A Sheffield smart building and energy specialist claims that its new technology can cut energy costs by up to 80%.
INX has launched a smart energy management system, which could have a major impact on the cost and climate impact associated with heating buildings.
The inxware-energy platform uses state-of-the-art modelling and computational methods to identify the best times to heat water. This includes looking at each customer’s energy consumption and a range of supply factors, and automatically optimises the timing of heating and storage temperatures based on usage patterns and when energy is cheapest and most abundant.
It says that the system can be integrated into heating products, or provided for use in commercial, industrial and domestic heating systems.
During pilots, it found that the platform can reduce grid electricity consumption “significantly more than fixed timers where solar PV is available.”
It claims that hot water costs can be reduced by more than 80 percent during summer and up to 40 percent on winter days.
“Many people on time-of-use energy tariffs already benefit from time-shifting electricity consumption by running their dishwasher or washing machine overnight when electricity is cheaper,” explained Dr Pierre Drezet, Director at INX.
“INX takes that concept to the next level, allowing commercial facilities, housing associations or homeowners to automatically maximise financial and carbon savings by reserving storage capacity for when energy is cheapest and also when more renewable energy is available.
“The carbon intensity of energy generation can fluctuate by a factor of five on weekly timescales and substantially during any given day. This variation is predicted accurately in many countries alongside customers’ consumption factors and increasingly drives wholesale costs. We believe it is possible to achieve significant cost savings and potentially halve the carbon intensity of heat energy consumption by time-shifting when it is drawn from the network.”
The tech is being showcased at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
