Indesit Company and Freescale have collaborated to come up with a Smart Washer that uses a Freescale ZigBee node, allowing it to adjust its cycle starting time according to the variable energy cost, accessing information from the local power utility via a ZigBee enabled Internet connection to the Smart Grid.
Smart Appliance
Professionals are approaching energy efficiency in a multitude of ways ranging from hybrid or electric cars to energy generated by algae. Most of those methods are focused on ways to create greener energy or making vehicles and devices more efficient. Building on that, what if devices and appliances could monitor the electric grid and make adjustments as necessary to accommodate during peak usage times?
via Smart appliances may be critical to future smart-grid in U.S. – Tainted Green.
An Israeli company said it had developed a high tech, power-saving (OOTC:TCPW) method to monitor home electrical usage, appliance by appliance, and control them remotely.
The Computerized Electricity System (CES), or smart grid, provides homeowners with real-time information about how many kilowatts of electricity the blender, refrigerator, stove or washing machine, or any other electrical appliance is drawing at any given moment, Lupu Wittner, CES co-founder and chief technical officer told Xinhua on Wednesday.
via Israeli company develops power-saving method to monitor home electrical usage.
The next meter your utility company installs will be a smart one, the industry tells us.
(It’s all part of the government’s smart-grid plans, and a potentially a new threat to consumers’ privacy.)
Your smart meter may have the ability able to tell you how much juice your dishwasher is using or how efficient your fridge is.
But another system, developed by engineering students at Northeastern University, can do a better job of helping you trim your energy bill.
via App can help fine-tune your electricity usage – The Boston Globe.
Is there really much of a difference between demand response and smart grid?
Demand response companies try to curb peak power and are increasingly moving toward managing power throughout the day to reduce energy consumption. Smart grid companies want to add intelligence to the grid so that one day they can shut down clothes dryers and curb air conditioners remotely, sort of like demand response companies.
via Comverge: From Demand Response to Energy Management : Greentech Media.
Will Google’s tools one day help you monitor and manage the energy consumption of appliances like your washer and dryer? The company said yesterday afternoon that it’s partnered with chip maker Microchip to work with developers in order to create embedded devices that are compatible with Google’s energy tool PowerMeter. Microchip says the relationship means that it will offer Google’s recently opened API (application programming interface) to its developer community.
What exactly is a smart appliance and how big is the commercial opportunity? Cleantech Group’s Stephen Marcus has details.
Most of us have heard the term “smart appliance” thrown around.
And most of us ultimately think of machines such as refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers consuming lower energy than a “non-smart” alternative.
via Sizing the smart appliance opportunity | Cleantech Group.
Imagine controlling your household appliances via your iPhone. Start-up companies are offering new software to enable households to boost their energy efficiency. It’s a potential mass market which is also awakening the interest of giants like Microsoft and Google.
GE is shipping the first smart appliance to hit the US market. It’s a water heater that can reduce energy consumption up to 62%, providing a savings of about 3,025 kWh per year. And the “smart” part comes with the fact that it can hook up to smart meters and a smart grid. But here’s the downer – what meters, and what grid?
via GE Ships US’s First Smart Appliance, But Is It Pointless? : TreeHugger.
The market for ’smart appliances’ is in rapid development, and wireless companies want to make sure they get a piece of the pie.
On Wednesday, the Wi-Fi Alliance, a consortium of companies developing wireless technologies, released a white paper detailing the benefits of Wi-Fi as the standard of communication in smart grid solutions.
via Wireless Protocols Vie for Smart Grid – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.
Abu Dhabi has been drumming up publicity for its planned carbon-neutral, zero-waste community and research complex, Masdar City, recently — last week airing intentions to raise $600 million to start construction in earnest. Now it says it’s partnering with General Electric to test the conglomerate’s so-called smart appliances, ranging from refrigerators to clothes dryers capable of communicating energy use data and running at off-peak times.
GE has signed on for a two-year pilot project to install its appliances in 10 Masdar City homes, starting in early 2010. The trial period is not only for the appliances, but also for the City’s advanced electrical grid, which will ideally transmit data from the appliances to its central utility in real time.
via General Electric turns Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City into appliance laboratory | VentureBeat.
General Electric has said it could start selling some of its smart appliances — dishwashers, water heaters, microwaves and other devices embedded with communications technology — as early as this summer. But how will those appliances securely and efficiently connect with the grid so that utilities can turn them down during peak electricity hours? One answer will come from Tendril, the 5-year-old Boulder, Colo.-based startup that has developed energy management software and hardware for utilities and consumers. Tendril and GE say this morning that they will co-develop software that will hook GE’s smart appliances up to the grid and the utility back office based on Tendril’s energy management platform.
It’s a big win for Tendril, which announced it raised a third round of funding of $30 million just last month. GE will be Tendril’s first appliance partner, though Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck tells us that the company plans to announce other appliance partners in the future. For GE, the Tendril partnership will bring the startup’s experience of working with — and building software for — utilities and delivering the features that utilities are particularly concerned about: security and privacy of data, cost of the system, and ease of use. Utilities that buy GE and Tendril’s offer will be using Tendril’s energy management system on the back-end.
On the consumer-facing side, GE and the utility won’t necessarily be using Tendril’s energy dashboard hardware, as GE has its own energy management dashboard. GE has said it plans to start selling the smart energy dashboard in late 2009 or early 2010 and plans to supply 500 smart dashboards for a test project for Florida utility FPL.
via GE, Tendril Partner to Hook Up Smart Appliances to the Grid.
