Schneider Electric’s Wiser™ Energy Management System helps provide visibility into household energy consumption and costs, allowing consumers to actively manage and reduce energy use to improve the efficiency of their home.   PHOTO COURTESY OF SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, offers the Wiser™ Energy Management System, a demand management solution for utilities and consumers that allows homeowners to reduce or shift energy use during peak times and improves grid efficiency. The Wiser™ Energy Management System helps provide visibility into household energy consumption and costs, allowing consumers to actively manage and reduce energy use to improve the efficiency of their home. Available initially to consumers through utility providers, the Wiser™ Energy Management System also offers utilities a solution that helps to increase grid efficiency, reduce peak usage costs and maximize power reliability, resulting in improved service to consumers and a reduced need for expensive infrastructure upgrades.

“The residential electric market accounts for approximately 21 percent of total electric usage globally,” said Don Rickey, senior vice president, Energy Business, Schneider Electric. “There is a huge need for active energy management by consumers, and it does not have to be a complex process. With this system, we are addressing the energy needs of multiple stakeholders along the grid — enabling utilities to improve service and providing consumers with the ability to gain greater insight and control of their energy use, while improving the efficiency and comfort of their home.”

Schneider Electric’s comprehensive offering includes utility-side solutions as well as home automation products, installation and services. Schneider Electric provides utilities with services to design residential demand management programs from beginning to end, including recruiting and signing up customers to participate. The Wiser™ Energy Management System includes the following products:

• Wiser™Smart Thermostat: Programmable thermostat that communicates usage and pricing alerts via changing color screens. It’s built with ZigBee^® Smart Energy technology allowing the thermostat to be connected to other system components and remotely controllable by the In-Home Display, the Wiser™Web application, and a smartphone application, in the future.

• Wiser™ In-Home Display: Control center and data dashboard designed to serve as the real-time communication portal from the utility to the consumer. Consumers can easily view current energy price, demand level and use, current energy cost per hour as well as daily, weekly and yearly energy-use reports.

• Wiser™Load Control: Secures and manages large loads to enable demand management by both the utility and the consumer. The Wiser™Load Control also supports demand response/load control functions in demand response programs, as well as consumer features such as simple timer functions. This device can be used for remote monitoring and management of HVAC compressors, water heaters, pool pumps and other power circuits. For devices that require less load 30A and 5A relays are also available.

Additionally, the Wiser™Internet Gateway communicates home electrical use between components, and the Wiser™Smart Plug intuitively manages small device electricity use.  All products in the Wiser™Energy Management System comply with ZigBee Smart Energy standard. The Wiser™Web application is also available to manage and view real-time energy use, set system limits, and allows homeowners to control their energy consumption from anywhere, at anytime.

Supporting Resources:

Video overview of the Wiser Energy Management System: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxifd2dpGKk

For more information visit: http://www.schneider-electric.us/go/wiser