Smart appliances could help consumers save money

January 19th, 2012

Appliance News Environment, Energy & Water Saving

What if all your household appliances could independently monitor the electrical grid and automatically adjust their settings to operate at the most economically efficient level? GE Appliances and Flint Energy (US) are combining efforts to test such a theory.

The pilot programme was revealed this week and will be operate in the south-eastern United State’s state of Georgia, where Flint Energy is based. It will involve 10 volunteer households over a period of two years. The houses will be decked out with new GE Brillion appliances that feature a programmable thermostat and Nucleus energy manager. Energy savings are predicted as Flint will send signals directly to the home’s Nucleus energy manager, which will then alert the thermostat and appliances.

Basically, the grid will tell the appliances when to reduce energy consumption based on peak-time signals from the utility. And the appliances will adjust themselves accordingly.

Customers can choose to override load-reduction settings at any time, which might prove useful in Georgia’s hot summer afternoons when temperatures soar above 30 degrees and don’t tend to drop below 20 degrees overnight.

Dave McCalpin, general manager of GE’s home energy management business said Flint was in the perfect position for such an enterprise.

“Flint Energies is at the forefront of understanding how smart grid-enabled devices in the home can provide consumers with energy savings, while helping utilities shift peak demand,” he said . “This pilot will provide the utility industry with tremendous insights on how to engage consumers in efforts to overcome some of our greatest energy challenges.”

In a country where almost 80 per cent of the population is in favour of energy reductions, the joint programme between GE and Flint could prove successful.

Down under in Australia, the rising cost of energy (18 per cent increase in New South Wales last year)  is a constant cause for consumer concern. In an effort to negate some of these costs consumers are turning to energy efficient appliances with good star ratings.