Reinventing The Hundred Year Old Electric Panel
The Allen team recently worked with Advanced Electric to install a new kind of electric panel in a new construction all-electric home. The goal was to create a connected, resilient, all-electric home.
This new technology, the SPAN Smart Panel is revolutionizing the old, antiquated electric panel that hasn’t been changed in a hundred years. Earlier this year, the technology won two awards in the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) annual Best of IBS™ Awards - Best Energy Efficient Product and Best Home Technology Product.
This SPAN Smart Panel replaces the existing electric panel in a home and lets the homeowner control every circuit, turning them on and off, right from their phone, from home or away. The phone app gives the homeowner information on how the home is sourcing, storing, and using energy in real-time as well as how that energy is being used, down to the circuit.
The SPAN panel also revolutionizes the home battery backup functionality. Previously when considering Solar and Battery backup, you couldn’t run your whole house on a battery. Homeowners were limited to just a few important circuits to run to a separate Critical Loads sub panel. Now with the SPAN panel, there is no need for a separate sub panel. When on battery back-up, homeowners can easily control which circuits are on and off and monitor the impact of changes on-the-fly. The SPAN panel is also compatible with gas back-up generators, eliminating the critical loads sub panel obstacle.
This technology is very new and additional features and improvements are being released often. Most recently a feature was added allowing homeowners to shut off breakers and appliances using Alexa, and we’re sure there’s a lot more to come.