Span.IO has upgraded the home electrical panel by adding smart communication features to it. Much like smart thermostats you can now have an app to reconfigure and manage your home electrical panel.
Span.IO raised $10M and seems to be a direct competitor to the Lumin Smart Panel – which helps installers build out an intelligent [app connected] protected loads panel for homeowners that want energy storage. That protected loads panel, much like Span, costs $1,000 – $2,000 depending on the home…not including installation of course.
A Span Smart Electrical Panel can cost around $2,000 for the hardware necessary to upgrade your electrical panel.
The application for these smart panels are clear – homes that are planning to go solar and possibly add storage down the road. Rather than having additional wiring to bring in like Lumin, Span reduces installation costs due to reduced components and wiring. This helps homeowners reconfigure their protected loads during an outage and helps give you more insight into how you use energy throughout your home – at a breaker level. Not to mention utilities gaining further control over your home’s energy usage to turn off breakers in your house during demand response events.
Span is an interesting company bringing a real solution to market to help provide an incentive to homeowners to go solar & storage by reducing the electrical panel upgrade costs – especially for those homeowners considering going solar with a backup battery.