Smart Electrical Panels: Avoiding $25K Upgrades to Enable Home Electrification with Arch Rao

Hardware to Save a Planet

Updating home electrification is key to a sustainable future, but outdated electrical infrastructure has long been a bottleneck. Arch Rao and Span are out to change that.

Join Dylan Garrett on this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, as he welcomes Arch Rao, Founder and CEO of SPAN, to discuss how his company is reinventing the humble electrical panel for a modern, electrified home. Drawing on his experience at Tesla Energy, Arch explains how SPAN’s smart panel enables homeowners to monitor, control, and optimize their energy use, without costly service upgrades. He shares how SPAN is helping accelerate the adoption of solar, EVs, and batteries through intelligent load management and design aesthetics. From forging utility partnerships to scaling hardware manufacturing, Arch reveals what it takes to build climate-impactful hardware and unlock the next era of smart home energy systems.

What you will learn:

• How SPAN's smart panel eliminates the need for expensive electrical service upgrades
• Why the electrical panel is the key integration point for managing home energy loads
• How SPAN achieved product-market fit through both utility partnerships and direct consumer adoption
• The "Systems Architecture" approach to avoiding over-engineering
• Why design aesthetics in industrial design matter for infrastructure products
• How digital power control systems can unlock 1.4x more backup power from existing home batteries
• Why infrastructure solutions should deliver economic value independent of policy incentives
• The importance of deep domain expertise and conviction when building hardware
• How utilities are embracing smart panels as cost-effective alternatives
• Why focusing on designing interoperable products vs. closed ecosystems leads to broader market impact

Arch Rao is the Founder and CEO of SPAN, a pioneering company revolutionizing home electrical infrastructure through smart panel technology. With a background in mechanical and automotive engineering, Arch previously served as a leading product executive at Tesla Energy, where he played a crucial role in developing the Powerwall and other energy storage solutions. His expertise spans energy conversion technologies, product development, and sustainable infrastructure design. Under his leadership, SPAN has transformed the traditional electrical panel into an intelligent energy management system that enables widespread adoption of solar, batteries, and electric vehicles in homes.

Episode Resources:

• Arch Rao on LinkedIn
• SPAN Website
• Dylan Garrett on LinkedIn
• Synapse Podcast Website
• Synapse Website
• Hardware to Save a Planet Apple Podcasts
• Hardware to Save a Planet Spotify

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Previous guests include: Peter Reinhardt of Charm Industrial, Carlos Araque of Quaise, Noah McQueen of Heirloom, Areeb Malik of Glacier, Jeff Satwicz of Bigbelly, Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, Insiya Jafferjee of Shellworks, Paul Gross of Remora, Erika Boeing of Accelerate Wind and Daniel Betts of Blue Frontier.
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