Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces the first mass-market Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS) to earn ENERGY STAR certification. With smart home products gaining in popularity across the country, this certification gives homeowners and renters nationwide the ability to choose systems that help them simplify the management of networked products to save energy, save money and protect the climate.
“In today’s world just about everything is connected, including many of the household products we use each and every day,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan. “With smart systems that earn the ENERGY STAR, American households will be able to track and automate everything from their lighting to their thermostat use to optimize for energy savings that lead to financial savings and a reduced carbon footprint.”
ENERGY STAR certified Smart Home Energy Management Systems enable consumers to enjoy the “smart home” experience, with the added benefit of optimized energy efficiency. Certified systems allow users to control and track the use of products and devices ranging from their lighting, home entertainment, and appliances to their EV charger or solar panels, all from one centralized management system. Certified systems offer a variety of energy-saving attributes, including standby limits on all required devices, grid communication capabilities to enable demand response functionality, utility time of use pricing integration to run appliances or EV charging off peak, and the ability to suggest energy saving actions based on room or home occupancy. The value of an ENERGY STAR certified SHEMS is that it simplifies your efforts to save energy use and allows you to reap the full benefits of home efficiency regardless of your level of personal involvement. Whether you’re a technology and data enthusiast who enjoys a deeper dive into your home energy management or a busy individual who wants to automate your home systems and take energy management off your mental plate, SHEMS allows you to maximize savings.
EPA is pleased to announce that Samsung SmartThings is the first platform of its kind to earn the ENERGY STAR certification for a Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS). SmartThings creates meaningful experiences that are effortlessly integrated across any phone, any device, and any brand. With ENERGY STAR certification of the new Samsung SmartThings Home Energy service, simplified home energy management is now available nationwide, and with integrations that span thousands of partner brands, this platform allows you to build a smart home as unique as you.
About ENERGY STAR certified Smart Home Energy Management Systems (SHEMS)
The ENERGY STAR SHEMS specification defines a home energy management system that will enhance the consumer “smart home” experience by delivering meaningful energy savings in addition to the comfort and convenience associated with smart home devices. EPA created this opportunity to promote energy management in the smart home space as the market continues to grow and evolve. By providing a national platform for smart energy management that is scalable, customizable and can be leveraged by a variety of stakeholders, EPA hopes to foster effective methods of smart home energy management.
The SHEMS program is designed to facilitate untapped residential energy savings associated with occupancy-based optimization control of key devices and the introduction of additional energy-saving products into the home. Key features of the SHEMS performance criteria include:
- ENERGY STAR certified smart thermostat, ENERGY STAR certified lighting and plug load control.
- Standby limits on all required devices.
- Ability to receive and utilize occupancy information to produce energy-saving actions (e.g. schedules, suggested actions, service initiated actions like adjusting the heat when no one is home).
- User access to energy use information to facilitate energy-saving behavior.
- A daily kWh budget for operating lights while away.
- Grid communication to enable demand response functionality.
- Integration with utility dynamic (time of use) pricing schedules.
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including about 40% of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $450 billion in energy costs and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions.
More background information about ENERGY STAR.
Original source can be found here.
