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Breaker boxes can be a hidden stumbling block for households looking to go electric. Many of these devices are too small to support the electrical needs of a home plus the addition of an EV charger, a heat pump, and other power-hungry appliances. But upgrading them can take lots of time and money.
Smart electrical panels — smartphone-controllable versions of the electromechanical devices found in most homes — could help solve this problem. While more expensive up front than the old-school gear they’re replacing, smart panels don’t require complicated utility upgrades — and they may be able to save homes and businesses money in the long run.
Leading smart-panel startup Span and major electrical-equipment manufacturer Eaton just announced a strategic partnership to try to boost adoption of the devices. Eaton will also make a $75 million investment in the San Francisco–based startup, which has now raised a total of nearly half a billion, including a $176 million Series C last month.
Eaton, which reported $27.4 billion in revenue last year, will tap its extensive distributor and installer networks to promote Span’s devices. These range from sleek, iPhone-shaped electrical panels aimed at high-end homes with complex electrical-management needs to devices designed for smaller homes, multifamily buildings, and small commercial properties.
Eaton also makes its own version of smart controls in the form of digital circuit breakers, which are the individual devices that plug into slots in standard electrical panels to prevent household circuits from overloading. Those AbleEdge devices are used in control systems from home battery vendors including Tesla and Lunar Energy, and are a core building block of Eaton’s “home as a grid” business strategy, Paul Ryan, vice president and general manager of the company’s energy transition business, told Canary Media.
“Homes are becoming more electrified. EV adoption continues to increase. That all puts a stress on the home and on the grid,” he said. “We have to manage our power more effectively.”
Homeowners who want to electrify may need to upgrade their electrical panels or pay for even more expensive utility-grid upgrades. Instead, smart panels and circuit breakers can actively shift and throttle appliances — like EV chargers and clothes dryers — to keep loads within safe limits, saving tens of thousands of dollars per home, Ryan said.
The smart panels can also generate savings if they’re used to manage the flow of power from rooftop solar panels, batteries, and backup generators on household circuits, he said. Currently, that job is performed using complicated combinations of traditional electrical gear.
These potential benefits have driven a wave of companies to invest in the sector. Along with Eaton and fellow electrical-equipment manufacturers Schneider Electric and Leviton, these include startups like Lumin and vendors of solar energy systems, batteries, and backup generators like FranklinWH, Generac, and Savant.
Span’s smart electrical panel was one of the first to hit the market in 2019, and the first to earn certification under the UL 3141 power control systems standard offered by Underwriters Laboratories, the premier standards-setting body for electrical equipment. Before Eaton, the company had also picked up partners including leading U.S. residential solar and battery installer Sunrun, utility smart meter and communications giant Landis+Gyr, and major U.S. homebuilder PulteGroup.
Span CEO Arch Rao told Canary Media that the startup will continue to operate independently while co-branding its smart panels under the Eaton label.
“They’ve come onboard not just as an investor but as a key partner for scaling our products in the market, particularly in the residential ecosystem,” Rao said. “We’re able to support electrification of all types of existing homes with main-panel replacement, subpanels, load controls, EV charging, and heat pump integration.”
Just as important, Ryan said, Eaton has “expansive manufacturing capabilities and a very strong supply chain. We’ll be collaborating together to help drive down the cost of these solutions and make it more affordable.”
That last point addresses the big question mark for smart panels and circuit breakers: cost. Span’s marquee smart panel retails for about $3,500, well above the $1,000 to $2,500 all-in cost of installing a traditional electrical panel.
In general, digitally enabled panels and circuit breakers cost roughly twice as much as old-fashioned electromechanical equipment does. The price differential has been a barrier to more widespread adoption of these kinds of products, which have already seen one major contender exit the market. Schneider Electric, the French electrical-equipment giant that competes with Eaton in global markets, recently discontinued its Schneider Pulse smart panel.
Other technologies could well offer a cheaper route to doing what smart electrical panels do, according to Ben Hertz-Shargel, global head of grid edge at research firm Wood Mackenzie. In a 2024 opinion piece, he highlighted options ranging from next-generation utility smart meters to controls embedded in EV chargers, batteries, and electric appliances themselves.
“Low-cost smart meters with plenty of compute [capacity] are being deployed at scale today,” Hertz-Shargel told Canary Media in an interview this month. “The question is, do we need more dedicated energy hardware in the home? The lowest-cost solution will always rely on software. It seems a smart meter and an EV charger, or a battery, are the only devices you need.”
Rao pushed back on that proposition. While individual devices can throttle their power use, smart panels offer a more holistic way to oversee and control a home’s overall power demands, he said.
And utility smart meters are “not purpose-built for avoiding a service upgrade, or for adding new electrical loads to your home, most of which require not just sensing, but real-time controls,” Rao added.
Span has been working with a number of utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric in California, that are interested in using its technology in concert with smart meters and grid control platforms for the additional home device-management flexibility it offers, he noted.
Span and Eaton also plan to launch “joint solutions” that combine both companies’ technologies in the second half of this year. “There are obviously a lot of interesting opportunities for technology partnerships,” Rao said, though he declined to provide details.
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