The Smart Energy Traffic Light System is designed to help electricity users know when is
the best time to use clean, green, local electricity based on their time-of-use.
How clean your electricity is really depends on when you use it as opposed to who supplies
it to you. In Ireland, this typically is when two factors converge, demand for electricity
is low and renewable energy is high (typically on windy days as the vast majority of Irish
renewable electricity comes from wind). In Ireland, at times over 60% of electricity can
be supplied from intermittent renewable energy sources, primarily from wind.
Smart energy systems such as the EnergyElephant Smart Energy Traffic Light System can also
be deployed to influence users behaviours in real-time creating further cost and carbon
savings.
The system can be used to influence better energy behaviors for households, businesses and organisations. Examples include only turning on or timing devices to turn
on when the traffic light is greenest; such as setting washing machines, dryers, charging electric vehicles, running data-centre backups, charging storage heaters, heating immersions
for hot water, charging laptops and smart phones and even making a low carbon cuppa tea.
In conjunction with Trinity College Dublin, EnergyElephant has created an open source
physical traffic light using high energy efficiency LED lights which changes colour depending
on the current state of the Smart Energy Traffic Light System. This can be placed
in any public area to illustrate how green the current energy supply. For further
information on using this physical system in a building, please contact us on
sales@energyelephant.com
