a home energy management company, has partnered with Herholdts, one of South Africa’s largest distributors of solar and electrical solutions, to make this saving a reality.

SolarBot works with HotBot, an intelligent geyser controller, that trains the geyser to use less energy, and to favour solar over the grid. The Plentify Bots speak wirelessly to each other to heat water with extra solar that otherwise would have been wasted. Together, they enable solar systems to produce more energy.

Users can monitor and control their energy systems via the Plentify App, which offers real-time insights into energy consumption.

For installers, the upcoming Plentify Platform will provide fleet monitoring and control from a single dashboard, giving them the data and insights needed to offer value to their customers.

A solar perspective

One of the side effects of the prolonged break from load shedding is that solar sales have slowed dramatically as households prioritise spending elsewhere.

SA’s Google searches for solar-related terms (solar, batteries and inverters) spike whenever load shedding stage surges. Interest has flatlined at about 30% of its peak since load shedding abated.

There was a spike in interest on 7 April 2024 because of a solar eclipse the following day.

“The rapidly declining costs of solar panels and batteries have gotten us a lot of the way there,” said Jon Kornik, CEO of Plentify.

“But that is not enough – as many solar owners are finding out, after interrogating their solar performance with more scrutiny with load shedding receding. It really matters how effectively you use your solar system. You could have 50 panels on your roof in the middle of a summer’s day, but if that energy has nowhere to go – if your battery is full and home demand low with no grid exports – it will not produce.”

Lukas Stoltz, technical manager at Herholdts, said: “At Herholdts, we believe the future of solar lies in intelligent energy management. Our partnership with Plentify represents our commitment to delivering advanced technology that allows installers to provide customers with smarter, more efficient systems.”

* Visit the Herholdt’s website here.