GE launches home energy management division

GE's smart appliances include a hybrid water heater. Photo: GE.

Smart appliances, electric vehicle chargers, energy management devices: GE has already established itself as a major presence in the space where consumers will interact with the smart grid. Now the global conglomerate has launched a new business unit to develop and commercialize its home energy management technologies as part of its Appliances and Lighting division.

With about 40 million smart meters expected to be rolled out in the United States by 2012, according to GE, home energy management systems would allow consumers to adjust their power consumption based on electricity demand and price signals. In July, GE unveiled its Nucleus Energy Manager, a palm-sized device that collects and stores household energy-use information, which can also be managed through home computers or smart phones.

"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," Dave McCalpin, general manager of the new business unit, said in a statement Tuesday.  “This is where global smart grid initiatives and GE's new home energy management products come into play."

Smart appliance sales could take off in the next several years and make up about eight percent of the appliance market by the end of the decade, according to a recent report from Pike Research. GE is trying to capture its share of that market through its Brillion suite of products, which includes the Nucleus, programmable thermostats and smart appliances. Eventually, the company said the Nucleus, which is expected to cost about $200 and to be available to consumers in early 2011, will also be able to monitor water consumption, renewable energy production and electric vehicle charging.