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Here’s a recent update on the legislation that includes the Home Star Program. Its Senate passage after the August break is far from certain.
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The Cash for Appliances program has been adopted in all 50 states, but the results vary widely from state-to-state. What’s been going on?
READ MORE > - Cash for Caulkers: The Definitive Guide
The Home Star Program is nearing approval. Here is everything homeowners need to know about the requirements to take full advantage of Home Star.
READ MORE > - Cash for Caulkers update
Here’s an update on Home Star, including the Senate legislation and press release; it has bi-partisan support and there are hopes for passage by July 4th.
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“Smart” appliances that talk to the grid are coming your way soon
Posted on 14. Jul, 2009 by GMS Editor in Featured, Newsflash, ShowOnLatestPanel
Posted 9:49 PM on July 13, 2009
by Todd Woody
Given that about half of a typical home’s electricity consumption goes to power appliances, lighting, and water heating, so-called demand-response dishwashers and dryers could not only shrink your personal carbon footprint but allow utilities to avoid building new power plants to meet peak demand or firing up dirty ones to avoid brownouts.
“We’re looking at targeting a 30 to 50 percent reduction in energy usage per appliance,” says Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck. Tendril makes software that downloads data from smart meters to let people track their electricity usage in real time.
For most utilities, electricity demand peaks between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., when people come home from work, cook dinner, wash clothes, run the dishwasher, charge up their mobile phones, and flick on their big-screen televisions.
Of course, you, dear consumer, could care less because you pay the same flat electricity rate regardless of what it costs the utility to meet peak demand. But not for too much longer. Smart electricity meters and the interactive power grid will allow utilities to impose variable or time-of-day pricing, which means it’s going to get pricey to run the washing machine at 5 p.m. when you realize you have no clean clothes for work tomorrow.
Hence the Roombaization of the dumb dishwasher. If you turn on your oven to cook a meal when electricity rates are high, your stove will literally tell your refrigerator to delay defrosting or adjust its temperature until dinner is served. Likewise, the washing machine will send a signal wirelessly or through the home’s power lines to the dishwasher to switch on after the clothes are cleaned.
“When consumers buy a new fridge they’ll make a phone call or go online and register their new appliance with the grid,” says Tendril’s Tuck. “If they do that, the appliance will start to receive pricing information and download algorithms to modify its behavior.”
If you sign up for your utility’s demand-response program, the utility’s computers will adjust the energy consumption of your appliances and those in thousands of other homes—without affecting your lifestyle, Tendril and GE take pains to stress—to ensure peak demand is met.
The big question remains how much of an impact smart appliances will have on electricity consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. While Americans may buy a new car every few years—at least they did pre-recession—they tend to hang on to their Kenmores for a decade and typically replace the range only when the kitchen is remodeled.
