Today’s informed consumers are always on the lookout for new ways to stay green at home and companies like Whirlpool Corporation are committed to providing consumers with technology that addresses the needs of this contemporary lifestyle.
In an effort to reaffirm its commitment to the creation of green home-appliances, Whirlpool announced that it will introduce connected appliances to the market in 2012, under the Whirlpool brand. According to the home-appliance giant, this will take the company one step closer to its goal of turning many of its appliances "smart" by the end of 2015.
Whirlpool revealed that over the next 18 months, the company is going to roll out four new “smart” appliances, which would include a refrigerator, dishwasher, washer and dryer.
Today’s consumers do not want to just monitor and manage energy but to control functions on their appliances as well. According to Whirlpool, its new smart appliances will allow consumers to easily shift their energy consumption to off-peak times. A home energy management device will read usages from appliances and signals from power companies to optimize energy use. By providing alerts and notifications about energy usage, the appliances will make energy consumption more cost-effective for the consumers using multiple gadgets at home.
The widespread adoption of smart appliances is not only going to help bring down the household energy bills, it will also go a long way to save the environment, company officials pointed out.
“Our electric grid is more than 100 years old and not designed to handle all of the appliances in today's home,” Global Director of Energy and Sustainability for Whirlpool Warwick Stirling said. “Today appliances work independently from one another with little opportunity to optimize. And while manufacturers continue to explore innovations that improve the energy efficiency of individual products, the incremental gains are getting smaller and becoming more expensive to achieve.”
Stirling is going to participate in two panel discussions on the topics at the Consumer Electronics Show, taking place Jan. 10-13 in Las Vegas, Nev. The session aer called “Window to Tomorrow's Connected Home” (Jan. 11, 9 to 10 a.m., LVCC, North Hall N254) and “Smart Appliances: Ready for Prime Time?” (Jan. 12, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., LVCC, North Hall N260).
Doug Beaudet, Whirlpool's global director of experience design, will participate in a panel discussion around the Connected Healthy Kitchen during the Digital Health Summit at CES (News - Alert).
Additionally, Whirlpool brand appliances will be featured in the CES 2012 Concept Home, a real home in the South Hall on Level One in booth 26100.
Earlier this month, leading stock analyst, SmarTrend said that Whirlpool ranks highest with a sales per share of $244.92. Helen of Troy is next with a sales per share of $31.87. Craftmade International ranks third highest with a sales per share of $22.23. Sales per share is a valuable metric in comparing relative value for companies in the same industry.
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Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Carrie Schmelkin
