Hello community, I just want to share with you my research article that I’ve recently published using Home Assistant energy data. The main focus of the study was to assess the feasibility of using excess PV energy to heat up a hot water tank by means of a Diverter. And, whether or not this system can replace conventional water heaters such as Electrical water heaters or Solar thermal water heaters. The energy data has been monitored using a Shelly 3EM for the electrical phases as well as another Shelly EM to monitor a single phase Inverter. The setup is looking something like this:
The results reveals that excess energy can contribute up to 47% of the household’s hot water demand. Moreover, the system was able to maintain an adequate hot water temperature even during the cloudy days since the photovoltaic cells can also produce electricity using diffuse beam radiation.
Finally, throughout the simulated year, the system was able to improve the self-consumption rate of the studied building by an average of 52% as can be seen in this figure.
Enjoy the reading!