Improve Energy Efficiency and Comfort with Help From the Sun
Incorporating a smart heating solution into your building enhances the economic and environmental benefits of your clean energy ecosystem. Whereas traditional, centralized units rely on fossil fuels, our localized solutions are powered by electricity. If you have a solar system, heat pumps can be powered almost entirely with clean energy for up to 7 months each year! Read on to learn more about this technology and how it works in tandem with solar energy.
Get More From Your Solar System by Optimizing Self-Consumption
One of the key benefits of going solar is that the energy produced by your system is about CHF 0.10 – CHF 0.15 cheaper than electricity from the grid. However, the average 4-person household with a 5 kWh system consumes only 30% of its electricity needs with solar, as their peak usage does not typically align with peak solar energy production during the day. How can property owners avoid losing out on valuable savings? By sending this excess energy to other smart energy solutions in your building.
Storing energy with solar batteries Converting energy with a heating solution
While solar batteries are wonderful assets to a clean energy ecosystem that allow users to capture excess solar electricity for use at a later time, some energy is lost during the process. Property owners can more efficiently repurpose solar energy by pairing their solar systems with smart grid technologies, including electric-powered heat pumps for temperature control. Rather than storing energy, our heat pumps use electricity from your solar system to immediately draw energy from outside your building and efficiently convert it into warm or cool air.
It is important to note that even if you have not yet adopted solar energy, you can enhance the energy efficiency of your building by upgrading your heating system! See below for a breakdown of how heat pumps can reduce your energy bills.
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How Self-Consumption Impacts Building Economics
Throughout the day, different conditions occur within your building:
When solar systems produce more clean energy than they can immediately consume, the excess electricity is sent back to the grid for remuneration at a lower rate determined by the local grid feed-in tariff.
When more electricity is required than is being generated on site, the extra electricity is drawn from the local grid at the “normal” rates.
Increasing your rate of self-consumption
Maximizing the direct consumption of solar energy produced by your system offers the best return on your clean energy investment. To put it simply: the higher the rate of self-consumption, the greater your savings will be when compared to drawing this electricity from the grid. If you are not home during periods of peak solar production, many of today’s smart appliances, devices and vehicles that rely on electricity can be programed to operate during these times. Similarly, innovative heating and cooling solutions can be programmed to automatically regulate the temperature of your building with solar electricity.
Comparing Life Cycle Costs of Heating Options
Whether you plan to replace an existing oil- or gas-powered system or are constructing a new property from the ground up, it makes financial sense to install an electric heating and cooling system. In addition to the long-term cost and environmental benefits of these technologies, you can also qualify for regional subsidies to significantly reduce your initial investment.
Take a look at how smart heat pumps compare to traditional heating solutions.
| Equipment Cost | Servicing/year | Energy/year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air/Water Heat Pump | 34,000 CHF | 150 CHF | 1,210 CHF |
| Geothermal Heat Pump | 46,000 CHF | 100 CHF | 940 CHF |
| Oil-Based Central Heating | 21,000 CHF | 780 CHF | 2,640 CHF |
*For an average installation with 150m2 coverage area and 22,000 kWh energy requirement (approx. 2,600 liters of heating oil)
Smart Grid Integration
More and more, consumers can choose appliances and devices — including heating and cooling solutions from Younergy — that are “Smart Grid Ready.” These technologies have embedded intelligence that allows them to sense when cheaper electricity is available at a given time. Whether this electricity is from your solar system or from the local grid, these technologies will automatically draw the cheapest electricity to help you save on monthly energy bills!
We are here to answer your questions, no obligations. If you prefer to email us directly,
you can also reach us at info@younergy.ch or call 0800 800 850