We are so excited to announce that we are certified to install SPAN! Our electricians are super excited about the sleek, user-friendly functionality of the SPAN panel, and they love the way it future-proofs your home for emerging technology.
When paired with solar and battery storage, the upgrade to SPAN means you can save money on your electricity bill, receive 30% off the total cost with the federal tax credit, boost your battery’s capacity by up to 40%, and get insight into your energy use down to the most detailed level. Installing SPAN helps you green your lifestyle and simplify your home’s energy management, bringing full control over your energy usage into one easy-to-view dashboard.
Here’s how:
What is the SPAN Panel?
First up, it’s important to know what the SPAN panel is. Even if you know very little about your home’s electrical system or how power gets to your appliances, you probably know that somewhere on a wall in your home is your main service panel, which contains your circuit breakers. Your main service panel (MSP) is the central landing hub for the maze of cables, wires, outlets, and switches that make up your home’s electrical system. But beyond switching a breaker off manually, there’s not a lot a typical homeowner can do with it. The SPAN panel changes that, bringing you the ability to interact with and control your home’s electrical system.
SPAN replaces your main service panel entirely, creating a sleek, interactive, smart, and user-friendly whole-home energy management system. In short, SPAN helps you:
- Manage your home’s energy usage, circuit by circuit from the SPAN Home app.
- Manage your battery storage system to optimize storm resilience and solar energy usage.
- Find cost-saving opportunities in your home’s energy consumption and production.
Greening Your Lifestyle and Controlling Your Energy Use, One Watt at a Time
A major key to sustainable living lies in reducing your home energy use. Most people are familiar with the typical ways to reduce energy usage, including energy efficiency efforts like better insulation and installing LED lightbulbs. These are fantastic ways to begin, but if you don’t have true visibility into the actual amount of energy being consumed by each circuit in your home, in real time, you’re kind of flying blind.
Imagine a world where you can not only monitor your energy consumption but also control and optimize it to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. SPAN allows you to track and control every circuit in your home, gathering data and displaying it on your SPAN Home app. With the touch of a finger, you can control which circuits are consuming energy and also see where your usage is highest. You can use the app to set preferences and control your use for various times of day, bringing you the ultimate power over your energy system.
SPAN will also show you where your “vampire energy” is being drawn. Vampire energy is wasted electricity from appliances that continue to draw power from electrical outlets, even when turned off or idle. Think phone chargers, cable boxes, computer cords, and coffee pots. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an appliance constantly taking in 1 watt of electrical current is equivalent to 9kWh per year, and considering how many appliances are used in an average household, costs can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars per year.
When paired with solar and battery storage, the SPAN panel truly becomes a superhero, slashing your electricity bill, boosting battery capacity by up to 40%, and offering you valuable insights into your energy consumption. When you’re able to see how your solar production compares with your usage, it helps you make intelligent decisions about your power consumption and how to manage it.
SPAN is Eligible for the Federal Tax Credit
When you install SPAN along with solar, the full cost of your SPAN upgrade will be included in the IRS 25D 30% federal tax credit you’ll claim as the total cost of your project. If you install SPAN without solar, you can still claim up to $600 via the IRS 25C tax credit, as long as it’s installed in conjunction with another electrification or energy efficiency project, like a heat pump or induction stove. If you’re eligible for both 25D and 25C, unfortunately, you can’t claim both so you’d probably just stick with 25D since it’s uncapped.
You can learn more about the various new electrification tax credits and incoming 2024 rebates here. And as always, this info is meant to be helpful but may not apply to your specific situation; please make sure to consult your tax advisor before doing your paperwork!
The Ultimate Solution for Whole Home Energy Storage, aka Battery Backup
SPAN gives you complete control over your stored energy during a power outage. Normally, a home battery system will be connected to a few chosen circuits — your home’s “essential loads” — such as refrigerator, lights, wifi, and sump pump. There are various ways to control which loads you prioritize, but without a smart home panel, no one solution offers a whole home solution that gives you full control.
With SPAN, you are able to view which circuits are drawing energy in a power outage, and prioritize your critical loads in real time from the SPAN Home app. Your idea of which loads are essential may change from day to day, and SPAN gives you the ability to switch and control where your energy is going at any given time. Your “non-essential” loads can be shed, giving you the ultimate backup from your home battery during power outages.
With the SPAN Home App, you can prioritize “must have,” “nice to have” and “non-essential” circuits for your battery storage, from anywhere, in real time. It’s an entirely new approach to mindfully managing your stored energy.
This level of visibility and control is shown to give you 40% longer average battery duration*. The SPAN Home app has a feature that helps prioritize your battery storage during a grid outage. SPAN even predicts oncoming storm activity and fills your battery in advance to prepare for potential power outages. This can help you avoid the cost of additional batteries while ensuring you and your family will be safe if the grid goes down.
SPAN is compatible with all of the battery systems Ipsun is certified to install: Tesla Powerwall, Enphase IQ, and Franklin Whole Home.
(*Based on an internal SPAN study, the average time a battery system lasted during an outage increased by 40% when adding SPAN to manage backup in over 90 simulated outage situations)
More Than Just Numbers: A Lifestyle Upgrade
But it’s not all about the technical stuff. SPAN also brings a big dose of convenience to your life. Arrived at work and worried you left your curling iron on? Or wondering if the kids are having an energy-fueled gaming session at 4 AM? SPAN lets you peek into your energy habits like never before, giving you peace of mind and control at your fingertips. You can just grab your phone and switch those circuits off — clearly, an avoided safety issue when it’s the curling iron, but also a huge convenience; like maybe your teen will grab a book instead. We can dream, right?
Other great lifestyle features give you further insight into your home’s energy. For example, the neighborhood comparison report will tell you if the electricity you’re using is higher on average than your neighbors, helping you make decisions and understand your usage even further.
SPAN also shows how your energy use is changing over time. If you wonder why your usage was higher this July than last July, it’ll show you exactly how that energy was used and what the conditions were that caused it. What’s really cool is the alert SPAN will send when one of your appliances is drawing more electricity than normal. That means it could be failing, and knowing in advance may save you money on a repair rather than waiting for it to fail altogether.
The SPAN Home App: The Foundation of Your SPAN Home
The SPAN Home app brings your SPAN Panel to life, providing you with circuit-level management, real-time monitoring, and actionable energy insights—all from a smartphone or tablet. You can even use Amazon Alexa-enabled devices to manage and monitor circuits.
Future-Proof and Invest in Your Home with SPAN
Technology is changing fast these days, and as the energy transition heats up we all want to be sure our investments have staying power. The great news is that the SPAN panel truly future-proofs your home for electrification and upcoming technologies.
No matter how many new electrical appliances you bring online in your home, SPAN can handle it, eliminating the need for future panel upgrades. And if you think new technologies like bidirectional charging are in your future, SPAN has you covered. Monthly software updates are pushed automatically to your panel, bringing any new functionality to you whenever it’s ready.
Another great plus is that investing in SPAN could potentially bump up your home value by a cool 2% on top of the 4% you’re already gaining from solar. Pair that with the cost savings from energy management and battery life extension and it’s easy to see how SPAN is an incredible investment in your home’s energy future.
Ready to Embrace the Future of Home Energy? Let’s Talk SPAN!
So there you have it, the SPAN panel – your ticket to a smarter, greener, and more efficient home energy experience. As certified installers, we’re here to guide you through every step of the process, from education to installation to enjoying the many benefits SPAN brings. Give us a call today at 703-686-8794 or click below to learn more!
