NEW YORK —
Whirlpool and Haier Group have separately
forged respective partnerships with Tendril and Honeywell
to create a smart-appliance infrastructure and develop energy-
efficient products and solutions worldwide.
For Whirlpool, the partnership with Boulder, Colo.-based
Tendril, a leading energy-platform developer, will provide
the interface that will allow its next-gen majaps to communicate
with the energy grid, and represents another major
step toward the rollout of smart appliances in the U.S.
“The backend infrastructure required to make this happen
is a critical component of the solution,” said Joseph
Lui, Whirlpool’s connectivity global director. “By leveraging
Tendril’s highly extensible energy service delivery platform,
Whirlpool will be able to provide consumers with
a desirable solution to better manage their energy usage
and spend.”
Whirlpool said Tendril’s open-standards-based, scalable
and secure integrated platform will enable a dialogue
between appliances, consumers and utilities that will allow
smart products to defer or reduce operations to less-costly
non-peak power times.
“This will forever change how consumers interact with
their appliances and how they conserve energy in their
homes,” said Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck. “We believe this
will help consumers become increasingly energy-wise, and
in the process, help utilities effectively manage peak loads
on the grid.”
Meanwhile, Haier has signed a memorandum of understanding
(MOU) with Honeywell that calls for both companies
to collaborate on new technology to make major
appliances, whole-home systems, residential heating,
building automation and mass-transit systems run cleaner
and more efficiently.
The global strategic initiative “will allow us to explore
solutions that mutually benefit Chinese and American
consumers and enterprises,” said Shariff Kan, president
of Haier America, as its parent company actively promotes
a globalization strategy for products and comprehensive
solutions.
One area of collaboration will be the use of energyefficient,
closed-cell foam insulation in Haier majaps using
Honeywell’s non-ozone-depleting Enovate blowing agent,
which will help the products comply with stricter Energy
Star program standards. The companies also plan to jointly
develop air conditioners, refrigerators and solar-power water
heater solutions based on Honeywell’s refrigerants and
blowing agents, which have a low potential for contributing
to global warming, the partners said.
In addition, Honeywell’s technology solutions China unit
will work with Haier’s research and development arm on the
manufacturer’s automated home-control program.
