At Fusebox, our mission has always been to unlock the full potential of distributed energy resources and enable smarter grid participation. Until now, our focus has been on commercial and industrial sites, power utilities, and battery owners. Today, we are expanding that focus into the residential sector with our newest initiative: Fusebox Home ©.

Fusebox Home is a peer-to-peer Energy Management System (EMS) that enables residential users not only to optimize their own energy consumption but also to contribute to grid stability by coordinating with neighboring households.

This marks a significant step toward hyper-local, cooperative grid flexibility.

What is Fusebox Home?

Fusebox Home is built on our next-generation EMS architecture and integrates directly with smart appliances at the household level. The system allows users to both contribute their own flexibility and influence how flexibility is distributed across a neighborhood.

Participating households can:

  • Temporarily delay or optimize their own appliances, such as fridges, washing machines, or EV chargers
  • Receive and accept appliance delay requests from nearby homes
  • Earn flexibility credits based on their responsiveness and participation
  • Gradually unlock broader community influence as their reliability and performance increase

The more a household contributes, the greater its level of influence. Households with a high Flex Performance Score can manage larger portions of neighborhood flexibility zones. This ensures that control stays in the hands of the most responsive and grid-supportive participants while also creating a fair and scalable model of decentralized load management.

A sample interaction might look like this:

“Grid frequency is low. You are eligible to optimize Jan’s washing machine and Marta’s heat pump. Would you like to initiate a coordinated delay?”

All actions are opt-in, transparent, and time-bound.

Why household flexibility matters

Household appliances are a hidden goldmine of grid flexibility. According to Eurostat, over 43% of European homes already have at least one smart device capable of automated energy control. Many appliances like fridges, dishwashers, and heat pumps can shift usage without impacting comfort.

The numbers speak for themselves:

  • A paused fridge saves 80 to 120 watts for up to 15 minutes

  • 100 homes working together can shift 8 to 12 kilowatts instantly

  • That’s the impact of a 12 kWh battery, without installing one

In early Fusebox Home simulations:

  • Peak demand dropped 17% (largely due to Marta’s sauna not getting green-lighted)
  • It became apparent that dishwashers are overrated
  • 91% of users said yes to pausing. Especially if it meant controlling their neighbor’s appliances

The takeaway is simple: flexibility starts at home.

What’s next?

Fusebox Home will launch in select pilot neighborhoods later this year. Participation will be available to households with compatible smart appliances and stable internet access. The platform will provide a transparent user experience, including the ability to opt in or out at any time, view historical participation, and monitor community impact.

We believe energy flexibility should not only be smart, it should be shared.

Happy April 1st!