Ford MyEnergi Lifestyle adds home energy storage
09 January 2014
Ford Motor Company is expanding its MyEnergi Lifestyle program (earlier post), announced at last year’s CES, to include home energy storage. The program originally set out to demonstrate how a typical American family can significantly lower its electricity costs while limiting its impact on the environment.
MyEnergi Lifestyle, a Ford Motor Company collaboration with Eaton, Infineon, SunPower and Whirlpool, retrofitted the homes of two families with energy-efficient appliances and solar panels, as well as providing the families with their own Ford C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid vehicle.
In addition to using home renewables, smart charging and smart appliances, Ford announced at the 2014 International CES that MyEnergi Lifestyle 2.0 will demonstrate the benefits of integrating additional tools, such as the ability to store energy within the home after it is captured by solar panels. Customers will have more ways to optimize their energy use, and power they can tap to keep their homes running during outages. Ford is demonstrating an energy storage system from Sharp at CES as an example.
The first year of the MyEnergi Lifestyle program showed us homeowners can save money and reduce their carbon footprint by adopting certain energy usage habits. We’re excited about advancing the program further to include battery storage for even smarter energy consumption.
—Mike Tinskey, Ford global director of vehicle electrification and infrastructure
Ford and its business associates worked with researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology to create a computer model that calculates 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% reduction in energy costs and more than 9,000 kilograms of CO2 (55% reduction) saved. If every home in the United States 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.
The two families (the Berrys in Southern California and the Sattlers in Colorado) in the program have already begun to see savings. Examples of efficiencies include:
Berry family:
More than $1,200 saved in annual fuel costs with their C-MAX Energi
Expect to save more than $300 annually from their new solar panel system; the system offsets more than 70% of the energy used in their home.
More than 25% reduction in energy costs and CO2 due to the installation of a new energy-efficient Whirlpool refrigerator.
Sattler family:
More than $1,200 saved in annual fuel costs with the C-MAX Energi; expect to save an additional $95 per year by charging the C-MAX Energi during off-peak hours.
Expect to save $135 per year with the new energy-efficient Whirlpool freezer.
The Sattlers expect increased efficiencies once their solar panel system is activated.
The Ford-led MyEnergi Lifestyle collaboration showcases how combining renewable energy generation with time-flexible loads optimizes energy consumption across a plug-in vehicle and home appliances.
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