Solar power diverter

A solar power diverter is a way of storing solar electricity

Rather than sending excess energy to the grid, for which you are paid between 4p and 15p per unit of energy, it often makes sense to store the energy in the hot water tank, battery, electric car or automatically turn devices on.

There are five main types of solar power diverters explained below:

1. Hot water controllers

Solar immersion controllers - flow of energy

A sensor detects electricity going back to the grid.
The solar power diverter then routes this electricity to your immersion heater to heat your hot water.
If you turn on an appliance in your home, which means you start to buy electricity from the grid, it automatically turns off the immersion heater.
Some solar power diverters can control two immersion elements or other devices such as electric towel rails, swimming pool heaters or electric underfloor heating.

Solar immersion controller review

2. Electric car chargers

Solar electric car chargers - flow of energy

These work in a similar way to the solar immersion controllers but instead of diverting energy to your immersion element they divert it to your car.
They charge your car at a different speed based on the amount of solar energy available. If you need your car in a rush, you can override the device to charge from the grid.
The latest car chargers are DC chargers rather than AC. They also allow charging in both directions so you can use the car battery to run your home.

Solar electric car charger review

3. Battery storage

A sensor detects electricity going back to the grid.
The solar power diverter then routes this electricity to your battery.
If you turn on an appliance in your home, which means you start to buy electricity from the grid, it automatically uses energy from your battery to run your home.

Find out more about solar batteries

4. Smart sockets

Solar plug socket controllers - flow of energy

These work in a similar way to the solar immersion controllers but instead of diverting energy to your immersion element they divert it to devices plugged into sockets around the house.
They can often control multiple plugs and learn how much each plug uses. They then turn on devices in priority depending on how much energy is needed.

5. Smart switches

These work in a similar way to the smart sockets but can typically turn off higher power devices. They are also known as load controllers.
They can be used to control heat pumps, swimming pool pumps, air conditioning and electric heaters for example.

Whole home automation and control

Smart home automation devices use artificial intelligence to control almost everything in your home.

They use external data from weather websites and feed in dynamic electricity pricing.
They use internal data such as patterns in home electricity use from electric cars, heat pumps and smart devices.
You can also feed in your own preferences in energy management.
With all this information, AI generates a home energy plan to maximise your savings.

If there is a power cut, the system can turn off specified high energy devices, so that only essential loads remain powered by the battery. This is essential load management, without having to re-wire your home! SolarEdge are currently the market leaders in this technology, but SigEnergy and Huawei are hot on their heels.