SAN JOSE, CA /BUSINESS WIRE/ -- Echelon Corp., a global networking company providing technology and solutions for controls, smart metering, and energy and environment management, and LonMark International, a nonprofit trade association, announced that CECED, the European Committee of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances, has adopted Echelon's technology as part of its Household Appliances Control and Monitoring - Application Interworking Specification (AIS). The CECED AIS standard defines Echelon's control networking technology platform as one of the technologies for communication among household white goods, such as ovens, washers, and dryers. The creation of a CECED approved standard is an important step toward a mass market for smart appliances and home automation and control in Europe.
According to Luigi Meli, Director General of CECED, "The CECED AIS standard provides a standard language and baseline to allow manufacturers to focus on innovation and the consumer experience rather than technology. The combined solution with Echelon's standard will support the growing demand for intelligent home appliances that are more energy efficient, user friendly, and convenient."
"Our organization is taking a leadership role in bringing these necessary standards to the market," said Ron Bernstein, Executive Director of LonMark International. "Together, the existing LonMark interoperability certification program and the CECED AIS standard take a significant step forward in making it easier and more cost effective for manufacturers' products and systems to work as one cohesive system—an absolute requirement for widespread consumer adoption. We believe that the CECED AIS standard is the key that unlocks the market for home owners to purchase products that are smarter, more energy efficient, and more easily integrated into intelligent homes." LonMark certified products meet rigid interoperability guidelines that ensure that products from different manufacturers work together to deliver increased flexibility, greater efficiency, and more value to end users.
"The development of the CECED AIS standard is a significant win for both appliance manufacturers and consumers. The ability to have everyday household appliances automatically communicate with each other—regardless of manufacturer and without homeowner intervention—is a market enabler that allows manufacturers to address issues of energy consumption and conservation on a very large scale," said Anders Axelsson, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Echelon. "This important industry standard will, we believe, dramatically grow the market for more energy-efficient smart homes."
A key requirement for the home automation market is a common means of creating appliances that automatically install into a home network. This is essential to eliminate the need for technical knowledge on the part of the consumer. Echelon has created the Interoperable Self-Installation (ISI) technology, an integral part of the LonWorks platform, to satisfy this requirement by providing a simple, automatic discovery and installation process to enable home devices and appliances to communicate with each other without complicated user interaction and setup. As soon as power is applied or a "service" function is activated, the devices discover one another and configure themselves into fully functional control systems. System changes, such as the addition of a new device or a modification to a lighting scene, can take place at any time without any special user expertise or training.
About CECED
CECED (European Committee of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances), established 1958 and headquartered in Brussels, includes in its 200-plus membership the 15 largest European producers of large and small electric household appliances, manufacturers of home ventilation, air conditioning, and heating equipment, and 26 national industry associations. More information can be found on the committee's Web site.
About LonMark International
Since its inception in 1994, LonMark International has become a driving force in the establishment of interoperable guidelines for building, industrial, transportation, and residential/utility automation. LonMark International is committed to educating the market on the value of open, interoperable systems and provides tools, resources, and support for its members. With over 500 members, LonMark affiliates span the globe with local presence in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. LonMark membership is open to any manufacturer, distributor, engineer, system integrator, or end user interested in the development, specification, and use of open, interoperable products using ANSI/CEA 709.1 and related standards.
Products that have been verified to conform to the LonMark interoperability guidelines are eligible to carry the LonMark logo. More information can be found on the association's Web site.
About Echelon Corp.
Echelon Corp. is a pioneer and world leader in control networking—networks that connect machines and other electronic devices—for the purpose of sensing, monitoring, and controlling the world around us. Echelon's LonWorks platform for control networking was released in 1990 and has become a worldwide standard in the building, industrial, transportation, and home automation markets. Launched in 2003, Echelon's Networked Energy Services system is an open, extensible, advanced metering infrastructure that can bring benefits to every aspect of a utility's operation, from metering and customer services to distribution operations and value-added business. In 2005 Echelon introduced the "world's first" embedded control network infrastructure, the Pyxos platform, which extends the benefits of networking inside machines to the sensors and actuators that make them function and expands the reach and power of LonWorks control networks.
Echelon has been a leader in the advanced metering infrastructure market, providing the underlying network technology for the world's largest advanced meter management project in Italy, with over 27 million connected electricity meters and more recently, winning tenders to provide the NES system to 700 thousand to 1.1 million customers for utilities in Sweden, The Netherlands, and Australia.
Echelon is based in San Jose, CA, with international offices in China, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Further information regarding Echelon can be found on the company's Web site.
Echelon, LonWorks, LonMark, and the Echelon logo are registered trademarks of Echelon Corp., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Pyxos is a trademark of Echelon Corp. in the U.S. and other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.