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Solar energy is increasingly popular in home energy management systems. It harnesses renewable energy, saves money electricity bills, and reduces carbon footprints. As solar panels become cheaper and more efficient, it is estimated that almost one-third of the world’s electricity will come from solar by 2040 globally, including 10% from residential solar systems. With this in mind, we decided to explore how solar energy can be managed in smart homes.
problem statement
Users need a smart home energy management system that adapts solar energy consumption based on the user’s lifestyle while optimizing cost-effectiveness and energy sharing, facilitating a more sustainable and affordable lifestyle.
pain points
Solar panels can generate excess electricity during summer, leading to a surplus of energy that often gets dumped.
With the rise of renewable energy sources, energy prices can vary greatly (even within a single day) due to dynamic tariffs.
competitor analysis
We researched existing smart home devices, keeping in mind how they could evolve in the next few years. Specific products we looked at were the Ecobee Smart Thermostat, the EcoFlow Smart Home Panel 2, and Google Nest. From this, we gathered the following features that were effective and would work well for our product:
Adjust temperature and turn on vacation mode from your phone.
Manage temperature automatically through occupancy detection.
Learns and adapts to your routine.
Save excess energy in a portable power station.
Check real-time battery status and supply levels
personas
Based on our research, we created two personas for our target audience: Buster (primary) and Tuxi (secondary).
user journey map
Based on our primary persona, Buster, we created a user journey map to visualize the end-to-end process of purchasing and using Beam.
information architecture
With our research finished, we created an information architecture for the Beam app.
solution
Our final solution, the Solar Beam, is a sleek, wall-mounted smart interface that is connected to an app to control, monitor, and optimize household energy consumption. The Solar Beam:
Integrates seamlessly with a home’s solar panels, battery storage cells, and grid connection to provide real-time insights and control over energy use by room or device.
Adapts to the user's routine and provides smart suggestions to optimize energy saving.
Gives users more control over their excess solar energy—do they want to save it for winter, share it with the grid, or sell it?
design
For our design, we kept the interface modern and sleek to reflect the future-forward nature of the product. Colours were mostly limited to mustard yellow (to reflect solar energy) and greyscale tones.
lessons learned
This project was a great exercise in user research as we had to envision a futuristic world for Beam to exist in. As the world moves towards clean and renewable energy sources, products like Beam will help people live a more sustainable lifestyle.
