Net Zero in your Home By 2015

The race to achieve net zero has hit home. General Electric announced that they are aiming for net-zero living in the next decade. All of our homes will be running on smart grids with mini-turbines and solar panels to produce electricity, consuming zero net energy in the process. The ability to achieve net-zero means the home would produce its own energy; therefore GE plans to develop residential power generation products like solar PV and small scale wind products.

No longer will home owners blindly use energy. GE has been developing their smart energy system, named the Net Zero Home project, which will depend on a $250 central management hub available in 2010. This hub will communicate with all of a home's networked appliances and on-site power-producing equipment, as well as to the smart grid utility meter outside the home. The premium for the more efficient, networked appliances will be about $10 more, GE executives said. A net-zero energy home would cost about 10 percent more by 2015, executives also said.

Home owners will be more conscious of how much power they're using and how each device is performing. The hub will provide real-time energy data, peak usage information, price fluctuations, and opportunities for savings. Studies show that when consumers have more detailed information on their energy use, they can find ways to reduce consumption by 5 to 10 percent. (CNET) For instance a consumer can set up the system so that the temperature in a water heater or thermostat can drop down to a certain level when nobody is at home.

The distinction between the proposed GE Home Energy Manager and other monitoring applications (like Google PowerMeter and Microsoft Hohm) is that it would work collaboratively with smart appliances, energy management devices, and residential electricity generation and storage systems (with an emphasis on solar generation and storage).

SOURCES

Websites:
• CNET “GE: Smart grid yields net-zero energy home”
  2009. CBS Interactive Inc. 14 Jul. 2009.
  <http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10286278-54.html>.
• GE “GE Targets Net Zero Energy Homes by 2015”
  2009. General Electric Company. 14 Jul. 2009.
  <http://www.genewscenter.com/content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=7272&NewsAreaID=2>