New Lumin Edge Gives Homeowners Control and Optimization of Energy Use From a Smartphone

As utility prices rise due to the global power shortage and widespread power outages continue with the increasing global climate crisis, homeowners are turning towards data and automation to help control energy costs and contribute to decarbonization. Answering this demand, Lumin today announced the launch of its latest product, Lumin Edge, a modular smart energy system and smartphone application that gives homeowners the flexibility to manage, monitor, and optimize their home energy usage. The new product turns an individual home into a personal grid where homeowners can balance energy supply sources such as grid, solar, and energy storage with energy consumption.

“As more customers request further insight and control over their energy, it becomes difficult to extend intelligent controls into the existing electrical and smart panels due to lack of space, prohibitively high costs, and lengthy, often unpredictable, installation time,” says Bob Kingery, co-founder of North Carolina-based Southern Energy Management. “With the introduction of Lumin Edge, installing a home energy system becomes a no-brainer as installers don't need to add any new wiring, and homeowners save money; as a result, it’s a win-win.”

Designed to fit the various needs and sizes of households, Lumin Edge hardware consists of the Edge Hub and any number of Edge modules. To start an installation, a homeowner connects the core of the system, the Edge Hub, into their internet router. Edge modules, devices that are responsible for collecting data and controlling energy consumption, can be placed on electric wires anywhere in the house in less than 10 minutes. Available for use on single 120V or dual 240V circuits, homeowners can install the product themselves without assistance from an electrician or get help through Lumin’s robust network of certified installers.

“Working with homeowners using our original product, the Lumin Smart Panel, we understand the challenges they are constantly dealing with when trying to tie together the many aspects of an electrified home: solar, energy storage, electric vehicle charging, and so on,” said Lumin Head of Business Development, Jonathan Proffitt. “Lumin Edge is the missing piece of the puzzle giving the homeowners a unified and holistic view of their energy landscape.”

From adjusting battery backup to managing the increasingly complex utility rates such as Time-of-Use, every home can benefit from the new Lumin Edge because of its ability to provide energy management through smart circuit and appliance control. This function allows homeowners to remotely control the use of generated and stored solar power, improve the home’s safety by creating schedules to automatically turn devices on and off, and participate in utility companies’ demand response programs to save money and help improve grid stability.

While Lumin Edge has clear benefits for homes equipped with solar and energy storage, it also has unique features for homeowners struggling with the uprising of disadvantageous or asymmetrical net metering. Lumin’s software detects when a home has excess solar power and re-directs it to be consumed inside the house, for example, to charge an electric vehicle or to run a pool pump, instead of selling the power back to the grid.

The system provides detailed insights into carbon dioxide emissions from the power consumed from the grid. Lumin Edge breaks down home energy consumption by the source of origin, such as natural gas, wind, coal, or hydropower, and time of day to encourage further sustainable energy practices. Coupled with algorithm-powered energy automations, this feature gives homeowners an incredible tool to minimize their CO2 emissions while consuming only the cleanest energy from the utility grid when possible.

In the case of going off-grid, Lumin software can help homeowners extend their battery runway by dynamically prioritizing specific circuits based on their needs. Homeowners also receive information on battery storage system performance and status, such as the amount of energy left in the battery and how long the reserve would last. The technology also connects various smart devices, including smart thermostats, connected appliances such as refrigerators, smart controllable plugs, and electric vehicle chargers. By interconnecting these devices on its platform, Lumin creates an ecosystem where energy consumption is synchronized with the energy supply that is available to a household.

“With the goal of empowering homes to participate in energy transition, we set out to create an affordable, easy-to-install energy management system that is flexible and adjustable based on the individual homeowners’ needs,” says Lumin founder and CEO Alex Bazhinov. “Lumin Edge is helping homeowners to save money by creating a versatile platform managing all aspects of their energy: from the grid and onsite solar supply to managing individual loads.”

Lumin’s original Smart Panel, currently adopted by hundreds of solar and energy storage installers, provides a system retrofitting an existing circuit breaker panel to perform energy data analysis and circuit control. Data on connected appliances and systems is gathered and analyzed to assist homeowners in better understanding their home energy habits. Lumin’s software provides homeowners with three levels of circuit control, including remote switching (on/off) for safety, scheduling for savings, and circuit prioritization and shedding for extending battery life.