One app to control it all: The Schneider Home energy management system

Monitoring and controlling your electricity with a smart electrical panel offers huge savings potential. You can easily lower your energy consumption, set schedules for turning devices on and off, learn if you should replace appliances due to inefficiency, and get the most out of your solar battery (if you have one). But adding a smart electrical panel often includes one thing none of us need: another phone app. 

Smart electrical panels replace (or sometimes add on to) the electrical panel that connects to the main power line and distributes electricity throughout your home. Schneider Electric, a major manufacturer of electrical panels, announced its new smart electrical panel, Pulse, in January 2023 as part of the Schneider Home ecosystem. The ecosystem is a "first-of-its-kind home energy management solution" that combines multiple home energy products for full home energy control.

Available to California distributors and installers for pre-order now and to other U.S. states later in 2023 into early 2024, Schneider Home solves the app congestion problem. The whole product suite includes a smart electrical panel, a battery storage system, a solar and battery inverter, an electric vehicle (EV) charger, smart lights and sockets, and just one app for everything.

Schneider Electric may not be a household name, but its products are in many U.S. homes and businesses. Check out your electrical panel (likely in your basement or garage) or the thermostat in your home or office: There's a good chance you'll find the Schneider name and logo somewhere in your everyday life. 

Schneider is one of the oldest companies you'll encounter; back in 1836, it began as a steel producer and transportation equipment manufacturer. Headquartered in France, the company now specializes in "the digital transformation of energy management and automation," offering products that make homes and businesses more sustainable. Schneider's mission is to "empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all." In 2023, it ranked seventh among the world's most sustainable companies

Today, many companies offer inverters, batteries, and even EV chargers, but in many cases, each product has its own app to engage with the different pieces in the system. By bringing everything together at your electrical panel, Schneider Home centralizes control of your home's energy all in one app.

In the app, you can see how much electricity you consume from the grid, how much energy your solar panels produce, the amount of charge left in your battery, and how much electricity goes towards your EV. It will also send notifications for electricity rate changes, power outages, or low battery alerts. 

The app supports unique features for each product within the Schneider Home suite, explained in detail below.

The Schneider Home product suite includes almost everything you'll need for a sustainable, connected smart home. The only things missing are the solar panels, but Schneider Home is compatible with all leading brands, making it easy to integrate solar panels into the broader Schneider Home ecosystem. Because inverters are the brains behind solar panels, you'll still only need one app.

One of the best aspects of the Schneider Home product list and app is its flexibility: Not everyone has an EV or needs a battery, but you don't need to purchase and install all of these products to benefit from the Schneider Home system. You can choose from the products below when creating the right home energy management system for you, knowing it will be easy to integrate other products in the future.

Schneider Pulse: The smart electrical panel

The Pulse sets Scheider's system apart from other home energy solutions. Most smart electrical panel companies, like Span or Lumin, are relatively new to the industry. Schneider has been manufacturing electrical panels since the 1990s.

With the Schneider Pulse, you can use the app to turn each circuit within your home on and off. It will show you how much energy each circuit uses and how much you pay to run it so you can adjust your behavior accordingly. Most circuits will represent whole areas of your home, not individual appliances, unless they're tied to power-hungry devices like batteries, EV chargers, or large appliances. The integrated Schneider Wiser hardware and software can break those circuit-level loads out into appliance-level insights, though you won't be able to control them individually. 

Schneider Boost: The battery storage system

The Schneider Boost is a 10 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery, similar in size to a Tesla Powerwall (13.5 kWh) or the Enphase Energy IQ 10 (10.5 kWh). It pairs with the Schneider Inverter (more on that below), and you can stack up to three Boosts on one inverter for a total of 30 kWh of storage. (The average American home uses 29 kWh per day.) 

The Boost performs similarly to other major batteries, with an industry-leading depth of discharge (how much of your battery capacity you can use) and roundtrip efficiency (how much electricity loss occurs when you charge and discharge your battery). You can add the Boost to a new or existing solar system or as a standalone battery if you don't want solar at your home.

What's unique about the Schneider battery is its integration with the Schneider Home app: The app will send you alerts if your battery has a low charge or if a power outage occurred, show you which loads use the most electricity at any given moment, and give you the option to turn them off to preserve your battery. You can also adjust your battery's backup mode and choose which loads are essential, which are for comfort, and which don't need backup. That way, you can keep your refrigerator on during a power outage, but you can turn off the air conditioner to conserve battery power.

The app also tracks your utility's electricity tariffs. If you're in an area like California where you have time-of-use (TOU) rates, you can check the app to see how much electricity costs right now, how much your home uses, and which appliances use the most. It's particularly helpful if you don't have net metering and you need to use your battery to maximize your solar savings. 

Schneider Inverter: A hybrid inverter for solar + storage

Choosing a high-performing solar panel is important, but it's the inverter app that you'll look at every day to see your solar production, your consumption from the grid, and how much electricity you pull from your battery if you have one.

The Schneider Inverter is a hybrid inverter, which means it works for both your solar panels and your battery. It comes with built-in power optimizers that enhance the production of your solar panel system, minimizing the consequences of shading on your roof. Unlike leading solar inverter brands like Enphase and SolarEdge, the Schneider Inverter doesn't provide panel-level optimization or monitoring. 

The inverter can optimize and monitor four groups of panels individually: plenty for roofs that aren't too complicated, but it could be an issue if you have a roof with multiple planes and significant shading. You can see if one group of panels is underperforming but not if there's a problem with an individual solar panel. The Schneider Inverter can support solar panel systems from 3-15 kW in size.

Schneider Charge: A smart EV charger

In most cases, you'll save money by switching to an EV, especially if you charge it with solar energy produced at your home. Home EV chargers, like the Schneider Charge, make saving easy. Adding your own EV charger often requires electrical service upgrades that can cost thousands. When you pair the Schneider Charge with the Pulse, you don't have to worry about that. 

The Schneider Charge is a 32- or 48-amp level 2 EV charger, close to the highest amperage for home chargers. Unlike the other Schneider Home products, the Charge won't be available anywhere until at least the first quarter of 2024. But again, if you only want one app and one company to go to if something goes wrong, it could be worth the wait.

For even more control: Smart light switches and outlets

As mentioned, the Schneider Pulse doesn't provide device-level control unless you have a single device on one circuit. For complete control over your whole home, you just need to add smart light switches and outlets. 

You can decide how many connected devices you want, choose between four colors, and control them all using the Schneider Home app or your voice via Alexa.

EnergySage simplifies the solar and battery shopping process by connecting you with multiple vetted installers for free. While we don't currently offer smart electrical panels or EV chargers through our Marketplace, if you note in your profile that you're interested in these products, we can notify our installers to ensure they include those products in your package when you receive solar (and storage) quotes for your home. 

If you're looking for solar panels, inverters, or batteries from specific manufacturers–Schneider or otherwise–please note in your profile to connect with installers who offer that equipment. By receiving multiple quotes from different installers through the EnergySage Marketplace, you can compare your options, save money, and feel confident in your decision.