Prepared for the future by increasing self-consumption

At the moment, thanks to the net metering scheme, all electricity consumed by a household is effectively ‘offset’ against the electricity it feeds back into the grid. This means that the timing of energy production or consumption doesn’t matter much: the balance is calculated annually based on the total amount of energy. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the electricity grid to process all that power: on sunny days, hundreds of thousands of solar systems pump electricity into the grid simultaneously, forcing traditional power plants to shut down and causing congestion in some areas. At other times—such as in the evening, when the sun has set and everyone comes home from work—a sudden surge in demand must be met in the opposite direction. The more decentralized power generation we have in the Netherlands, the harder this becomes to manage.

That’s why the net metering scheme will end after 2027, and people will be encouraged to align their electricity consumption more closely with their own solar production. This is called "increasing self-consumption."

Clean Plates

The simplest way to increase self-consumption is to use energy-consuming appliances only when your solar panels are producing enough electricity. This applies especially to appliances that don’t need to run at a specific time, such as a dishwasher. You can load it in the morning and unload it in the evening—it doesn’t really matter when it runs, as long as the plates are clean by dinnertime.

There are several ways to make sure your dishwasher or washing machine runs at the right time:
– If you’re home, you can manually start the machine when the sun is shining.
– You can set a delay start of a few hours.
– Or, if the appliance is app-controlled, you can switch it on remotely from work.

But the most convenient option? Let smart technology handle it for you.

This is exactly what the Sunny Home Manager can do—it acts as the "energy manager" of your home, deciding the best moment to switch appliances on or off. It looks like a kWh meter and is installed in your meter cabinet. It measures all incoming and outgoing electricity and connects to your router via an Ethernet cable. It also receives data from your inverter(s) and can send commands to certain home devices. Through the Sunny Portal, it even receives the weather forecast for the next 24 to 48 hours. With all this input, it creates a complete picture of your home’s expected energy production and consumption—allowing it to determine the optimal times to activate each appliance.

How does it work in practice?

Very simply. In the Sunny Portal, you specify when you want your dishwasher to be finished. Then you load it and add the detergent tab. On the dishwasher, activate the special “FlexStart” function. After that, go about your day, and the dishes will be done right on time.

Does this work with all appliances?

No, not yet. Currently, only a limited selection of appliances can communicate directly with the Sunny Home Manager. These include dishwashers and washing machines from Bosch and Siemens equipped with the HomeConnect feature that supports "Energy Management" or "PV Energy Control."

(We’ll add a list of supported models below.)