smart appliances

Honeywell doesn't get any more specific than referring to "other 'smart' thermostats" in announcing its new Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat this week, but the feature and price similarities between Honeywell's new product and the Nest Learning Thermostat couldn't be more clear.

For $249, the same price as the Nest, the Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat will provide a similar set of functions to help you regulate and customize your home heating and cooling. Like the Nest, Honeywell's thermostat lets you program temperature settings on the device itself and remotely via iOS and Android devices. It also has … Read more

You may eventually be able to operate your TV, refrigerator, or garage door through Google Glass.

Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a Google patent application called "Wearable Computer with Superimposed Controls and Instructions for External Device" describes a technology in which a Google Glass wearer could control a real object via a virtual display.

Beyond merely showing you details about an object, Google Glass would present a virtual control panel to let you interact with that object.

As described in the patent, you could "control the target device, provide input to the … Read more

Owners of certain Panasonic smart appliances will soon be able to manage them remotely via their Android phones.

The consumer electronics company has cooked up its own Panasonic Smart App. Android users can remotely turn on and control any compatible appliance, potentially cutting energy costs. Users can even monitor their energy savings through the app.

Included among the smart home appliances are Panasonic air conditioners, refrigerators, and health care devices. New appliances slated to hit the market in Japan on September 25 are Panasonic's X Series room air conditioners, a top-mount refrigerator, and drum-type washer-dryers. The new air conditions … Read more

A home full of "smart" devices that can communicate still needs apps to give people a reason to use them.

Grid upstart Tendril today opened up a developer site to encourage the creation of applications that do something interesting with energy-related information. Tendril had already published some of the APIs for its cloud-based platform in a closed beta, but it is now opening up the service to more developers and adding documentation.

The Tendril Connect platform provides some of the plumbing to collect energy consumption data and present it back to consumers on different devices, such as computers, … Read more

Two new housing developments in Breda, the Netherlands, will serve as a two-year pilot project to see whether a home decked out in smart-energy tech with access to multiple energy sources, not just the electric grid, is the answer to energy savings.

Through a partnership with Netherlands grid operator Enexis, power company Greenchoice, and housing developer Heja, more than 300 homes have been built incorporating the latest energy-saving technologies. The pilot program, called Jouw Energie Moment (Your Energy Moment), could determine how people in the Netherlands choose to handle home energy management and building design going forward.

The Meulenspie development … Read more

Some Martha's Vineyard households will soon be receiving smart appliances from General Electric as part of a pilot project, GE announced today.

It's part of mission to promote smart grid and renewable energy use on the island that has been spearheaded by The Vineyard Energy Project (VEP), a nonprofit community energy group started in West Tisbury, Mass., and the island's energy co-op, Vineyard Power.

In December 2010, VEP was granted almost $800,000 toward its goal of deploying smart grid technologies on the island, including smart appliances, via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--No longer content to simply show its latest electronics at CES, LG this year brought a line of networked "smart appliances."

At a press event here today, the company announced a line of kitchen and cleaning appliances that use the Thinq brand name, promising consumers better energy efficiency and control.

The appliances use a Wi-Fi home network and smart meter to offer features, such as remotely operating appliances from a smart phone or programming them to take advantage of off-peak rates.

Being connected to a network also enables the appliances to alert their owners that something is … Read more

Ringing in the new year is usually accompanied by more than just a ringing headache. Along with exclamations of "never again" come the requisite resolutions. While some of these will certainly be proclamations of imbibing (at least) one less toast, others will be more pragmatic. Like cleaning out the fridge.

While a self-cleaning fridge is currently as ephemeral and fleeting as most other New Year's resolutions, the possibility is on the horizon. In the United Kingdom, the University of Central Lancashire and online supermarket Ocado are collaborating on a fridge that does just that.

Featuring shelf surfaces that will use "nano-articulated technology," the refrigerator will have the capability to move food products around the interior via an array of micro-tiles.

Designed to be more than just a method for moving soon-to-be-spoiled food up to the front of the fridge, the entire shopping and storage experience is set for an upgrade. The smart fridge is designed to monitor gases from decaying foods, scan contents, and then create shopping lists (or just order) based on these factors.… Read more

A thermostat technology that's intended to significantly reduce energy bills is about to become available for use in actual homes.

EcoFactor, the developer of a software platform for a two-way "smart" thermostat, announced Thursday its dynamic system for regulating home heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems will be offered through a pilot project in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, metro area.

In addition to turning heat or air conditioning on and off at set times or specified temperatures, the system monitors the thermal behavior of the home, as well as daily outdoor temperatures and weather forecasts. It … Read more