A PV system gives you the most when its electricity arrives where it is needed: in the battery storage, in the wallbox, in the heat pump. We plan it as part of your overall concept — from the detached house to the tenant electricity scheme.
We size module arrays, inverters and battery storage to your actual consumption — heat pump, electric car and household load included. Roof orientation, shading and string planning are checked before anything is ordered, not on site. What comes out of it is a system that fits your house and your daily routine rather than an off-the-shelf catalogue solution.
Battery storage shifts solar electricity into the evening, the wallbox turns it into power for the car. Which combination of inverter, storage and charge point works together we settle during planning — not by trial and error after installation. The car charges by preference when the roof is delivering, and as much solar electricity as possible stays in the house.
In a KNX house the PV system is part of the building control: you see generation, state of charge and consumption in one visualisation, and loads such as the heat pump, ventilation or charge point respond to the current surplus. We fix the interfaces between inverter, energy manager and bus system from the outset.
The everyday discipline: a system that fits the roof, the load profile and your plans for the future — with storage and surplus charging thought through from the start rather than retrofitted.
For property developers and commercial clients we take on roof layout, string planning, metering concept and execution — one point of contact, before the scaffolding goes up.
We see it regularly: one string laid across two roof orientations, the shade from the dormer taking half the output from 3 pm onwards — and the storage sized by the free roof area instead of by the load profile of the house. The result is a system that dutifully exports at midday while the heat pump draws grid electricity in the evening. We plan from the load, not from the roof.
Azimuth, pitch and horizon line are surveyed, and shading from dormers, chimneys, neighbouring buildings and trees is simulated across the year. The layout follows yield and appearance in equal measure: clean edge margins, flush rows, no cut-down leftover modules on the visible side. Structural loading, roof covering and mounting system are agreed with the roofer beforehand.
A string takes only modules of the same orientation and pitch. We check the string voltage against the cold and warm limits of the inverter, and cable lengths and cross-sections against the DC losses. Where partial shading remains, power optimisers or a separate branch go in — instead of mismatch across the whole string.
The sizing comes out of the ratio between generator and inverter output, with deliberate oversizing for yield in low light. East-west roofs get separate MPP trackers so that morning and afternoon are controlled independently. The installation location follows temperature, noise and maintenance access — not whichever wall happens to be free.
Sizing comes from the real consumption pattern: base load, evening peak, the shares taken by heat pump and wallbox, seasonality. What matters is usable rather than nominal capacity, charging and discharging power, and the expected cycle life. Storage that is too large stands idle half the time; storage that is too small is empty by 10 pm.
The surplus gets a clear order of precedence: first the storage up to its target state of charge, then hot water via immersion heater or heat pump, then the wallbox in PV mode, and only after that export to the grid. Hysteresis, minimum run times and the weather forecast stop loads cycling by the minute and compressors starting up needlessly.
The available connection capacity is distributed dynamically across wallboxes, heat pump and large loads, including the phase imbalance limit and the controllability the network operator requires for controllable loads. Charging power is regulated rather than switched off — the connection stays within its limits without anyone in the house losing comfort.
The meter cascade and the main and sub-meters for heat pump, wallbox or annexe flat are settled before the meter cabinet is built. Anyone who later wants to bill separately, use a heat pump tariff or let out a unit needs the metering point today — not after half the distribution board has been stripped out.
The first thing to settle is what really needs to run in a blackout: an emergency socket, a selected backup circuit, or changeover operation for the whole house. The grid disconnection point, the changeover time, the starting behaviour of large loads and the black-start capability of the storage belong in the planning, not in a data sheet.
We bring inverter, storage, heat pump and wallbox onto the bus over Modbus TCP or RTU and KNX: register and data point lists, units, scaling, write permissions. After that one set of logic controls the whole house, instead of four manufacturer apps that know nothing about each other.
Generation, self-consumption, degree of self-sufficiency, state of charge and string output sit on one visualisation that stays readable without specialist knowledge. Automatic deviation alerts for a string failure or a drop in yield make sure a faulty optimiser is not first noticed in the annual statement.
Separation distances from the external lightning protection, consistent equipotential bonding and surge arresters on the DC, AC and data sides belong together from the start. A firefighter's switch and string shutdown close to the modules, clean cable routing and labelling mean the emergency services can isolate the system safely and quickly if it comes to it.
The metering concept, communal electricity, billing boundaries and meter structure for apartment buildings and commercial properties are settled early, because they determine the meter position and the rising main. On the SIDOL Lofts in Cologne our sister company elektrofabrik built around 645 modules on 23 strings, together with the tenant electricity concept.
A photovoltaic system is only well planned once it does not merely generate electricity, but knows where that electricity belongs in the house.
The building blocks that are settled before anything is ordered — selected on a manufacturer-independent basis and properly documented.
Roof layout, orientation and shading checked, strings planned — before ordering, not on site.
Sized to your load profile and chosen so that the components demonstrably work together.
Surplus charging planned in from the start: the car charges by preference when the roof is delivering.
Metering and control that lets the heat pump, ventilation and charge point respond to the current surplus.
Generation, state of charge and consumption in your visualisation — settled before the trades start working past each other.
For tenant electricity and commercial projects: meter structure and coordination with every trade involved.
We establish consumption, planned loads such as an electric car or heat pump, and your goals — the sizing follows from that. We do not hand out a blanket kilowatt figure.
Roof layout, string planning, inverter, storage and wallbox connection are fixed on a manufacturer-independent basis — with technical reasoning and properly documented, before anything is ordered.
Our sister company installs with its own teams to our drawings — short distances between planning and site, no friction between trades that have never worked together.
We commission the system and tie it into your KNX system: generation, storage and loads work together — the responsibility stays with us to the end.
A tenant electricity system with around 645 modules in 23 strings — planned by smartfabrik, installed by elektrofabrik.
Electrical and energy systems at scale: 800 DALI luminaires, the complete control cabinet delivered from our planning.
Experience from a detached house in North Rhine-Westphalia to large international projects — it goes into every roof installation.
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:
Because a PV system rarely stands on its own today: storage, wallbox, heat pump and building control all interlock. We plan those interfaces from the outset – string planning, energy management, KNX connection, cable routes. A solar installer will fit you a system; we make sure it fits the rest of the house and that the electricity arrives where it does the most good.
That depends on roof area, orientation and above all on your consumption – including planned loads such as an electric car or heat pump. We size the system from your load profile and include storage and surplus charging in the calculation. We do not hand out a blanket kilowatt figure; the sizing comes out of the consultation, based on your specific situation.
Not necessarily, but often it makes sense: storage shifts solar electricity from midday into the evening and raises your self-consumption considerably. Whether it suits you depends on your consumption profile and the size of the system. We plan the storage so that it can be added later if you would rather start without it – preparing for that costs least at the planning stage.
With surplus charging your electric car charges by preference when the PV system is generating more electricity than the house is using at that moment. An energy manager controls the wallbox accordingly – integrated into the KNX visualisation if you want it. The condition is that inverter, wallbox and control match one another. That is exactly what we settle during planning, before any components are ordered.
Yes. On the SIDOL Lofts in Cologne we delivered a tenant electricity system with around 645 modules in 23 strings – planning by smartfabrik, installation by our sister company elektrofabrik. For property developers and commercial clients we take on roof layout, string planning and coordination with the trades involved. The earlier we are in the project, the more cleanly the concept can be integrated.
In the consultation we size the system to your load profile — manufacturer-independent, with storage and wallbox thought through from the start.
Request a consultation →You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Facebook. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information