Toshiba to Enter Smart Home Business in the U.S.

Keywords: Electric Power, Home Energy, Energy Management, Home Automation, Peak Shift.

Toshiba Corporation recently announced that the company will bring to the U.S. market smart home energy management products and services that enhance power consumption efficiency and lower costs. Working with Landis+Gyr, a Toshiba Group company and world leader in smart metering, Toshiba will promote sales to electric power utilities from the end of 2012, targeting sales of 10 billion yen in fiscal year 2015.

Toshiba will introduce to the U.S. its Life Design Box as a home gateway and Home Energy Management Cloud services by the end of this year. These form the core of a total home energy management system that can include a comprehensive range of products and systems, among them photovoltaic power generation, fuel cells, storage batteries, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles charging systems. Toshiba's home energy management system can also support a range of other services, including home automation, remote health care and home security.

The system will support such functions as peak shift. This allows home appliances running during peak demand times to be powered by less expensive stored electricity, cutting the cost to the consumer and reducing the demand load on the utility. This enhances the energy efficiency not only in the home but the wider community.

In the period up to 2015, utilities are expected to install smart meters in approximately half of the 96 million homes in the U.S. and 5 million homes are expected to install other smart home products. In the same period, Toshiba aims to introduce smart home products into 1 million homes, in cooperation with Landis+Gyr, the U.S. and global market leader in smart meters.

ARC Advisory Group