“Within an hour of connecting Basis to Home Assistant, I had automations deciding in real time when to sell power and when to use it. Now our hot water runs 91% on solar, and our solar payback is tracking under four years.”
What we noticed
Michael already ran Home Assistant alongside his solar inverter, but it only showed total generation and what he was importing or exporting. He had no view inside the house he couldn’t easily tell when the hot water cylinder or the EV were drawing power, couldn’t make them run when solar was generating, and didn’t know what either was costing him.
What changed
Once Basis was integrated, every circuit appeared in Home Assistant as a sensor and a switch. Michael built automations that heat the cylinder and charge the EV while the sun is generating, sell power when buyback is high, and self-consume when it isn’t. The system even predicts cloudy days and tops up hot water overnight entirely hands-off. In a typical mid-February week, his hot water ran 91% on solar and the EV 60%. Maximising self-consumption has cut the payback on his 7kW, 16-panel system to under four years.
Hot water 91% solar-powered, with solar payback tracking under four years.