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| Gaurav Sharma, Energy Analyst, Oilholics Synonymous, (left) with Jonas Helmikstøl, CEO of Starflow in Oslo, Norway. |
As the concept of digital home control systems, or energy home hubs advances - there's is a lot of kit out there promising to optimise your 'smart' home, complete with energy savings to back that up.
But last month, the Oilholic got a rather unique demo in Oslo, Norway from Starflow, a startup backed by serial entrepreneur Jonas Helmikstøl. The company is working on bringing together the concept of a home hub and a direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) inverter under one console.
Here's the logic - solar panels are increasingly finding favour with end-consumers in smart homes. But solar panels, and batteries, use DC while homes run on AC. Inverters help with the conversion between the two. In tandem, the home hubs bring an efficient energy control dynamic for a smart home into view.
"Our idea is to not treat the inverter like a commodity, but as the foundation of a seamless home energy experience by overlaying it with a home console and control unit," Helmikstøl said.
The idea was born in 2023, after Helmikstøl and fellow Starflow co-founders Ola Stengel (Chief Technology Officer) and Nikolai Konopelko (Principal Electronics Engineer) saw an opportunity to "harmonise the chaos" of various smart home concepts, technologies and residential renewable energy generation via solar panels.
Following a very interesting demo, Helmikstøl told The Oilholic that while both home hubs and inverters have been around for a while, his company's bid to integrate the two into a lightweight, modular, and "visually appealing" kit is its selling point.
Plans for pilots in five homes are underway with the number of homes eventually rising to 25. Thereafter, commercial upscaling will begin, potentially in 2027. The company has raised around $10 million and counting. Read The Oilholic's detailed Forbes report from October 2025 for more on that.
For now, this blogger wishes Team Starflow well and will be keeping an eye out for the startup and its cool kit. That's all for the moment folks. More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'!
