Haier Europe:from the household appliance connected to the energy communities

Smart appliances are a valid help in times of high energy costs.Haier Europe presents its innovations for citizens and energy communities.

• During 2022 the price of electricity increased almost tenfold compared to January 2021.
• Haier Europe responds to high utility bills with innovations to make domestic consumption more efficient.
• Connected appliances offer great opportunities in terms of energy savings.
• Haier Europe has also supplied its smart devices to renewable energy communities.

In this period, 31 percent of Italians say they are "very worried" about the bills to pay and another 37.2 percent “fairly worried.”Percentages much higher than the European Union averages, equal to 20.3 and 27.6 percent respectively.This is what emerges from a survey submitted by the European Commission to over 25 thousand adult citizens in all 27 member states.On the other hand, as much as the government can mitigate the situation, during 2022 the price of electricity it increased almost tenfold compared to January 2021, reaching 543 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) in August.Stabilization is expected for the next few years, but at higher rates than those of the recent past.While institutions strive to support the purchasing power of the population, companies can also do a lot to make homes increasingly efficient.It moved in this direction Haier Europe, part of the Chinese Haier group which is firmly in first place in the household appliances sector, with a market share of 15.8 percent of global sales in 2021.

Optimize consumption with connected appliances

On November 22, 2022 the company, known in Italy by its brands Haier, Candy and Hoover, presented its package of innovations, services and agreements for increasing the efficiency of consumption at home.

Italians have now become familiar with theenergy label, mandatory and recently renewed by the European Union.Already with the "old" energy tariffs, a class A washing machine today cut costs by up to 200 euros per year compared to a class D one;a saving that today has almost doubled.Him too connected appliances al Wifi offer numerous advantages in this sense, because they offer "preventive alerts on the right time to clean the filters or advice for carrying out other maintenance which, in washing machines, allows you to save up to 20 percent of energy.The integrations with meteorological services, however, warn in case of rain to avoid the risk of not being able to hang out", he explained Gianpiero Morbello, Head of Brand & IoT Haier Europe.There is also the possibility of programming them intelligently by setting the priority of use, so as not to overload the electricity grid.

Appliances that start themselves when electricity costs less

Haier Europe's next step is to make sure that the switching on of household appliances can be programmed based on time slots of the contract in place with your energy supplier.First by setting them manually but, subsequently, also automatically;or even offering him the most functional contract for his specific consumption.

Abroad, the brand is already experimenting with systems that activate household appliances taking into account the oscillations of electricity tariffs in real time.Another possible way is to reward, with discounts on the bill, customers who turn on the washing machine, dishwasher and other devices at times when the network is not overloaded.The latter is a fundamental theme in a future in which renewable sources (by their nature intermittent) will have to play a leading role.

Haier Europe's partnership with energy communities

Precisely the fact that clean energy is intermittent and non-programmable creates the need to act on the consumption side, to ensure that production goes hand in hand with use.A need that becomes pressing in the energy communities, recently introduced in our country too.As the name suggests, they are groups of citizens, small and medium-sized businesses and local authorities who choose to self-produce their own energy, through photovoltaic panels or other renewable systems, and consume it in the community while enjoying subsidized rates.

A virtuous system which, however, can only work if it is equipped with technologies capable of tracking consumption data and managing them in the best possible way. Haier Europe it is also moving on this front.Together with the Swiss startup Hive Power, it will install its devices within some energy communities and make them available to the European Horizon project, aimed at spreading this model in an increasingly widespread way.