Schneider Electric, a leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced at CES 2021 the expansion of its Wiser smart home ecosystem, furthering discussion around the Smart and Sustainable Home. 

 

The Wiser range marks a significant step forward to create affordable, sustainable, energy efficient, resilient and personalised homes, the company said.

 

Anchored by the Square D Energy Center, these industry-first products enable unprecedented residential insights and monitoring capabilities for homeowners to control and lower their home's energy consumption and electrical heating and cooling costs by up to 50%.

 

"Our homes are expected to become the single largest greenhouse gas emitters over the next decade," said Manish Pant, Executive Vice President, Home and Distribution Division at Schneider Electric. "As consumers equip their homes with more connected devices, the ability to control and manage home energy consumption will be non-negotiable. A secure, interoperable power management system is key to ensuring consumers live sustainably even at home, by keeping energy cost and CO2 emissions to a minimum. Our new product empowers consumers to make better energy choices, and to take active control over their energy needs."

 

The Square D Energy Center, as part of the Wiser ecosystem of solutions, can now help combat the likelihood of homes becoming the single largest greenhouse gas emitters over the next decade, by transforming homes from simply smart to smart and sustainable. It's a major step towards enabling net zero, self-sufficient homes, and bringing sustainable energy choices directly to consumers. By connecting a smart thermostat, a smart meter, a back-up generator and a solar inverter with an AI-driven energy management system, the Square D Energy Center takes a proactive energy management approach, addressing key pain points of resilience and effective energy management in the home, said a statement.

 

2021 Product Introductions & Extensions

As part of a rising consumer demand and market appetite for sustainable, smart and efficient homes, Schneider Electric is unveiling the following as part of the new Square D Energy Center at CES in 2021:

• Control home energy loads from grid-to-plug: All electrical energy from the home and grid now converges in a single panel where load control is managed directly: from grid to plug. From swimming pools to heating to appliances, like freezers and washing machines, in two parts: critical and normal loads. If an outage is caused by adverse weather, for example, the panel switches to 'critical load' mode. At this point, it decides if appliances like the fridge are 'essential', then the energy supply is switched to these appliances only.

• Resiliency through different sources: The Square D Energy Center seamlessly enables the convergence, scalability, and optimization of residential distributed energy resources, including utility power, solar power, energy storage, future smart home devices and generators. With digital control from a single app, the power source can be changed to ensure resiliency and to reduce costs.

• Charging without being over-charged: The Square D Energy Center panel can monitor solar energy usage and track against the costs of utility power to optimize energy sourcing to reduce costs. For example, electric vehicles are high load and expensive to charge if you need to do so at peak time.

 

The Square D Energy Center panel can help to manage these costs by identifying the best time of day to charge your vehicle or switch to solar for charging to avoid higher energy rates.

• Intuitive installation and usage: The Square D Energy Center embeds seamlessly into properties, integrating batteries and energy measurements from both the grid and the home. There's no need to make a gateway or new protocols as it fits straight in with existing home energy management systems, controlled by the homeowner from a single app. Electricians can save installation time as the pre-wired panel arrives already assembled. – TradeArabia News Service