Energy@Home consortium to begin in-home trials
The ZigBee protocol that will be used to build an integrated platform and allow cooperation between the main devices involved in residential energy management is based on the ZigBee Home automation standard promoted by the ZigBee alliance, of which Freescale is a founding member.
The Energy@Home consortium, led by ENEL, Telecom Italia, Electrolux and Indesit, envisions a program that can provide users with information on their household energy consumption directly on the display of a metering appliance or remotely on a smartphone or computer. Using this information, consumers will be able to assess their energy use for home appliances and potentially enhance the energy efficiency of their entire house.
Energy@Home’s mission is to develop an interoperable Home Area Network (HAN) focused on energy management and energy saving. The goal of the project is to build a communication infrastructure that enables value-added services related to energy usage, consumption and costs in the HAN.
A typical Energy@Home system includes the following:
- an ADSL gateway with wireless connectivity using ZigBee® wireless protocol;
- a smart information device, such as a smartphone, connected to the electricity meter through a USB ZigBee dongle key;
- smart appliances in the home such as refrigerators, washers and dryers;
- smart plugs that allow appliances that are ZigBee-enabled to communicate with the HA.
Bruno Baylac, director of the Medical, Metering and Connectivity solutions division for Freescale Semiconductor, said: “We are excited about the rapid and innovative developments achieved by the Energy@Home consortium. Our longstanding relationship with Energy@Home members and other leaders in the smart grid, smart meter, appliances and networking sectors enables us to provide a broad and deep level of expertise in supporting this critical project.”
Freescale products are present throughout the Energy@Home solution, providing performance via a ZigBee transceiver (MC13226) in the energy gateway processing unit and the i.MX28 as the gateway’s application processor. In addition to silicon and software solutions, Freescale is also supporting the consortium by using its expertise in the appliances, industrial and communications markets.
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