AAgilePiA PERSONAL ENERGY PROJECT
AGILEPI / THE PROJECT

Making technology
work a little smarter.

A home-built energy management system bringing together solar generation, battery storage, electricity pricing and automation. Developed out of curiosity and a desire to understand where energy goes, when it's cheapest and how to make better use of it.

01 / THE IDEA

It started with an interest in energy and technology.

I wanted to get more out of my solar panels and battery storage, and understand how electricity prices could influence the way energy is used around the home.

Rather than rely entirely on off-the-shelf solutions, I started putting together my own monitoring and control system. Python, a Raspberry Pi, databases and a fair amount of experimentation have gradually brought the different parts together.

The result is AgilePi. It's an ongoing project rather than a finished product, and there's always something new to improve, investigate or occasionally fix!

02 / HOW IT FITS TOGETHER

Several technologies.
One energy system.

Each part has a role to play, from collecting energy data to deciding when battery storage should be charged or used.

01
☀

Solar generation

Four photovoltaic panels provide the solar generation at the heart of the project.

1,830 Wp INSTALLED CAPACITY
02
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Battery storage

An EcoFlow Stream Ultra X stores energy and provides information about battery performance and power flows.

BATTERY / SMART METER
03
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Electricity pricing

Octopus Agile pricing helps identify cheaper periods for importing electricity and charging the battery.

OCTOPUS AGILE
04
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AgilePi controller

A Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ runs the software that collects information, stores data and coordinates automation.

PYTHON / SQLITE / MQTT
03 / THE APPROACH

Measure first.
Understand it.
Then automate.

One of the important parts of this project is having useful information available. Live readings are collected from the energy system and stored so that performance can be examined over time.

Historical readings, electricity prices and weather forecasts provide the information needed to make more informed decisions. The controller uses these inputs to plan battery charging and operating modes.

I want the automation to be understandable and predictable. It's not just about making something happen automatically; it's about knowing why the system made that decision.

04 / AN ONGOING PROJECT

There is always more to do.

AgilePi continues to develop as I learn more about the equipment, experiment with different approaches and find better ways to collect and present the information.

01 Better forecasting
02 Smarter energy optimisation
03 More historical analysis
04 Improved monitoring and documentation
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