Hawaii's Smart Home Battery Storage and Control App

As the world becomes more efficient and Hawaii strives to become more self-sustainable by 2050, companies like Holu Energy are creating solutions. We sat down with Holu Energy to learn more about the Smart Home product they just released to our local families here in Hawaii! As a brief introduction to lure you in, this smart energy storing system will not only store your solar energy like a Tesla Powewall (battery storage unit) will but it measures, predicts, monitors and controls the energy generated through your solar panels. And of course, all in the palm of your hand via a mobile app!

Okay so let’s break this Smart Home product down. It has two major components, one side is purely the batteries to store energy you make from your Photovoltaic (PV) Solar System and the other side is the “brain” of the operation. Many companies have come out with products that store energy and they are becoming more efficient and affordable. The greatest difference here is, Holu Energy’s parent company, EnSync ® Energy Systems have added the brains to it. This integral part to the system allows a person to go off the grid and control the power to your use. It will monitor the energy you use and what home feature is using energy and how much energy it is using. Now competitors have created the monitoring as I just described but they haven’t yet been able to also control the power that you monitor. Being able to control the power allows you to turn things on/off or down/up depending on the energy you have. On bright sunny days where your batteries are full and you then have wasted energy why not direct that energy elsewhere at your discretion. Days that have predicted bad weather and less sun, you can then power down certain things to offset the less energy you will generate. This allows a person to optimize the energy they generate and have their own control versus being at the mercy of potential escalating prices that the local energy companies impose.

Not only are you able to go off the grid with this system but it also has another smart and sustainable feature, LFP batteries. Now the average person like myself doesn’t know what this means. For those unsure, it’s a type of Lithium battery but different than what Tesla uses. The Tesla Powerwall we are more familiar with has the same battery guts as a Tesla car battery. It contains Cobalt, an earth element that has a limited supply and therefore continues to rise in price as more is used for things like batteries. The LFP batteries use ingredients that can be recycled and are not dangerous or toxic should it be exposed or opened. The batteries with Cobalt in them are toxic and can’t be fully recycled. LFP batteries also have a reputation in the energy storage community for superior safety and thermal stability properties. The slight drawback is the size for the LFP batteries are bigger. For a home this is an okay feature to work with but for a car, it does still make sense to have a battery with Cobalt at a smaller size.

Since this is just a preview blog, here is one more awesome feature to this system: you are able to add surrounding homes or units to your system. Should you have an ADU or a multi-family setup at home with perhaps separate metering, there is a way to connect this system to another household and transfer power at your discretion. Let’s say you go on a trip and will have a surplus of stored power, why not share it with others close by? There are numerous possibilities with this concept in mind and I know this is only the start of a much needed device for all households in Hawaii. With Hawaii’s 2050 Sustainable Initiative, we will need products like this for Hawaii’s future. Stay tuned for our upcoming podcast and videos on this innovative product and new energy!

For more information on this product or other solar/energy questions, please contact Christina Laney Mitre, your Smart Living Expert at 808.282.1399 or Christina@LaneyRE.com via email. May we be your first resource and connection for all things #Smart! #Livesmart