Background information

Powerco’s two-year Smart House Programme will provide specific case studies from three real life situations. Homes in Tauranga, New Plymouth and Wellington have been selected to participate in the trial.
The houses have been fitted with a mix of solar panels, insulation, space and water heating, monitoring and controlling systems, energy efficient lighting and energy storage.

The trial is focused on the following areas:

Peak load

Significant investment is needed to ensure networks can cope with peak loads, which are typically in the mornings and evenings on the coldest days. Moving electricity use out of these time slots could reduce these costs and associated consumer bills.
There is a potential to reduce peak loads by energy substitution (gas) or demand management such as pre-heating well insulated homes before peak times. Smart technology, solar panels and energy storage may also play a part in reducing peak loads, as may higher tariffs for peak use and lower tariffs off peak.

Smart technology

Smart technology provides the ability for household appliances, heating and hot water systems to be turned on and off automatically at specified times or controlled remotely through the internet. Trialing this technology will help us understand what value it can add. For example, saving consumers money by using their energy at low demand times.

Behavioural changes

The trial will look at what motivates consumers to shift their peak electricity use. This could be more comfort, clever gadgets, an increased awareness of energy consumption, or different price structures.
Solar panels
Solar panels are attracting growing public interest. Factors such as the size and angle of the PV, sun exposure and home energy use can impact on the effectiveness of solar panels. The trial aims to see if there are areas we can investigate to provide value-added services to go with solar power.
The three trial homes have all been fitted with solar panels, with differing roof angles. This will help to show which positions and angles for panels provide the best match for different home energy use (or environments).

Back-up energy storage

Powerco and the Wellington City Council are working together to find out if back-up energy storage systems are able supply power to individual homes when the electricity network is down. For example, if the power goes out after an earthquake or storm.

IEA Demand-Side Management (DSM)

Task 24 Phase I – Closing the Loop: Behaviour Change in DSM – From Theory to Practice

This Task focuses on the complexities of human energy-using behaviour, looking at the individual, societal and whole-system perspective of energy use. Many global experts participate and help unravel these complexities in order to access the large end-user behaviour change potential for DSM programmes (estimated to be in the range of >30%). Once the ‘loop’ between different ‘Behaviour Changers’ (researchers, funders, policymakers, DSM implementers, and energy end users) is closed will this potential be more likely to be realised in practice.