The SolPad
There are many ways in which we can lessen our carbon footprint but sometimes it’s not all that practical to do. SolPad is a company that is trying to make things that little bit easier. A type of solar power for the home, it uses new technology to give you, the homeowner, complete control over your energy usage. By storing solar energy, the SolPad will allow you to use it whenever you want, reducing your electricity bill in the process. Here’s how the new design works. It could well be the future.
How does the SolPad work?
SolPad Home combines solar and smart home components that have traditionally always been bought and installed separately. Each SolPad is equipped with its own “solar micro-storage,” or built-in battery storage at the panel level. Due to this integration and elimination of parts, SolPad’s fully integrated product design approach reduces the total cost of installed solar and energy storage by up to 50% when compared with other existing product offerings. Each SolPad is like a smart-energy computer on your roof, with each device being its own energy powerhouse that is completely self-sufficient, allowing users to start with one SolPad and easily add as necessary. SolPad’s patented FlexGrid inverter is a bi-directional power-conversion technology that also detects when there’s a power outage, providing safe off-grid power in case of an emergency.
What are its uses?
Currently, there are two SolPad models: SolPad Home and SolPad Mobile. SolPad Home powers homes with clean solar energy. Every SolPad Home includes energy storage and an internet of things (IoT) energy management platform called SolControl™, which is a hardware and software solution that truly integrates solar generation and energy storage with automated energy management inside a beautiful unibody rooftop design. SolPad Mobile is the small on-the-go version of SolPad Home. It has multiple applications, including outdoor recreational activity, emergency backup power, and with SolControl, can be used as a clean power source for small homes, apartments and condos. Individual SolPad Mobiles can be easily connected together, creating a stand-alone solar micro-grid that can deliver power to RVs, boats and construction sites. For the developing world, SolPad can bring power to those in need where a grid infrastructure is nonexistent. It provides AC power, built-in lighting, and an internet hotspot from a 25lb fully integrated product.
How will it make homes more energy efficient and sustainable?
SolPad Home is the only hardware and software solution in the world that integrates solar generation and energy storage with automated energy management. SolControl’s engaging and interactive user interface (UI) makes homeowners aware of when and how they are consuming energy. It puts cost-saving control into a gamified and easy-to-use smartphone application. SolControl also helps conserve electricity by autonomously learning usage habits and intuitively providing suggestions to further optimize power consumption. With SolControl, anyone can manage and control the distribution and delivery of their solar power to individual appliances, individual rooms or to the entire home, which has never been done before.
What is the future for the SolPad and sustainable renewable energy?
We will be releasing SolPad Mobile in the U.S. market starting in the second half of 2017 and then SolPad Home and other more specialized SolPad models soon afterward. For us, the future of sustainable renewable energy is all about integration, simplification, ease-of-use and creating “personal energy.” Personal energy means that we’re at a point when energy is generated specifically for your energy needs, giving you personal, controllable, and independent power. That’s the kind of device that SolPad is today, and it’s just the beginning.
Discover more amazing features in the latest issue of How It Works. It’s available from all good retailers, or you can order it online from the ImagineShop. If you have a tablet or smartphone, you can also download the digital version onto your iOS or Android device. To make sure you never miss an issue of How It Works, make sure you subscribe today!
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