Solar Panels + Pulse Cutting Low Income Household Power Bills

Solar panels and a little black box are helping a bunch of low income households in South Australia save on their electricity bills.

Established in 1993, Community Housing Limited (CHL) is a not-for-profit providing housing for vulnerable and low to moderate income Australians unable to secure long-term affordable housing. The organisation is also providing services in South Asia, South-East Asia, South America and Africa.

As at the end of June last year, there were 10,905 properties under rental management across six Australian states in CHL’s portfolio. Beyond providing affordable accommodation, CHL has also been looking at how to help its tenants with their power bills.

“The energy crisis is impacting all corners of Australia, particularly the aged generation that spend more time at home and consume more energy,” said CHL Founder and Managing Director Steve Bevington. “In some cases, we have seen tenants refuse to have heating on in the Winter or lights on at night and we are committed to changing this behaviour.”

Solar Power + Pulse

CHL engaged energy solutions provider 369 Labs to install solar power systems on dozens of South Australian properties, with an added feature.

Installing solar panels on these properties is a slam-dunk move. But the real value in having a solar power system is maximising self-consumption of the electricity generated. CHL is currently trialling an easy way for its clients to know the best time to be using appliances; with 369 Labs’ “Pulse”.

While involving a bunch of tech smarts, Pulse is a very simple device to use.

“We have equipped CHL tenants with a Pulse® device that communicates how they are using energy through the use of colours red and green,” said 369 Labs Co-Founder, Nick Demourtzidis. ” Red tells them that they are using energy from the grid and they should shift their energy behaviour during this time, while green tells them that they are using solar energy”.

369 Labs’ generally commercially available solution is available via EmberPulse – it’s basically an advanced solar monitoring system offering a bunch of other features including electricity plan comparison. EmberPulse isn’t the only solution offering this degree of functionality; there’s also the very popular SolarAnalytics device and service.

As well as advanced monitoring and electricity plan comparison, the EmberPulse solution offers add-ons for appliance control – so it’s really a full home energy management system.

EmberPulse makes some pretty big promises, and which is the better of the two solutions for the average solar owner is something we might look at it more detail down the track. But in terms of the CHL project, Pulse seems like a really good idea given its simplicity in use.

CHL’s pilot program kicked off in late June, and since then solar panel installations have been completed at 45 units across Oakden and Enfield in Adelaide. The capacity of these systems wasn’t mentioned.

While it’s still early days for CHL’s trial, most tenants are forecast to save an average of $382 a year on their power bills. That’s a big chunk of change for someone on a low income. Surplus solar energy from the systems is exported to the mains grid, and the feed-in tariff CHL receives will go towards financing more solar installations.