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 global director of connectivity. “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
energy-efficient, 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.
