SMA SMART HOME

Make better use of solar power

JOIN THE CLEAN ENERGY REVOLUTION

with energy management by SMA
It is an unprecedented success story in
only a few short years renewable energy
sources have become an affordable and reliable source of clean electricity. Just photovoltaic systems alone produce several billion
kilowatt hours of carbon-neutral electricity
every year, and in many countries the cost
of generating PV power is already less than
household electricity prices.
Yet the issue of grid parity raises a few additional questions: What can help PV system
owners consume more of the power they generate? How can solar power best be used
to make the electricity grid more reliable? In
short, what is the most optimal and protable way to use solar power?

An effectual answer to all of these questions

lies in the self-consumption of solar power,
a key topic which is gaining importance.
Any reasonable increase in the rate of selfconsumption requires the use of intelligent
energy management systems that can optimize power generation and consumption in
an easy and automated way. Fortunately,
the current trend towards networked home
appliances that are easier than ever to use,
and the development of storage technologies that offer higher performance at a lower cost are arriving at just the right time.
Besides offering numerous nancial benets,
improved energy eciency and greater independence from utility companies, a smart
home also provides PV system owners with
more convenience and a completely transparent energy budget.

To ensure the success of the energy revolution, even electricity grids will soon intelligently combine electric loads, renewable
power sources and storage systems. A
smart grid will be able to harness synergies with the same level of supply reliability
as a conventional electricity grid. The ideal
basis for a smart grid, however, lies in the
ecient use of energy in smart homes. To
make your home smart, and usher in your
own energy revolution, we offer a number
of different products which are described in
this brochure.

SUPPLYING INSTEAD OF GENERATING

From inverters with 99% eciency to intelligent energy management
A greater focus on optimizing solar energy
use has lead to higher system requirements.
Although high eciency inverters alone remain a key part of any PV system, they now
need to be integrated into an intelligent renewable power supply system.
SMA has accepted this challenge and is the
rst manufacturer to offer a comprehensive
system solution for home energy management. More specically, an intelligent and
intuitive energy manager with local power
generation forecasts and a exible storage
system that can easily be added to existing
PV systems.

Furthermore, SMA is developing the Sunny

Boy 5000 Smart Energy, the rst mass-produced, wall-mounted PV inverter with integrated battery. Compact and easy to install,
this device is the most cost-effective option
for standard household installations and is
remarkably versatile despite its relatively
small lithium-ion battery.
To ensure that all product and system solutions for home energy management meet the
highest quality standards, SMA works with
leading manufacturers in the eld of storage
technology, smart metering, home appliances, heat supply and electric mobility.

INTELLIGENT
ENERGY MANAGEMENT

SMA SMART HOME

Step-by-step towards the electricity supply of tomorrow
Analyses, forecasts and information
Like the smart grid of the future, the SMA
Smart Home combines a wide range of
electric loads, power sources and batteries into an intelligent and fully automated
system. The key feature of this system is the
continuous communication between the individual components, the user and the central
energy manager. This information is used to
answer the following questions: How much
solar power will be available at what time?
When and how long do large appliances
need power? How much stored heat or electricity is available and what is the current
charging or discharging power? Last but not
least, how much power is being generated,
consumed and supplied to or drawn from the
electricity grid at any given time? To answer
these questions, the energy manager not

only reads the electricity meter, but is also

connected to the other components. Other
important features include an intuitive user
interface and a clear and easy way to view
and analyze all energy data. In a nutshell,
everything can be controlled and tailored to
the specic needs of the customer.
Automatic load control
Washing, drying, heating ... almost every
home has appliances that do not follow a
specic operating schedule. Washing machines are a good example. An automatic
controller makes it easy for you to change
the turn-on time for these kinds of devices
without causing any inconvenience. This system can offer you a host of benets, including the ability to increase self-consumption
and hence lower costs, gain more indepen-

dence from utility companies and use variable electricity tariffs. Excellent candidates for
time-delayed operation are large programmable appliances as well as heat pumps
and heating elements for hot water tanks.
Integrating the heat supply into the electric
load management system creates major synergies since thermal energy storage systems
are already available in most homes. These
systems are signicantly cheaper than electrical storage systems and generally have
enough capacity to store large amounts of
solar electricity as usable heat.

Intermediate energy storage

Maximum exibility: An electric storage system allows you to harness solar energy for
later use, boosting self-consumption rates
and independence from utility companies.
Additionally, while the cost of fossil fuels
continues to rise, there is a clear downward
trend in the price of storage technology.
Even small storage systems can reduce grid
load by limiting the maximum feed-in capacity and avoiding power loss due to throttling. Large storage systems can also protect
homes from grid failures and make them
less dependent on external power sources.

And with the integration of electric vehicles into the household energy concept, yet
another storage option becomes available.
Further conceivable is the provision of system services in virtual power plants, generating additional compensation.

SMA SMART HOME

with a simple, integrated storage solution

Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy

With the ability to store 2 kWh of solar electricity, the Sunny Boy 5000
Smart Energy can increase self-consumption and reduce the amount of feedin power.
Sunny Home Manager
As the central energy manager, this device analyzes a wide range of input
parameters and uses an intelligent planning algorithm to harmonize power
generation and consumption times.
Sunny Portal
The Sunny Portal, which can be accessed from any PC or smartphone
Internet browser, allows you to operate and configure the Sunny Home
Manager and can even support you in saving electricity by showing you all
energy readings in real time.
Uncontrollable appliances
Many appliances like stoves, televisions and computers are not controlled
by the Sunny Home Manager. However, their normal turn-on times are
automatically taken into account during load management planning.

Controllable appliances
Electrical appliances that do not have specific turn-on times can be remotely
activated by the Sunny Home Manager and hence included in the intelligent
load management system.
Washing machine

Dryer

Thermal energy storage with heating element

Heat pump

Micro-CHP system
Combined heat and power systems can make better use of fuel energy by
generating both heat and electricity at the same time. Since heat is easily
stored, CHP systems can be used as a controllable source of electric power
in the Smart Home.

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Electric car
An electric car battery is more than just another electric load - when
combined with the right inverter, it can also be used for additional power
storage in the Smart Home.

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Electricity grid
The load on the grid is reduced through self-consumption since the household
consumes less power from the grid and at the same time feeds less PV power
into it. If there is a surplus of energy in the grid, the Sunny Home Manager
can take that into account when managing electric appliances, thus further
reducing your electricity bill.

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SUNNY HOME MANAGER

The nerve center of intelligent energy management
With the Sunny Home Manager, SMA is the
rst manufacturer to offer a central energy
management solution that not only provides
intelligent planning for automatic load control, but also allows for the inclusion of power storage systems. It is currently the only
system on the market that relies on local
weather forecasts to predict PV power generation. And thanks to its ability to take variable electricity prices into account, the Sunny
Home Manager can adjust your home power consumption to match either the output
of your PV system or the local electricity grid
at any given time, thus providing comprehensive load management for the rst time
ever. The Sunny Home Manager connects to
home appliances via SMA radio-controlled
sockets, but is also ready to support future
communication standards for smart home
applications. It can therefore control all com-

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patible household devices as well as heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems,
integrating them in the energy management.
Easy to use
Using the Sunny Home Manager via an Internet browser is easy as child's play. The
device can be accessed via a PC or smartphone, whether at home or on the move. It
offers you not only convenient automated
functions and preset graphical analyses, but
also easy installation - all you need is a data
link to the electricity meters and Internet access and the Sunny Portal will connect automatically. The SMA radio-controlled sockets
used to control appliances can also function
as repeaters, thus ensuring reliable connection to the network.

Precise
The Sunny Home Manager analyzes data
from up to three electricity meters and can
use that data to precisely record all relevant
energy ows in your home. Offering both
analog and digital meter interfaces it is able
to process energy ow data with accuracy
down to the second, which is critical for
effective load control. The SMA radio-controlled sockets also come with an integrated
measurement function that determines the
exact electricity demand of connected devices as load proles, which helps improve
planning accuracy.

1PXFS

Typical household load prole with PV system (5 kWp)















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Load prole with Sunny Home Manager







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The Sunny Home Manager can shift the activation of electrical loads, which in turn greatly increases the rate of self-consumption. If
time-of-use electricity tariffs are available,
shifting activation can also reduce grid electricity costs.

Comprehensive
The Sunny Home Manager continuously
receives local and system-specic PV output forecasts, takes into account time-of-use
electricity prices and provides standard access to Sunny Portal, which contains a variety of evaluation and analysis options. When
combining the Sunny Home Manager with
the Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy or Sunny
Backup system, a battery storage and, optionally, an uninterruptible electricity supply
are available. In addition to automatically
controlling loads, the device also provides
visual tips regarding best operating times for
electric appliances.

Advantages at a glance:
Increased self-consumption due to automated control of electrical loads and
storage systems
Customized tips for optimizing solar energy use
Real-time display and comprehensive analysis of household energy flows
System monitoring via Sunny Portal
Easy commissioning thanks to installation wizard
Prepared for the future with support for upcoming communication standards
for home automation

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SUNNY BOY 5000 SMART ENERGY

The easy storage solution for the home of tomorrow
SMA has developed a unique concept with
the Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy. It is the
rst-ever device to combine a high performance PV inverter and a storage system in
a compact wall mountable enclosure. The
result is a system that is as cost-effective as it
is simple, and one that is ideally suited to the
demands of both standard home installations and the overall clean energy revolution.
The integrated lithium-ion battery has an effective capacity of around 2 kWh. This value
is critical in maximizing eciency given that
a large capacity battery can only be used
to the fullest on high yield days, while a
small battery can increase self-consumption
almost year round. For PV system owners,
greater self-consumption means greater independence from utility companies and rising electricity prices.

12

The device also enables the use of almost all

available PV energy, even when the feed-in
capacity is limited to 70 percent of nominal
PV power. There is thus no need for a separate control system for feed-in management
as required by the German Renewable Energy Sources Act. The system can also be used
for a variety of new applications, including
the provision of highly protable storage services in the smart grid of tomorrow.

1PXFS

Typical household load prole with PV system (5 kWp)











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Load prole with Sunny Home Manager and Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy











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The battery integrated in the Sunny Boy 5000

Smart Energy increases self-consumption by
storing energy during peak power generation. It also allows easy compliance with the
70 percent limit to feed-in power stipulated
by the German Renewable Energy Sources
Act, while almost all of the annual power
supplied by the PV system can be used.

Advantages at a glance:
Approximately 50 percent increase in self-consumption
Almost all of the PV power generated is used, even when the feed-in capacity
is limited to 70 percent of nominal generator power
Low-cost installation thanks to quick and easy wall mounting
Outstanding eciency in converting and storing electricity
Option to provide storage services

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While the increase in self-consumption stagnates with larger storage capacity, the level of battery use continues to decline.
If a backup function is not needed, a smaller storage system is thus the more cost-effective choice.

New and different: the Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy

The first mass-produced, wall-mountable PV inverter with integrated battery
Easy installation thanks to compact, fully-integrated system design
The best economic option for typical home applications
Maximum reliability and dependability with specially developed
lithium-ion cells from LG Chem with integrated battery management

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Unpack, mount, connect DC and AC cables

the Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy is unbelievably easy to install.

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SMA SMART HOME

with a exible storage solution for retrotting

Sunny Boy 5000TL

The PV inverter converts the direct current generated by PV modules into
alternating current, which is used primarily to power home appliances. Only
the excess energy is fed to the electricity grid.
Sunny Home Manager
As the central energy manager, this device analyzes a wide range of input
parameters and then uses an intelligent planning algorithm to harmonize
power generation and consumption schedules.
Sunny Portal
The Sunny Portal, which can be accessed from any PC or smartphone
Internet browser, allows you to operate and configure the Sunny Home
Manager and can even support you in saving electricity by showing you all
energy readings in real time.
Sunny Backup System
This system provides for temporary storage of solar energy and also offers
an uninteruptible, grid-quality power supply.
Electricity meter
Up to three electricity meters can be connected to the Sunny Home Manager
via S0 or D0 interfaces. Once connected, the device monitors all relevant
energy flows in the home with the digital interfaces providing particularly
high precision timing.
6

Uncontrollable appliances
Many appliances like stoves, televisions and computers are not controlled
by the Sunny Home Manager. However, their normal turn-on times are
automatically taken into account during load management planning.

Controllable appliances
Electrical appliances that do not have specific turn-on times can be remotely
activated by the Sunny Home Manager and hence included in the intelligent
load management system.

16

Washing machine

Dryer

Thermal energy storage with heating element

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Heat pump

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SMA Bluetooth radio-controlled socket

Appliances that can be operated at various times and lack a control interface
can be activated at the optimal moment by the Sunny Home Manager via a
radio-controlled socket. The socket also features an integrated measurement
function that records the exact amount of energy consumed by the connected
device so that planning accuracy improves.

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Electricity grid
The load on the grid is reduced through self-consumption since the household
consumes less power from the grid and at the same time feeds less PV power
into it. If there is a surplus of energy in the grid, the Sunny Home Manager
can take that into account when managing electric appliances, thus further
reducing your electricity bill.

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10
7

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SUNNY BACKUP
The exible storage solution for every application
Storage systems are used around the world
in diverse ways. They provide additional supply security and greater self-suciency, and
can also make PV systems more cost-effective by increasing the rate of self-consumption. The battery requirements are equally
diverse. A relatively large battery capacity
is needed to bridge prolonged grid failures,
but has a signicant impact on the cost efciency of the system. If independence from
utility companies is a priority, then at least a
medium-sized battery is required. However,
an additional power source is needed during periods of low sunlight. If system costs
are your main concern, then a small battery
is recommended. These three criteria carry
different weight depending on your specic
needs and external factors such as the current feed-in tariff, compensation cap and grid
electricity price. With the Sunny Backup off-

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grid inverter, SMA offers an extremely exible system solution for all these requirements.
For retrotting
The Sunny Backup system can be added
as an upgrade to almost any PV system. It
can also be used to optimize self-consumption and increase independence from utility
companies, if an additional component for
meter readout is installed. Customers who
wish to go one step further can combine
the Sunny Backup system with the Sunny
Home Manager and gain all the advantages of intelligent energy management.
Flexible
Storage power, battery capacity and battery type are chosen by the customer. The

Sunny Backup system can work with almost

any lead acid or lithium-ion battery from major manufacturers such as LG Chem, Sony,
Samsung, SAFT, Dispatch Energy, Akasol
and Leclanch. It can also be combined with
small wind power systems, CHP systems or
other sources of electric energy.
Secure
If the electricity grid fails, the backup function will activate within milliseconds and
provide a secure and continuous supply of
electricity. The inverter technology used in
this system has an extremely high overload
capacity so that critical appliances have reliable access to power during grid failures.
In the eld of lithium-ion technology, SMA
is working closely with major manufacturers
who can offer proven safety concepts for

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Typical household load prole with PV system (5 kWp)











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Load prole with Sunny Home Manager and Sunny Backup system











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the batteries. And thanks to a special data

link between the battery and the inverter, the
system can ensure optimal battery management and component interplay.

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Thanks to its largely scalable battery, the

Sunny Backup system can store large
amounts of solar energy for greatly increased self-consumption. The battery inverter
has an extremely high overload capacity
and can supply almost all of your home
power needs during grid power outages.

Advantages at a glance:
Increased self-consumption when combined with the Meter Box
for Sunny Backup
Use of all energy management options in conjunction with the
Sunny Home Manager (only with SBU 2200)
Can be used to upgrade almost any existing PV system
Prepared for the future thanks to maximum flexibility in terms of power output,
battery type, and battery capacity
Compatible with a wide range of power sources (photovoltaics, wind energy,
hydropower, CHP systems, etc.)
Reliable and dynamic power supply with extremely high overload capacity
in the event of grid power outages

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START TODAY
Grid-connected storage systems for your own clean energy revolution
Decentralized storage systems are a key
step on the path towards a 100 percent
renewable energy supply. This is because
they balance power output near the point of
generation, which prevents transmission loss
and minimizes the load on electricity grids.
Yet their success depends on an intelligent
operation management based on power generation and consumption forecasts, which
is exactly what SMA offers with the Sunny
Home Manager.
Since advanced storage-free PV inverters satisfy all of the requirements for grid integration, it makes perfect sense to continue to use
them. And with the Sunny Backup system,
SMA offers a largely scalable and highly
exible storage solution that can be used
to upgrade almost any existing PV system.

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The upcoming Sunny Boy 5000 Smart Energy goes even further - this wall-mounted device is extremely easy to install and offers
the ideal balance of PV system size, storage
performance and storage capacity for typical home applications, thus ensuring maximum cost eciency.
Combined with ongoing support for storage
technology and future large-scale production, it will accelerate the development of
the smart home while also helping to reduce
energy costs. The Sunny Boy 5000 Smart
Energy thus makes it easy for you to help build
the smart, green power grid of tomorrow.

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NOTES

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SMART_HOME-KEN123613

www.SMA-Solar.com

SMA and Sunny Boy are registered trademarks of SMA Solar Technology AG. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. Text and illustrations reflect the current state of the technology at the time of publication. Subject to technical changes. No liability for printing errors. Printed on chlorine-free paper. Last revision: September 2012