Zerohouse Ford MyEnergi
Ford Motor Company and KB Home announced a new clean-energy partnership in April 2013. The companies planned to feature Ford’s MyEnergi Lifestyle® products inside KB Home’s ZeroHouse 2.0 model home in San Marcos, California. In addition, KB Home said the concept could expand into other markets.
Ford and KB Home Connect the House and the Car
The partnership focused on one idea. Homes and vehicles should work together to use less energy.
Therefore, the ZeroHouse 2.0 model combined an efficient home design with electric transportation, solar power and smart appliances. Ford and KB Home wanted families to see how these technologies could work as one system.
Moreover, the project aimed to make sustainable living feel practical. Families could potentially cut energy costs. At the same time, they could reduce their environmental impact.
MyEnergi Lifestyle Manages Energy Smarter
MyEnergi Lifestyle used technology to control when major devices consumed electricity. As a result, homes could shift some energy use to lower-cost periods.
For example, a smart refrigerator could make ice or run a defrost cycle at night. Electricity often costs less during those hours. Likewise, a Ford plug-in vehicle could recharge during the same lower-cost period.
Consequently, the system did more than reduce energy use. It also changed when that energy was used.
A More Connected Approach to Sustainable Living
Ford brought the vehicle technology. Meanwhile, KB Home provided the high-efficiency house. Solar power and smart appliances connected the two.
Together, those systems created a more integrated approach to sustainable living. Instead of treating the car, the house and the appliances as separate energy users, MyEnergi Lifestyle linked them into one smarter energy strategy.
Therefore, the ZeroHouse 2.0 became more than a model home. It became a demonstration of how clean transportation, renewable energy and smart-home technology could work together.
Event Launch
At an event today in San Marcos, Ford’s all-new C-MAX Energi was on display and plugged into ZeroHouse 2.0’s built-in electric vehicle charge station. Essentially which is engineered to charge the vehicle during off-peak hours for maximum cost efficiency.
C-MAX Energi Brings Plug-In Power
Ford positioned the C-MAX Energi as an efficient plug-in hybrid with strong everyday performance. According to the EPA, the model delivered a combined 100 MPGe rating.
However, efficiency was only part of the story.
The C-MAX Energi also produced up to 195 horsepower. As a result, drivers could get solid acceleration, responsive handling and a quiet cabin without giving up fuel savings.
At the time, Ford priced the C-MAX Energi from $29,995. That made it one of the most affordable plug-in hybrids available in the United States.
Ford Connects the Car and the Home
Ford saw a larger opportunity behind the vehicle.
Mike Tinskey, Ford’s global director of vehicle electrification and infrastructure, praised KB Home for using advanced sustainable building practices. He also said Ford was excited to feature MyEnergi Lifestyle technology inside the company’s homes.
More importantly, Ford viewed the home and the vehicle as part of the same energy system.
Both relied on electricity. Therefore, Ford believed the technologies should work together.
That thinking became central to MyEnergi Lifestyle. Instead of treating a plug-in vehicle, smart appliances and home energy systems as separate products, Ford tried to connect them into one coordinated platform.
The Future of Net-Zero Energy
Meanwhile, KB Home continued expanding its ZeroHouse 2.0 concept.
The company had started rolling out net-zero energy home options nationally in 2011. However, the San Marcos project pushed the idea further.
The ZeroHouse 2.0 became the first WaterSense-labeled home built in San Diego County.
In addition, KB Home equipped the property with a Schneider Electric Wiser™ Home Management System. The home also featured Whirlpool smart appliances using Whirlpool® 6th Sense Live™ technology.
Together, those systems helped monitor and manage household energy use.
Consequently, the ZeroHouse 2.0 showed what an increasingly connected home could look like. Solar power, smart appliances, plug-in vehicles and home energy controls worked together.
That combination pointed toward a future where homes could use less energy, reduce waste and potentially move closer to net-zero operation.
Wiser Home Management
The Wiser Home Management System allows homeowners to monitor energy consumption, and provides automation control via a Web-based portal or mobile application. This marks the first time these innovative products have been used by a production homebuilder.
Whirlpool’s smart products allow homeowners to monitor and program their appliances through wireless networks, providing greater convenience and control over energy consumption.
Whirpool
With Whirlpool 6th Sense Live, homeowners can set their appliances so their highest energy consumption activities happen at times when electricity rates are lowest. They can also receive alerts about the status of their smart appliances – all from their smartphones or computers.
“We’re so pleased to announce our new relationship with Ford, and to have the opportunity to use our innovative new ZeroHouse 2.0 as a true model for an energy-efficient and sustainable lifestyle that we know many of today’s consumers desire to achieve,” said Jeff Mezger, president and CEO, KB Home. “We continue to refine our ZeroHouse 2.0 options and benefits by further developing and incorporating some of the latest new home building practices and technologies available today.”
High Efficiency of ZeroHouse
The higher efficiency of ZeroHouse 2.0 is the result of a whole-home approach – from the inside out – that includes additional insulation; upgraded HVAC systems; dual-pane, low-emitting windows; and roof-mounted solar panels by SunPower. Additionally, a WaterSense-labeled home is designed to use 20 percent less water than a typical new home. For a family of four, that’s a difference of about 50,000 gallons of water a year compared to a typical home, or enough for nearly 2,000 loads of laundry and as much as $600 in annual utility bills.
At today’s event students from San Marcos Middle School and local officials learned firsthand how much money can potentially be saved by living in an energy-efficient ZeroHouse 2.0 home.
The students toured the home to learn about the efficiency features included, then watched as a dump truck load of schoolyard dodge balls was spilled out, symbolizing the amount of water a WaterSense-labeled home saves in less than a week compared to a typical new or resale home. KB Home announced it would make a cash donation to the school, equivalent to a year’s worth of energy and water savings enjoyed by a family living in the ZeroHouse 2.0 home when compared to a typical resale home.
History of MyEnergi Lifestyle
The Ford-led MyEnergi Lifestyle collaboration is comprised of leaders in the home appliance, solar power and power management industries, and includes Eaton (NYSE: ETN), SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) and Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR). Additional featured companies include semiconductor provider Infineon (FSE: IFX/OTCQX: IFNNY) and Nest Labs, with its latest learning thermostat represented in the research and implementation phase of the collaboration.
In January Ford released results of a Georgia Institute of Technology computer model that calculated the electricity usage of a typical single family in their home for one year, and the associated savings with moving to an energy-efficient lifestyle. The cumulative results predict a 60 percent reduction in energy costs and more than 9,000 kg of CO2 (a 55 percent reduction) saved.
If every home in the U.S. were to implement these energy-saving technologies, it would be the equivalent of taking all the homes in California, New York and Texas – 32 million homes – off the power grid.
Ford Motor Company http://corporate.ford.com.
