Putting aside the usual anti-solar, FIT thieving bastards, destroyers of life etc etc comments, :) I was wondering whether a humble PC/raspberry or whatever to activate something like the wi-fi plug(s) to turn on domestic appliances based on the "now" energy produced. For example my own solar inverter polls data every 6 minutes and one of the data fields is an "energy being produced now" number.
Lets say a server looked at this figure and had a rule set that said something like... if now > 1000 turn on dishwasher if now > 1800 turn on washing machine unless dishwasher state = off then
if now > 2500 turn on tumble drier unless (etc etc) if now > 3500 turn on aircon/heatpump unless (etc etc) if dishwasher + washing machine + tumble drier = on and power average for last 3 readings < 2000 then tumbled drier off...
That kind of thing?
Obviously programming isn't my forte nor is hardware integration but looking at the overall characteristic of solar production pattern, in the absence of an effective (longevity and cost wise) method of solar PV energy storage, using a device that can switch on and of less critical appliances like a tumbledrier, heat-pump/air-con etc depending on energy production while leaving cycle-critical devices (dishwasher, washing machine etc) to run their course seems to make sense not just from a PV owners perspective but from a national perspective of using "smart meters" to do the same thing in non PV residencies using feedback from grid PV/wind production at the time. like a tiered, programmable rule-set for critical and non-critical appliance control.
It's not something I'm going to be doing myself at least not at the moment but currently all I see is people using "excess" electricity from their PV arrays to heat a tank of water that can be done with gas at or thermal PV for a fraction of the p/kWh price, the logic of reverse alchemy. :)