Masdar City to test GE 'smart' appliances

Abu Dhabi's planned green community, Masdar City, will be testing General Electric's smart appliances in a handful of residences and coordinating them with its power grid, GE said Monday.

GE's Consumer & Industrial division announced in October 2008 that it was developing home appliances that could ease the strain on electrical grids by coordinating with a grid's off-peak hours to perform flexible functions.

A refrigerator equipped with a "smart" meter, for example, communicates with the local power utility. That refrigerator then waits to run its automatic defrost cycle until it has received a signal from the electrical grid that it's an off-peak period.

A smart meter on a refrigerator at GE's labs.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Masdar City is under construction in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It aims to be the first carbon-neutral and zero-waste city. It's also home to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The post-graduate research center, a collaborator with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began offering courses and research facilities in alternative energy and sustainable technology for graduate students in September.

The two-year pilot project with GE appliances will include refrigerators, stoves, and European-style washer/dryer machines that run on 220volt/50HZ platforms and will be installed in 10 residences.

The installation, to be completed in early 2010, will include a communication system between the appliances and Masdar City's utility grid that will allow the appliances to transmit real-time data and run nonessential functions during off-peak usage hours. Since Masdar City is not scheduled to be fully inhabited until 2013, the city's grid will simulate peak usage strains in order to test the system.

Previously, GE began testing its smart appliances in select homes in Louisville, Ky., in conjunction with the Louisville Gas and Electric Company.

[bschmock]

Sounds like a good idea, I'm really liking this new smart tech, I only see a few problems.<br /><br />First seems like testing these apps in the Masdar is kind of a waste because they are being put into a new city that is basically being built from the ground up, instead of the real world like Tokyo or some similar place. Although the English have been testing similar products on established power grids and that seems promising.<br /><br />And secondly if I may digress for a minute, it seems like building "smarter" appliances and what not is a good idea on the surface but where does it end? I mean am I going to have to worry about my toaster developing conciseness and trying to kill me, or take over the world in 10 years? If so someone needs to develop time travel so we can send a someone back in time to try to stop the end of the world. Or at very least impregnate a woman in the 80's so we will have a future leader of a resistance.<br /><br />Just saying.

[ikramerica--2008]

Why not just link with the radio time server and have the internal clock know to run the defrost cycle at 2AM or something like that? Why make it communicate TWO WAY with big brother? Why? Because it's not about control of defrost cycles, but about getting people comfortable with government in their home, setting their thermostats and appliances as they see fit...

[carlhage]

While grid communication is a worthwhile feature, it's going to be a while before standards get worked out, and even then, people might prefer to know what the appliance will be doing and when.<br /><br />An even simpler, cheaper feature is a timed start. Just like the breadmaker designed to make bread overnight, fresh for the morning, a dishwasher, clothes washer, etc. could do it's work late at night. I saw that feature on a clothes washer in Argentina, but I don't know anyone who has that feature.<br /><br />I just checked the web sites for GE and Kenmore-- what a pain, both websites have malfunctions. The delayed start feature is not listed anywhere, but I was able to access the manuals for a new GE dishwasher and clothes washer, and they do have the delayed start. This would seem to be a good feature to mandate for an energy-star rating.<br /><br />This feature would be easier to use if the unit had a clock in it and the start time could be programmed at a specific hour.

[atish505]

Very commendable effort. Masdar will lead the way future eco-friendly cities, town, suburbs, city extensions and the like will be built.