The Zero Energy House has been Achieved

General Electric has had a rough year in the stock market. Starting around $17, getting as low as $7, and now back up to $11, GE has fallen and risen with the tide of Dow Jones Industrial. They may have just created something that will put them back on top of the stock market world.

Just today, GE achieved a zero net energy house. By balancing energy usage and energy production in the home, they created the zero net energy atmosphere. GE also said they are striving to make this achievement possible for any home by 2015. A Home Energy Manager will be the key to achieving a zero energy home in the future. Going for somewhere between $200 and $250, the Home Energy Manager will be a communication tool between energy consumers and energy producers in a house.

General Electric described the use of the Home Energy Manager as a regulator of  how much energy is used in the home while taking into consideration the amount of energy produced by solar panels or wind turbines. Appliances in the house are figured into the equation by a smart meter and an electronic control on each appliance. The smart meter reads how much energy is used by each appliance and then the Home Energy Manager programs the appliances to rotate their cycles, keeping energy use at a constant rate.

Some more short term goals that we should see GE achieve include a new model of thermostat. Planned to be available next year, the thermostats will allow homeowners to see how much energy they are using at any given time of day. CNet reports that when homeowners are aware of the amount of energy they use, they find ways to cut energy usage by 5 to 10 percent on their own. That would be a great improvement seen in the homeowner’s bills.