Freescale, Indesit ally on smart appliance solutions for ZigBee connected white goods

AUSTIN, USA: Freescale Semiconductor and Indesit Company recently demonstrated their ability to help their customers create 'smart' products by showcasing a Smart Washer that can regulate its own energy use based on cost and availability at the Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando.

The Indesit Company's Smart Washer, equipped with a Freescale ZigBee node, is able to adjust its cycle starting time according to energy cost (in a variable costs environment) and green power availability, getting this information from the local utility via a ZigBee enabled Internet connection to the Smart Grid. The Indesit Company is a leading European manufacturer and distributor of major domestic appliances.

The Freescale-Indesit collaboration is further evidence of the Smart Grid focus of both companies. Freescale's ZigBee technology helps designers to reduce design complexity, lower bill of material costs and deliver high performance solutions to help appliance customers build ZigBee connected smart houses.

"Working closely with Indesit -- a leading producer of industrial white goods -- underscores Freescale’s leadership in a broad array of wireless communications targeting the smart grid and energy efficiency," said Brett Black, Wireless Connectivity manager at Freescale.

"We are pleased to team up with Freescale on our products using their technology," said Stefano Frattesi, Indesit Company’s Innovation for Design manager. “The Smart Washer confirms our commitment to innovation for the benefit of the environment and demonstrates our pioneering research in the field of Smart Grid to help reduce energy consumption and provide our customers increasingly innovative solutions."

Freescale was one of the first companies to join the ZigBee Alliance and provides platform solutions supporting ZigBee Smart Energy, RF4CE, Healthcare and Home Automation. Freescale continues to invest in energy efficient technology for the Smart Grid, allowing its customers to address the increasing demand of energy smart control.

Indesit recently launched two projects focused on leveraging the Smart Grid to make its products more energy efficient. The first is a global program for domestic trials of intelligent refrigerators with Indesit’s Dynamic Demand Control technology, which is capable of managing consumption on the basis of grid availability. The second is Energy@home, a research project that will experiment with a system of home appliance interconnections designed to optimize energy consumption.