Energy Management

Why We’re Using It

Managing rising electricity costs and meeting increasing energy demand more responsibly are critical issues facing both society and our local communities. An Energy Management System (EMS) is smart home technology that will help River Vine Vineyards use energy more efficiently, produce it more economically and set and reach energy and sustainability goals more effectively—all while reducing the home’s carbon footprint and ensuring it performs to Zero Net Energy standards.

An Internet-based EMS enables continuous monitoring and optimization of resource consumption in real-time via a programmable energy dashboard, accessible by computer, smartphone or tablet. By controlling how much energy is used—and how much is produced onsite—River Vine’s homeowners can leverage energy savings to reduce hard costs.

How It Works

River Vine Vineyards will feature a touchscreen-controlled EMS that adapts the leading-edge technology perfected in Gen7 classrooms for residential use. The custom-configured EMS will display River Vine’s energy production and consumption in real-time, providing vital data that will assist in analyzing and optimizing the home’s performance and notifying the homeowners if the building—or any energy system—is not performing as programmed.

Continuous monitoring immediately flags and reports swings in energy consumption and other anomalies, permitting early detection of system malfunctions or off-target patterns that will interfere with the attainment of the home’s energy and sustainability goals. The EMS’ robust feature set also allows the homeowners to increase efficiency by programming thermostat heating and cooling limits and set points for different times of the day and different days of the week, reducing consumption during periods of peak demand, at night and when the home is unoccupied. The user-friendly interface makes it simple to set optimization strategies, track performance to pre-set parameters and make goal-directed modifications to sustain and improve results over time.

Project Partners