Autograph Homes are a leading property developer in south-west England who work to create vibrant and sustainable communities. They produce Eco-Homes, which are houses specially designed to be low carbon, ultra energy efficient, and built in a sustainable fashion., Autograph equip each of their properties with a range of sustainable and energy-efficient technologies, including advanced insulation materials to minimise heat loss, air-source heat pumps, which heat a home more efficiently than a regular gas boiler, and solar panels, to make use of renewable solar energy.

During the day, solar panels can generate a surprisingly large amount of energy, but household consumption during this time is usually low, creating a potential inefficiency where customers sell that excess energy to the grid for a low price, only to buy back more electricity at peak times when they tend to need it.

Autograph continuously look for ways to make their homes more cost efficient for customers, so for their latest project at Haw Wood, a 30-house development just north of Bristol, they looked to solve this inefficiency with the help of UK Energy storage provider, Powervault.

Powervault provides smart energy storage systems and these allow customers to take greater advantage of the solar panels found on their Autograph Eco- Home. Powervault solves the mismatch of energy generation and consumption by storing this excess energy, allowing the customer to harvest free excess solar energy and then use it later, instead of purchasing expensive electricity. Additionally, for those on a time- of-use tariff, it can store energy in off-peak hours where electricity is cheap, reducing bills even further.

The partnership between Powervault and Autograph allows customers living there to fit Powervault’s modern energy storage systems as an option upon purchase, free of VAT.

Powervault is more than just a battery, it’s a smart battery. The Powervault battery itself comes with a variety of smart features which allows customers to optimise energy consumption, reducing bills and carbon footprint. The SMARTSTOR™️ feature gathers weather forecast, tariff, and location-specific data to proactively make decisions on whether energy should be stored, used, or exported to the grid. For instance, if the weather is forecasted to be sunny, other solar batteries may miss out on free solar energy if they were scheduled to fully charge by a specific time. SmartSTOR™️ is dynamic and learns what the best possible solution is. In this scenario, SMARTSTOR™️ would discharge energy in the morning to provide space for the free solar energy in the day. SmartSTOR™️ is capable of adapting to a wide variety of contexts to ensure customers are saving money and reducing carbon footprint, all of the time.

Another feature of the smart storage system is the Powervault Portal. The Portal is an interactive platform boasting a myriad of features enabling users to better understand and monitor their energy usage. To do this, it provides integrated solar panel and battery analytics so to analyse energy consumption anytime, from any device.

Powervault Portal features include:

• Live Battery Performance Statistics
• SMARTSTOR™️ Schedule
• Battery Charge & Discharge Analytics
• Solar Panel Energy Generation
• Daily, Monthly & Yearly Summary Analytics

Takeup of the Powervault offer has been very encouraging, with roughly 40% of homeowners within the new Haw Wood development having specified a Powervault battery system with their new home to help them save money, and the planet, benefiting from reduced VAT.

Through Powervault, Autograph homes have benefited from enhancing the value of their Eco- Homes and making them more attractive to prospective customers. Additionally, all customers will be able to retrofit Powervault at a later date if they choose to.

With the permission of their customers, Autograph is also able to use the Powervault Portal to build a greater picture of the energy performance of their Eco-Homes, using the rich data collected by the battery systems. This will allow Autograph Homes to evidence their impressive energy saving performance.

Our partnership with Powervault is a really important one. It gives customers the option to reduce their carbon footprint by taking greater advantage of the solar panels, which are already installed on homes in The Haw Wood, and save bills simultaneously. We’re really looking forward to our future with Powervault.

SIMON TAYLOR

Managing Director at Autograph Homes