Way of living

Your own electricity — from the roof to the wallbox.

Generation, storage and consumption belong in one system. We plan photovoltaics, storage, heat pump and charging point so that your solar electricity arrives where it does the most good — made visible in a single interface.

~645modules in one project
1.5–2.5 MWstorage in commercial projects
One systemInstead of four isolated apps
KNXManufacturer-independent
Our approach

Efficiency comes from the interplay, not from a single device.

Surplus that arrives

Solar electricity is distributed according to your priorities: storage first, then hot water, then the wallbox or the heat pump. The energy management decides, instead of letting four device apps work against each other.

Visible instead of assumed

Generation, storage level, consumption and charge state come together in one visualisation. You see what your house is doing — and during fine-tuning we spot immediately where something is out of step.

Designed on a manufacturer-independent basis

We select modules, inverter, storage and wallbox according to your load profile, not to a product range. They are connected over open interfaces, so that individual components stay replaceable.

In detail

What defines this living theme.

From the roof through the storage to the charging point — four areas that only take effect once they are planned together.

01

Photovoltaics designed into the architecture

Roof layout, shading analysis and string design are developed together with the architect and the roofer: module fields that suit the roof surface, cable routes without detours and a design sized to your actual consumption rather than to the maximum area.

02

Storage & self-sufficiency

The battery storage is sized to your load profile — large enough for the evening, not oversized for the brochure. Where you want it, we plan backup power capability so that the important circuits keep running in a power cut.

03

Energy management at KNX level

Instead of a manufacturer's app: inverter, storage, heat pump and meters are integrated over open interfaces and run on shared logic — with priorities that you set, and reporting that shows whether it works.

04

E-mobility & load management

The wallbox charges on surplus by preference and backs off when the heat pump or the household takes priority. With several charging points, load management shares out the available power — the house connection sets the limit, it does not become the bottleneck.

Timing

When you decide what.

The yield of an installation is not created when the modules are bought. It is created at these five points.

01 · Design

Roof area, orientation and shading determine the yield long before a module price matters. Along with the question of what else the house should take on in ten years.

02 · Shell stage

Meter position, distribution board area and the route from the roof into the technical room. A distribution board grows with the system — which is why it needs more space from the start than is needed today.

03 · Before the paving

The cable to the wallbox is laid before the driveway is closed. Even when the car only arrives in three years — the trench is open exactly once.

04 · Commissioning

Photovoltaics, storage, heat pump and wallbox are tuned to one another instead of running side by side. Only in the interplay does the self-consumption arise that the calculation assumed.

05 · Operation

Generation, consumption per circuit and self-consumption rate are measured rather than estimated. What you can see, you can change — and what changes, you see at once.

Proven

Energy at every scale.

01

SIDOL Lofts, Köln-Braunsfeld

Photovoltaics with a tenant electricity scheme in the PARK LINNÉ quarter: around 645 modules in 23 strings, delivered through our sister company elektrofabrik.

02

Large-scale storage with Power-Q

Ten battery storage projects with 1.5 to 2.5 MW connected load on the medium-voltage grid — from sizing through to delivery.

03

Metering concepts in mid-sized industry

At Polaroid Film GmbH we delivered complete flow measurement with MID sensors and integrated it into KNX — consumption made visible instead of estimated.

View all projects
What lies behind it

The services behind this living theme.

Each planned on its own, at their strongest in combination.

Three perspectives

The same house, two further perspectives.

Most projects need all three — we plan them on one system so that they do not get in one another's way.

Where we work

Energy & efficiency in Cologne, Düsseldorf & NRW.

smartfabrik is a smart home planning practice based in Düsseldorf (Reisholzer Werftstr. 31A). We plan for private clients and companies in Cologne, Düsseldorf and across North Rhine-Westphalia — and, where wanted, nationwide and internationally. A selection of the places we have already planned and delivered in:

FAQ

Clearly answered.

Is generating your own electricity worthwhile in a high-end new build?

As a rule yes — above all because a premium new build brings together loads that suit your own generation anyway: heat pump, ventilation, pool, charging point. What decides it is not the size of the system but how much of your electricity actually stays in the house. That is exactly what we size the system for.

Can photovoltaics be integrated into a full refurbishment as well?

Yes. In an existing building we check the roof build-up, the structure, the existing meter positions and cable routes, and from that plan a realistic solution — often together with extending the distribution board, because both are due anyway.

How does KNX energy management differ from the device manufacturers' apps?

Manufacturer apps know only their own device. KNX-based energy management sees generation, storage, heat pump, wallbox and household consumption together and decides according to your priorities. And it stays manufacturer-independent: replace the inverter in eight years and the logic remains.

Can you also plan tenant electricity for apartment buildings?

Yes, that is one of our B2B focal points — from the meter and metering structure through to technical delivery. At the SIDOL Lofts in Cologne we delivered such a scheme with around 645 modules.

The first step

Let us work through your energy concept.

From the roof layout to load management — planned as one system, not as four separate installations.

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Prefer to call? +49 211 838 66 870