Schneider Electric is also a board member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) and one of the founders of the Matter smart home standard. Since smart homes are a prerequisite for a smarter grid, if Matter can achieve its aim of interoperability, one of the main barriers to better home energy management will come down. If all your devices and systems can talk to each other, it should become a lot easier to cobble together your own system without spending a fortune. There are also open source options, like Home Assistant, that make home energy management much more affordable, provided you are willing to put time and effort into research and setup.

With enough installations, HEMS could decrease the strain on the power grid. Energy suppliers may offer incentives for folks who allow them to optimize their heating systems, for example. A study in Finland found HEMS installations for heating offered savings of up to 30 percent and reduced energy consumption, but much depends on the household and attitude to energy use.

Householders could also save money by automating appliances to run or batteries to fill when electricity is at its cheapest and most abundant. Suppliers like Octopus Energy in the UK already offer an intelligent EV tariff that charges your car automatically overnight at the cheapest possible rate. But even if you are intent on making your home more energy-efficient, you must weigh any potential savings against the cost of an installation.

While some retrofitting may be possible, Berard says a fresh Schneider Home install is the best path for most people. That brings us to the catch. The exact prices are to be decided, but if you want to install the panel, solar inverter, EV charger, battery, switches, and outlets, you will pay around $10,000. You must also hire an electrician to install everything, and it’s likely to be disruptive. If you need solar panels, that’s another expense on top. You may need to arrange an inspection to ensure compliance with local laws. 

Some of Schneider’s components are still being certified, and there is a program to train interested electricians to become approved installers. Parts of the system are available now; complete installations of Schneider Home are not expected to begin in the US until this summer.