Making the Most of Your Solar System: 5 Tips to Increase Self-Consumption

Self-consumption describes the use of self-generated solar power within your household. Without additional measures, this share is around 25 to 35 percent. Through targeted strategies, this value can be increased to up to 80 percent. This reduces your purchase of grid electricity, lowers ongoing costs, and increases your security of supply.

1. Retrofitting a property with a battery storage system

Retrofitting an electricity storage system makes it possible to store solar power produced during the day for consumption in the evening or night hours. Depending on the sizing, you can achieve degrees of self-sufficiency of up to 70 percent. The storage system should be tailored to the output of your photovoltaic system and your electricity demand. Funding programs and manufacturer comparisons assist you with your selection.

For lithium-ion storage systems, the typical capacity for single-family homes is between 5 and 15 kWh. High efficiency is important: modern systems achieve values of over 90 percent. You should also pay attention to the discharge capacity: this determines how many appliances can be operated simultaneously with stored energy. Intelligent storage solutions with forecast-based control adapt to your consumption behavior and automatically optimize charging and discharging times.

Charging electric vehicles with solar power

Charging an electric car with self-generated solar power contributes significantly to increasing your self-consumption. For this purpose, the Use of a wallbox with PV excess charging. This technology ensures that your vehicle is charged primarily with solar power when excess is available. The charging power should be adjusted to the PV output to avoid drawing power from the grid.

Integrating a controllable wallbox into your energy management system enables the targeted use of surplus electricity. Modern wallbox chargers offer features such as phase switching or dynamic load management.

For a three-phase PV system, an 11 kW wallbox with flexible power control is recommended. In combination with an EMS, charging is automated and prioritized for self-consumption – this not only reduces your electricity costs, but also extends the lifespan of your battery storage system by reducing its load.

Dunkelblaues Elektroauto beim Aufladen mit gelbem Ladekabel vor einem Wohnhaus
Image: pixabay.com/bayern_reporter_com

3. Integrating electric heaters sensibly into the PV system

Electric heaters are suitable as a supplement to your PV system to use excess electricity efficiently. They can be used specifically in rooms where central heating is not required. Control via an energy management system ensures that the heating devices are only active when there is sufficient solar power production.

Available technologies include infrared heaters, convectors, natural stone heaters, and storage heaters. Infrared heaters in particular are suitable for spot heating in living and working spaces due to their short warm-up time and flat design.

To find the most efficient solution in each case, you can buy modern electric heaters with personal online consultation. Depending on the location, size, and use of the rooms, as well as individual user behavior, the right heating system is available.

For grid-connected systems with PV support, control via wireless thermostats or smart home systems is advisable. Important: The heating load should be matched to the PV output to prevent uncontrolled peak loads.

Round contact portraits of Katerina and Thomas Rogers side by side

4. Domestic hot water heating using electricity from the PV system

Water heating using electric heating elements or instantaneous water heaters can be easily combined with photovoltaics. The devices are ideally operated during times of high solar power generation. This relieves the conventional water heating system and simultaneously increases self-consumption. Control via PV excess logic is recommended. A heating element in the buffer storage tank can be selectively activated via an inverter or an energy management system. Systems with continuous power control adjust the heating output precisely to the available amount of solar power. Instantaneous water heaters can also be operated specifically during midday with the help of intelligent control. This helps to reduce feed-in peaks and make better use of the PV system. A combination with a hot water storage tank additionally increases user comfort.
Laufender schwarzer Wasserhahn über einer dunklen Spüle in einer modernen Küche

Image: pixabay.com/karolinagrabowska

5. Deploy energy management systems intelligently

A Energy management system (EMS) controls electricity consumption automates your household and primarily uses self-generated energy. Appliances such as washing machines or dishwashers start automatically whenever sufficient solar power is available. Through targeted load shifting, you avoid feed-in losses and efficiently increase your self-consumption.

Modern EMS systems continuously analyze consumption and generation data. They can be networked with PV inverters, battery storage systems, wallboxes, heating systems, and smart home devices. A user-friendly visualization on mobile devices or PCs allows you to access the energy flow at any time and intervene manually. Systems with AI-based forecasting functions also take weather data and consumption behavior into account to continuously improve control. In this way, PV yields can be used even more selectively in the household.

Further measures to optimize your self-consumption

Achieving the highest possible self-consumption rate requires good coordination of all components. These include:

Adapting your consumption behavior to hours of sunshine
Optimization of module tilt and orientation
Conversion of existing systems from full feed-in to self-consumption
Combination with other electricity-based systems such as heat pumps or infrared heating

Targeted exploitation of potential within real estate portfolios

If you own residential real estate, the targeted optimization of PV utilization offers numerous advantages. An analysis of your existing system, checking for retrofitting potential, and the technical integration of storage, charging infrastructure, or heating systems increase economic efficiency. In addition, you increase the attractiveness of your property and make its operation more stable in the long term.

Photo credits: Image 1 pixabay.com/ulleo, Image 2 pixabay.com/bayern_reporter_com, Image 3 pixabay.com/karolinagrabowska

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