As energy prices continue to rise and environmental concerns grow, homeowners are looking for smarter ways to control their home electricity usage. Enter the Home Energy Management System (HEMS)—a revolutionary approach that puts you in charge of your home’s energy consumption. Unlike traditional energy monitoring or standalone smart devices, a complete HEMS creates an intelligent, interconnected ecosystem that not only tracks your energy usage but actively helps you save money and reduce your environmental impact. In this guide, we’ll explore what makes these systems so powerful, how they work, and why they’re becoming essential for the modern, energy-conscious home.
What is a Home Energy Management System?
A Home Energy Management System (HEMS) is the smart way to take control of your home’s energy usage. This technology solution connects your devices and appliances through one simple interface, helping you monitor energy use in real-time and make smarter decisions.
Think of it as a helpful energy guide for your home—the system shows you where energy is being used, identifies ways to save, and can automatically adjust consumption based on your preferences and potential savings.
Unlike standalone smart devices, a HEMS creates a coordinated system where everything works together intelligently. By connecting multiple devices to the same intelligent platform, you’ll reduce excess energy usage, lower your bills, and help the planet—all while enjoying a more comfortable home.
The best part? Once set up, it does the work for you, requiring minimal day-to-day input while maximizing your savings and comfort.
Core Functions
At its heart, a Home Energy Management System is your personal energy guide, simplifying the complex world of electricity to help you save money and live smarter. While individual smart devices do their specific jobs, the real magic happens when they work together as one unified system. Here’s what a HEMS does to change your relationship with energy:
Watches your home so you don’t have to
A HEMS constantly monitors your energy use in real time, not just once a month when the bill arrives. Think of it as a fitness tracker for your house, revealing exactly how much electricity you’re consuming at any moment. This awareness helps you discover energy-hungry appliances or unexpected usage patterns that might be driving up your costs that would otherwise stay invisible to you.
Turns analysis into action
Beyond just collecting numbers, a HEMS makes sense of your energy usage in ways you can understand. It analyzes usage patterns over time, showing you when your home uses the most energy, which appliances consume the most power, and how your daily habits affect consumption. These insights come to you as simple, clear visualizations that transform complex energy use data into information you can actually use to make smarter decisions.
Puts energy savings on autopilot
Once set with your preferences, a HEMS automatically adjusts your home’s energy use without you lifting a finger. It might turn off lights when you leave the house, adjust your thermostat based on your presence or the time of day, or run your dishwasher when electricity rates are lowest. This automation removes the burden of constantly thinking about energy conservation while still generating real savings every day.
Maximizes your clean energy investment
If you have renewable energy sources like solar panels or an on-site energy storage system like a home battery, a HEMS orchestrates how this energy flows throughout your home (or even back to the grid). It can store excess solar energy in batteries for evening use, prioritize your self-generated power before pulling from the grid, or adjust consumption based on how much solar you’re currently producing—all to maximize the return on your clean energy investment.
Partners with utilities for greater savings
Modern HEMS systems can participate in what are known as “demand response” programs with utility companies. During peak times when electricity is most expensive and the grid is strained, your HEMS can automatically reduce your consumption in exchange for bill credits or lower rates. This saves you money while helping prevent blackouts and reducing the need for additional power plants.
By handling these functions as a connected system, a HEMS delivers benefits that isolated smart devices simply can’t achieve on their own. It’s like having an energy advisor that works around the clock—turning your home into a more efficient, cost-effective, and planet-friendly place to live.
Essential Parts
Building an effective home energy management system is like assembling a thoughtful team where each member plays a vital role. Let’s explore the key components you’ll need to create a complete HEMS that transforms your home into an energy-smart sanctuary.
The brain: central hub/controller
At the heart of every HEMS is a central hub that orchestrates all your energy-related devices. Your hub might be a physical device that lives in your home (like a SmartThings hub or Amazon Echo) or simply software-based (like a smartphone app).
These smart controllers create a common language for all your devices to communicate seamlessly, even when made by different manufacturers. They use wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, Zigbee, or Z-Wave—special networks designed specifically for smart homes that use less power while reaching throughout your entire home. The best part? Most hubs feature intuitive apps (like the Emporia App) that put control of your entire system right at your fingertips, whether you’re relaxing on the couch or traveling across the country.
The eyes: energy monitoring devices
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. These monitoring devices give you clear visibility into exactly how energy flows through your home:
Energy monitors attach directly to your electrical panel and track energy use by circuit, helping you understand which rooms or areas use the most electricity without installing individual monitors on every device. Emporia’s Vue Energy Monitor is the best way to start tracking your home energy use at your electrical panel – it comes with main sensors for total home energy use monitoring, as well as up to 16 “branch” sensors that track individual circuits in your panel.
Plug-level monitors (also known as smart plugs) are small devices that sit between an appliance and the wall outlet, revealing exactly how much energy that specific device consumes. They’re perfect for identifying energy-hungry appliances like aging refrigerators or space heaters.
Smart meters replace traditional utility meters and provide detailed information about your whole-home energy use. Many utility companies now offer these as complimentary upgrades to help you save.
The temperature keeper: smart thermostats
Since heating and cooling typically account for about half of home energy use, smart thermostats deliver some of the biggest savings in a HEMS. Smart thermostats can sometimes even learn your habits over time and automatically adjust to save energy while keeping you perfectly comfortable. Many smart thermostats can also detect when you’ve left home (either through your phone’s location or built-in sensors) and automatically adjust to save energy while you’re away.
When connected to your HEMS, these thermostats work harmoniously with other components—perhaps lowering the heat when solar production drops, or pre-cooling your home when electricity rates are lowest.
The workhorses: smart appliances
Major appliances consume significant energy, making them perfect candidates for smart management: refrigerators, washers, and dryers with built-in Wi-Fi connect directly to your HEMS, reporting their energy use and allowing remote control.
Connected appliances can be programmed to run during off-peak hours when electricity is cheapest, or when your solar panels are producing excess power. Many smart appliances also include helpful maintenance alerts that keep them running efficiently—like notifications when your refrigerator door is left open or your dryer vent needs cleaning.
Have perfectly good appliances you’re not ready to replace? Smart plugs can add basic energy monitoring and remote control capabilities to most devices that plug into a wall outlet.
The illuminators: smart lighting systems
Lighting offers one of the simplest entry points into home energy management. Energy-efficient LED bulbs use up to 75% less energy than traditional incandescents and last for years or even decades—a simple change with big impact.
Connected lighting systems let you control lights remotely, set schedules, or create scenes (like “Movie Night” or “Good Morning”) that adjust multiple lights at once with a single tap. Add motion sensors to automatically turn lights off in empty rooms, or daylight sensors that dim artificial lighting when natural sunlight is available, saving energy effortlessly.
The power producers: renewable energy and storage integration
For homes with solar panels or other renewable energy sources, HEMS components help maximize their value and usage.
Solar monitoring systems track exactly how much energy your panels produce and how it’s being used in real-time, helping you match your consumption to production for optimal savings.
Home battery systems store excess energy from your solar panels during sunny days, then power your home in the evening when the sun sets and electricity rates typically rise.
If you own an electric vehicle, smart EV chargers can be programmed to charge your car when electricity is cheapest or when your solar panels are producing excess power. The Emporia Pro EV Charger comes with Time Of Use and Excess Solar Management functions.
Advanced HEMS can even help you participate in grid services programs where you sell excess energy back to the utility or receive compensation for reducing consumption during peak demand periods.
The Emporia Solution: A Complete Home Energy Management System
Looking for a HEMS that brings all these essential components together? At Emporia, we believe energy management should be simple, affordable, and accessible for everyone. That’s why we’ve created the Emporia Home Energy Management Platform—a comprehensive solution that puts you in charge of your home’s energy use without the complexity.
The brain, eyes, and workhorses: an integrated ecosystem
The Emporia platform monitors your home, analyzes usage patterns, and automatically optimizes energy consumption. Our platform doesn’t just show you data—it takes meaningful steps to help you save money and reduce your environmental impact effortlessly.
Our ecosystem features the Emporia App—the intuitive “brain” of your energy management system that serves as your central hub and controller. This powerful yet simple app puts comprehensive energy management right at your fingertips, whether you’re at home or away. It transforms complex energy data into clear visualizations and automated actions, making energy management accessible for everyone.
Equally important is the Vue Home Energy Monitor—providing visibility into your home’s energy consumption down to individual circuits. This real-time intelligence delivers insights that identify savings opportunities you might never discover on your own, and provides the data the platform needs to control connected devices.
Together, the Emporia App and Vue work with our other smart devices—the award-winning Emporia EV Charger, versatile Smart Plugs, and Home Battery. These devices communicate with each other through our intelligent platform to create a truly integrated system where everything works together to maximize your savings.
Automation that makes saving easy
The Emporia platform features intelligent automation that works seamlessly in the background:
- Time-of-Use Management automatically uses energy when it’s cheapest and cleanest
- Peak Demand Management prevents costly utility charges by keeping your usage below threshold limits
- Excess Solar Management maximizes the benefits of your solar investment
- PowerSmart Load Management tracks whole home energy use and helps you avoid expensive panel upgrades when installing a level 2 EV charger
The human element in your energy journey
While technology forms the foundation of energy management, we understand that the process can feel overwhelming. That’s why our Colorado-based customer service team is always ready to help. We’re more than just a technology company—we’re your partner in achieving energy goals, providing the guidance and support you need.
Take the power back with Emporia and revolutionize the way your home uses energy. Save money and help the planet, all with a system that does the heavy lifting for you.
