Business project, Langebaan
Our own building, running what we install
The Langebaan office is where the control logic gets tested before it goes anywhere else, including the geyser automation.
- Site
- Business
- Town
- Langebaan
- Completed
- 2023
The situation
There is a reasonable question to ask any installer: what did you put in your own building?
Ours at 39 Main Street runs a modest system by design. It is not a showcase of the largest equipment we can fit. It is a working test environment for the automation we later propose to clients.
What it had to do
- Run the office on a system representative of what we install for clients
- Test control logic in daily use before proposing it elsewhere
- Use surplus generation rather than exporting it for very little
- Keep control local so it works without an internet connection
How it was built
A representative system, not a showpiece
A Victron MultiPlus-II of 5 kVA, two Hubble AM5 batteries and roughly 3 kWp of generation, with a Cerbo GX handling system management. It is the sort of installation a small business would actually buy.
Automation that earns its place
Local control logic runs on Node-RED with MQTT and ESPHome for device integration. The most useful thing it does is unglamorous: it decides when the geyser runs, based on available generation and state of charge, instead of whenever the thermostat happens to call for it.
Local, not cloud dependent
The logic runs on site. If the connection drops, scheduling and protection carry on. What is lost is remote visibility, not the behaviour of the system.
Result
Surplus generation that would have been exported for very little goes into hot water instead, which is a load the office was always going to run.
More usefully for our clients, the logic has been through a year of ordinary weather and ordinary use before we propose it to anyone else.
On site
39 Main Street, Langebaan 
The kind of installation the office system tests logic for
The solutions behind it
Next step
Start with an assessment.
Tell us how the property is used and what you want it to do. We come out, work through the site and put the reasoning in writing.