• 18 JUN 12
    • 0

    Home appliance Energy Star rating soon to include wireless connectivity with smart meters

    Next time you are hunting for an energy efficient home appliance to replace that old dryer, microwave oven or fridge, the obvious step is to choose one with a good Energy Star rating. Note, however, that the Energy Star rating will soon have provision for new generation home appliances that have wireless connectivity to a smart meter. What is not said in the below article, however, is that disabling the wireless device in the appliance will void the appliance’s warranty and may even be an illegal act.

    Don

    **************************************************************************************************************************************************

    Energy Measurement for Appliances

    Mon, 01/16/2012 – 11:31am
    Prasad Dhond, Marketing Manager, Smart Grid Home Area Network, Texas Instruments

    Prasad Dhond

    Energy consumption awareness is a crucial step in going green as an individual consumer. Real-time energy usage data aggregated at the home-level by smart meters is useful, but drilling down to the energy consumption of each major home appliance is even better and more actionable. Standards such as ENERGY STAR are undergoing revisions to include provisions for “connected” appliances. Appliances that meet the “connected” criteria can receive an extra allowance towards their energy use for ENERGY STAR qualification. Additionally, these appliances will be highlighted as “connected” on the ENERGY STAR qualified product list. One of the requirements for being “connected” includes the built-in capability of appliances to measure and report energy consumption. Low-cost components to perform energy measurement are key to enabling widespread integration of this functionality in appliances. Household appliances can be powered by gas or electricity, but since most are powered by electricity this discussion will focus on electricity measurement only.

    Snip

    Link to the full article: http://www.ecnmag.com/articles/2012/01/energy-measurement-appliances

    Leave a reply →