News

GE Appliances Creates Home Energy Management Business

December 02, 2010 by Jeff Shepard

GE Appliances & Lighting plans to be the first major appliance company to provide a whole-home solution for energy management by going beyond the kitchen to provide insight into energy usage in the family room, the basement, the home office and all other rooms of the house. From the GeoSpring™ Hybrid Hot Water Heater, Nucleus™ energy manager , and programmable thermostats, to GE Profile™ Appliances enabled with Brillion™ technology and GE smart meters, GE is developing solutions to help consumers better manage and control their energy use and costs.

Dave McCalpin was recently appointed General Manager of GE’s Home Energy Management (HEM) business. The new business will develop and commercialize GE’s full line of energy-management solutions that empower consumers to make smarter, more informed energy choices. As utilities roll out smart grid technologies in response to the critical energy challenges we face as a nation, there’s never been a better time for GE to launch this business.

GE Energy products, like solar PV, advanced energy storage, thin-film solar, small wind and residential electric car charging stations, in addition to next-generation products being developed at GE’s Global Research Center, will also play an integral part in helping both consumers and utilities realize the true benefits of the smart grid.

"It makes economic and environmental sense for the world to better utilize the power we already generate rather than create more capacity to meet our escalating peak-power needs," said McCalpin. "If we can better manage when and how we use power, we can control the demand without compromising people’s lifestyles. This is where global smart grid initiatives and GE’s new Home Energy Management products come into play."

GE bridges the utility-consumer gap: Consumers today have little more than a monthly utility bill to understand how much power they’re using and how much they’re spending. Compare this to your credit card statements, which you can check almost hourly online. New utility pricing plans, along with inevitable increases in electricity costs, beg for solutions to provide consumers with the information necessary to better manage energy.

GE’s Nucleus energy manager with Brillion technology was developed to provide near real-time information for more control over household energy costs and consumption. Along with monitoring consumers’ whole-home energy usage, Nucleus will give people the ability to remotely adjust smart thermostats and alter the consumption of GE Profile Appliances enabled with Brillion technology in response to utility price signals.

GE’s Brillion Suite of Home Energy Solutions, being developed by GE’s HEM business, will include the Nucleus, a programmable thermostat, an energy display, smart phone applications, and GE Profile Appliances. Future hardware and software upgrades will further enable Nucleus to monitor water, natural gas, and renewable energy sources, as well as plug-in electric vehicle charging. For more information about GE’s Nucleus, click here.

"Smart energy management products will offer consumers more convenience, choice and control than ever thought possible," McCalpin said.

Components of GE’s Brillion Suite of Home Energy Solutions are already being tested by five utilities in the U.S. Working in conjunction with the utility’s smart meters, GE’s Brillion-enabled appliances receive signals from the smart meter and are programmed to avoid energy usage during high-cost periods or to operate on a lower wattage setting. The Nucleus also receives the smart meter data and displays current and historical home energy consumption, giving consumers the insights they need to make better energy choices. Smart appliances have the potential to help lower consumers’ energy bills, while giving them the control they desire – even the capability to override these settings.