How I Built a Resilient, Future-Ready Home Energy System—and What It Taught Me About Energy Strategy

After a great conversation on the Energy Matters podcast with Commissioner Tim Echols, I realized it was time to share a bit more about what I’ve been building behind the scenes. Over the past ten years, I’ve treated my home like a living lab for developing smarter, more resilient energy systems—systems designed not just for efficiency, but for adaptability, control, and real-world reliability.

This journey has been driven by personal curiosity—and more recently, accelerated by the support of my team at TRC Companies, Inc., where I’m fortunate to work alongside people deeply committed to advancing real-world energy solutions. Their encouragement to explore and apply innovative ideas has helped me sharpen my thinking and expand the impact of this work beyond my own home.

For this first post, I'll focus on system architecture—pics included! 📸⚡

🔌 Energy Generation and Storage:

• Ground-mounted 20kW solar array paired with 60kWh of battery storage (six 10kWh NMC batteries).

• Each of my three 7.6kW inverters is connected to two battery packs, which improves overall round-trip efficiency and allows for slightly higher peak generation output than the inverter nameplate.

• All three inverters connect to a single “backup interface”—which is essentially a whole-home transfer switch between my meter and main panel (which is technically a subpanel—don’t worry, my electricians/engineers, I removed the bonding between the ground and neutral!).

🔧 Smart Home Automation, Control and Miscellaneous:

• I have hundreds of connected energy devices (thermostats, lights, switches, water heaters, an EV, etc).  I prioritize equipment with well-documented, open APIs. Reach out or comment if you’re interested in specific equipment.

• I upgraded my HVAC from gas furnaces to dual-fuel heat pumps—a low-cost option if you already have central AC, with fantastic payback potential. It also provides powerful flexibility for electric demand management.

🎛️ Advanced Monitoring and Orchestration:

In general, I tried not to call out specific manufacturers, but I wanted to name two important ones:

• A critical component of the overall solution is high quality energy monitoring.  First, I installed circuit breaker monitoring and control for my most important loads.  Second, I’m using @Sense for load disaggregation technology and sub circuit device monitoring.  Kudos to Mike Phillips and the Sense team for providing one of the world’s best residential energy monitoring solutions, with an easy-to-use API.

• A final critical component that needs some thought is the overall platform of platforms that will connect to specific OEMs and enable cross component monitoring, visualization, and automation.  For this task, I selected Home Assistant, an open-source platform with community-supported connectors, allowing me to seamlessly and securely integrate 80+ OEMs into a single platform.  There are numerous vendors emerging in this space, but I prioritized my selection on the level of openness as well as the size of the developer community.

⚡ Key Takeaways:

1. Start with Strategy, Not Technology: Define a clear strategy anchored in "what you want to accomplish" rather than "what you’re going to build." This ensures your system is purpose-built, adaptable, and aligned with your goals.

2. Design with Flexibility and Ecosystem Compatibility: Plan your system architecture thoughtfully, selecting technologies that are strong ecosystem partners. Avoid being locked into a single vendor or a flashy all-in-one platform—opt for solutions that can integrate seamlessly and adapt over time.

3. Prioritize User Experience (through automation): The best user experience often happens when users don’t need to engage with the system at all. Invest in automation, monitoring, and integration tools that work behind the scenes, delivering value without requiring constant interaction.

These insights aren’t just about home energy management—they’re just as relevant to enterprise strategy development. In my next update, I’ll dive deeper into the software side of my setup, covering off-grid energy management, power outage response, and more.

Listen to the full podcast episode here: Energy Matters with Commissioner Echols

Have you made any upgrades to improve energy resilience or flexibility at home or work? I’d love to compare notes.

#Resilience #EnergyManagement #HomeAutomation #SmartHome #EnergyEfficiency #CleanTech #Adaptability