DomoÉnergie For You

Spaghettiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Although many commercial products nowadays favour wireless connections, you can achieve the best reliability through physical wires. Typically, you would use Cat6 cables, which you can then easily connect with RJ45 connectors. But before that, think about a "star"-like distribution of some empty tubes (at least 1-2 tubes per room), which remain empty at first, but which can be filled/equipped with ethernet Cat6 cables afterwards. The cables come together at one central place, such as the room where you also have your electric distribution system. This is where all the cables get sorted and "terminated" in a so-called patch panel. From there, the connection is made to a router (provided by your telecom provider such as e.g. Swisscom or Sunrise). Think about access points for wireless connectivity, too, as these need not only a connection to your router but also power. An easy principle here is "power-over-ethernet" whereas the Cat6 cable can - with the right switch or an external power supply - provide power to the access point (e.g. Unify Access Points). Likewise you avoid a "cable mess" in your living room. If you decide to connect devices to your local area network, please try to keep a documentation of those, if possible. The "last mile" or whenever you cannot pull a cable, can be easily established through proven technology such as Zigbee (see Philips Hue) or zwave. Advantage: these technologies (especially zwave) can make messages travel through concrete walls, whereas traditional WIFI cannot. Whenever WIFI fails due to a weak signal (or no signal at all due to thick walls), think about zwave! This technology is very reliable and widely used in home automation projects. You find many examples and potential integrations for home automation on home-assistant.io, an open-source and free tool that can help you orchestrate and automate household processes.

Even in the winter period of the northern hemisphere, you can generate enough energy for your household. The 2 panels (320Wp each) on the picture produce around 500 Watt, which should cover most if not all of the houshold's electricity over the day. Do not expect to be able to charge your electric car with this concept called "balcony solar", but it's enough - provided that the sun in shining - to power most standard houses. Regarding "balcony solar", you can build a small installation yourself, which will cost your roughly 500 CHF, or you can buy pre-assembled sets for more money. Typically, the winter period (from December until end of January) are the worst for solar production, given the short (sunny) days and the low radiation energy from the sun in general. For an efficient production of solar energy (even in the winter time), it is important to keep in mind the following steps: a) choose an angle at which the sun can hit the panels perpendicularily (90 degrees) at best. In my case, I chose an angle of approximately 35-45 degrees, so that the winter sun in Switzerland (which is at a maximum angle of 21 degrees at noon) can hit the panels perfectly. b) If possible, make the panels available for cleaning, it is worth while to remove any snow even before the sun can melt it down. c) Given the low prices of solar panels nowadays, it doesn't make sense to install a "tracking system" which always adjusts the panels to a perfect position towards the sun. d) make your household consumers run during the (sunny) day , either through programming or via an intelligent automation system (such as home-assistant.io), likewise you can increase your own consumption. e) if you cannot consume all of the electricity immediately, think about a storage solution, e.g. pre-heating warm water (either for heating or drinking water), or charging a (small and affordable) house battery.

If you want to become an energy producer yourself ("balcony solar"), please reach out to me via private message.

Guys, don't get me wrong, and be assured that I like natural energy (I'm avoiding renewable since this is nonsense from a physical point of view), BUT... putting solar panels on a lake??? How can this be good for the environment? Okay, I got the point, like it's cooler in the mountains so the panels can perform better, the air is thinner so more solar energy can shine on the panels, however why don't we simply use our thousands of square meters on the roofs (where most of the energy can be consumed directly) rather than using lakes?

What do you think? Do you prefer the centralized or decentralized way of producing solar energy?

These 3 innovative solar farms show why this renewable technology is hot property right now From floating farms in Switzerland to canal-top ones in India, these bold new projects show why solar energy is such a reliable renewable.

Your heating system in full visualization. It is important to understand how it works before you can manipulate it. In this example, we have managed to induce a signal to the heat pump so that it activates the "Photovoltaics" mode and artificially pumps the desired temperature of the returning water cycle to 45 degrees celsius. This makes the heat pump do the heavy lifting during the day, which has 2 advantages: 1) you are using your own electricity, generated through your solar cells, 2) the external temperature is (mostly) much higher during the day compared to the night, therefore the efficiency of the heat pump is higher. Likewise you save money and allocate your precious energy intelligently, whilst building a "buffer" for the night. The best energy storage is already there: your floor heating system is surrounded by tons of concrete - the amount of energy that can be stored in your floor outperforms every LiFePO battery you can afford.

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Saviez-vous qu'à cette période de l'année, le soleil ne monte qu'à environ 25 degrées et que la durée de la journée se retracte sur seulement 10 heures (et encore moins en décembre)?

Il vaut mieux bien refléchir de comment vous utilisez votre énergie solaire car elle devient rare...