we're here at the installer show at the NEC checking out all the great products
and ideas that are attempting to pave the way to a greener future and if there's a sign that
plumbers and electricians are going to have to work more closely together than ever before
then this is the place to prove it but the trend is definitely towards electrification and to that
end we're going to answer the question what is a prosumer now this question stems from the brand
new section of BS7671 namely part 8 which has the rather odd title of functional requirements and
currently provides information in chapter 82 about proshumer's low voltage electrical installations
but just what does that word prosumer mean the first time we used it in a video we got a lot
of comments from marketing people who told us that prosumer means professional consumer
or professionally featured consumer products however in the wiring regs it means something else
from the birth of commercial electricity it's been pretty much standard practice for electricity to
be generated somewhere remotely from a property and then to ship it in via the supply network
however with the rise of renewables there's been an increasing trend for property owners to start
generating their own electricity it seemed to start out as a niche activity that you
may have spotted on shows like Grand Designs and was reserved for the ultra wealthy or the
off-grid eco warrior now however with the cost of energy spiraling and the reduction of reliance on
fossil fuels we're seeing a massive increase in the use of renewable energy technology on
individual properties from commercial buildings to homes mostly in the form of photovoltaic panels
sometimes from other sources like small wind turbines and this is what's given rise to the
inclusion of that word prosumer in BS7671 it's simply a portmanteau or joining of two words
together of producer and consumer so a prosumer according to the wiring regs is someone who both
produces and consumes their own electricity the development of this area has led to expectations
of serious growth in the coming years as more and more people adopt the technology so it's worth a
quick overview of how a system could work because with the rise of EVs it's fair to say that the
electrical grid is going to be put under a fair bit of strain in the future and the prosumer is
going to play a pretty big part in easing that as their power production will help to contribute to
the pool of available electricity there's a really neat illustration in the regs of how a prosumer's
electrical installation or is it snappily abbreviated in the regs pei could look so let's
take a look at that the idea of a prosumer is not to disconnect completely from the grid as there
may always be a need to import a little bit and if you have an excess you can actually sell it back
to the grid although there are more cost effective ways of dealing with the extra as we'll see in a
moment so we'll have a connection to the public network as shown here by the transformer symbol
and along the top next to the public network we've got the different ways that electricity
could be generated at home PV panels connected by a solar inverter wind turbines connected via
a wind inverter and finally some means of local generation although if someone does have all this
installed maybe we're checking to see if they're preparing for nuclear fallout as well notice the
direction of the arrows here you've got current flowing from these sources into the system then
along the bottom you've got typical electrical loads home appliance and electronic devices motors
lighting and heating and you'll notice again the arrows or direction of current are pointing
towards the loads then on the end here you've got possibly the heaviest load that a property will
experience in the future the electric vehicle but notice that you've got a kind of diamond for the
direction of current flow here so what's that all about well the answer lies in the symbol directly
above which is a battery makes sense to have some kind of on-site electrical storage because
for many people they drive their car possibly an EV to work and our houses sit empty and not
using much electricity all day exactly at the time our PVs are producing the most electricity
so if we don't have battery storage our lovely free electricity will likely start getting sold
back to the grid at a fairly poultry rate only for us to buy it back at an inflated rate when
we get home and start showering cooking and using our electronic devices so it makes way more sense
to have a massive battery to charge up with all that lovely free electricity all day and then
start using it in the late afternoon and evening when we need it but maybe at that point the sun's
starting to go down so that little diamond below the battery inverter actually indicates
that the current can flow into the battery when it's charging and out when you're using it to
cook dinner so that little diamond above the EV also indicates that current is flowing in both
directions so your car when it's plugged in may well end up being used to supply current back
into the house or even supply network at times of pie demand to ease pressure on the power stations
and just in case you're wondering that little cloud at the right of the drawing doesn't
represent the great confusion descending on those electricians trying to figure it all out it's the
eems or electrical energy management system might be better represented by a brain as that's the bit
that monitors and manages all of these disparate bits of kit and make sure that the kettle will
boil when we turn it on so that's what a prosumer is and how it's going to affect our electrical
installations it may be a bit of a daunting time for electricians and users of electricity
but it's also a time of great opportunity so keep yourself up to date with everything
that's changing and going on in this dynamic and fast-paced industry by checking out events like
the installer shows and also by checking out our videos like these ones here thank you very much