Hello and welcome to the Schneider Electric Keynote 2022.
My name is April Lisonbee. I'm a senior marketing manager for residential offers at Schneider.
I wanted to start by saying that we are wholeheartedly disappointed that we can't
be with you live in Las Vegas. We've taken this difficult decision in the interest of the safety
and well-being of our employees, their families, and the community during this challenging time.
But I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to share with you our vision for homes of the future.
Design it. - For the explorers, for the couch potatoes, for the movers and the maybes.
Design it because home is more than it used to be. Because smart isn't enough.
Smart and sustainable is where it's at because efficiency is a no-brainer,
because resilience and quality of life go hand in hand because personality gets
likes and everyone likes likes. The home of the future is where everyone connects
and everything's connected. It means something different for everyone and you can design it,
build it, renovate it, or just play with it your way. It's perfect for this guy
for this busy gal, for good old cousin Jerry, and pretty much everyone else. You don't have
to go it alone we'll help you get the job done sustainably so you can design it for life.
Homes of the future tackle the four primary challenges facing the residential segment.
In America and the world sustainability, resilient energy, efficiency, and personalization.
It may not be obvious but 2021 put more strain on our homes
than any moment in history from wildfires and temperature-driven blackouts
testing our homes' resilience to snow and ice causing grid-wide shutdowns.
It's no surprise that people are not only willing but ready to take the challenge of addressing
climate change into their own hands. Consumers continue to realize the value of creating
not just a smart but a smart and sustainable home and through our focus on innovation,
we are proud to be empowering consumers to make real change in their homes. So join us as we
take you through our home of the future. A place where you have more control over sustainability
and energy efficiency of your home. All from the comfort of your sofa. Let's get started!
Hi everyone, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm Will Shippee with Schneider Electric.
It's interesting that when we talk about building a smart and sustainable home we usually think
about the physical structure. The energy center helps homes meet the global sustainability goals
of the future. This new generation of smart electrical panel controls the energy needs of
all connected devices in one place. With the help of AI-enabled algorithms and the intelligence of
Wiser, consumers gain full control over how the energy powering their homes is produced,
stored, and distributed. The Square D Energy Center optimizes the power loads,
prioritizes renewable energy sources, switching to use these at the most optimal times of day.
This unparalleled insight and monitoring capability allows homeowners to control and
lower their homes' energy consumption and energy waste. Electrical heating and cooling costs can
be reduced by as much as 50 percent. Now think about all the electrical needs outside the home
from the lights illuminating your path walkway to your driveway to the front door to the pump
in your pool. You're likely using a significant amount of energy by simply living in your home.
With the energy center, you have the ability to choose whether to run your pool filter off of the
grid power or to switch to stored solar energy and avoid the costly daytime hours when electricity
is at a premium. It will also switch all critical systems over to battery backup power in case of a
power outage, allowing homeowners to control their home energy usage, be it a solar installation,
battery storage, backup generators, or EV charger. With the Energy Center, you have everything in one
place and it takes 50 percent less space than a similar installation which is super helpful
when you're running out of wall space. The Energy Center provides exceptional control over energy
storage and use. For example, you can use it to charge your home's battery only when there is
excess solar production. During a power outage, you can control what stays on with critical loads
like the air conditioner prioritize to maximize battery life until the power comes back on. That's
flexibility and control no other smart panel can offer. Let's also talk about our newer addition in
the garage in many homes: electrical vehicles. EVs are critical on the journey to a net-zero home.
In our home of the future consumers can choose when to charge their vehicle,
prioritize 100 renewable power, use their EV to store excess energy, all enabled by the
Energy Center and controlled by mobile app. Convenient, intuitive, and cost-effective
Now let me introduce you to JD Gill, who's going to show you some of the most exciting innovations
inside the house. Hi everyone. My name is JD Gill, business development at Schneider Electric. It's
often smaller items such as kitchen appliances that we don't even think about that are plugged in
all at once adding to the load. Think about your coffee maker, toaster, voice assistant, microwave.
We use a lot of things in our kitchen and we love to buy new gadgets that make our lives easier.
These smaller appliances like your toaster are sometimes difficult to provision for,
especially if you have a dozen or more gadgets in the home. It's like trying to hear a single voice
in a loud, crowded room. That's why we created our line of smart devices including our Square D X
and XD Series of connected receptacles. By adding a smart device with built-in energy monitoring
we can use the integration between Wiser Home App and Wiser Energy Home Power Monitor to find
these devices and the smaller appliances plugged into them. Faster, consistently,
and more accurately. This allows us to monitor and control the smaller appliances one at a time
making it an all-around better experience. Now, instead of trying to hear one voice in a crowded
room, it's like listening to one person at a time as part of a well-orchestrated choir.
You might be thinking, why does my coffee maker need energy monitoring in the first place?
Well in reality if you connect your coffee maker to a smart plug, you'll discover that even
though the machine is off it's still constantly cycling the heater element throughout the day,
so it's always ready to serve a hot cup. This is a waste of energy and money which actually reduces
the lifespan of the appliance itself. If you know you and your partner each only drink one cup of
coffee a day there's no need to keep heating the water in the coffee machine all day long.
With a Square D Smart Plug installed you can schedule it in your Wiser Home App
to cut power to the coffee maker completely, say at 10:30am each morning, not allowing the heater
element to cycle. Then another schedule restores power to the coffee maker at 5:30am so hot water
is ready for the first cup of the day. This is the smart and sustainable way to start your day.
Now let's see what Jenna can tell us about the smart energy system in the home. Hi, my name
is Jena Junsay, a residential sales engineer here at Schneider Electric. As we move into
the bedroom there's another key aspect of the home of the future that we haven't touched on as much.
Personalization and aesthetics. We create homes that we want to spend time in, places that bring
us joy and make us feel warm, places that not only help us through the day but are designed to let
us enjoy every experience. Here at Schneider Electric, we want you to create a home that
you love because it's sustainable, it's smart, and because it's beautiful. That's why design matters.
Imagine this. You finally move into your new home, you've created your dream bedroom,
a sanctuary in which you painstakingly selected the furniture, the bedding, the curtains, and even
the ceiling fans. But you can't take your eyes off that very visible outlet that the painters
sloppily painted over. Not only is the paint job terrible but your new bedroom has a more
modern sleek aesthetic. And all the other fixtures have a beautiful bronze color. Your plain white
switches just look sad and boring. Now imagine you have the Square D X series switches installed.
Because the base for the X and the XD series is the same, you can switch out those white covers
with sleek screwless bronze ball plates and you can use the same color bronze receptacle plates
that will cover the painted outlets, and it'll give your room the finished look you always wanted.
In your bedroom and in the rest of your home, we want you to have the full control
at plug level when it comes to both energy consumption and design.
Finally, let's move into the heart of your home, your living room. With the pandemic, we spend more
time in our own living rooms than we probably have ever imagined. Whether it was playing board games
with the family, reading a book, binging on the latest Netflix show, or working at your home office desk.
Exactly the home of the future makes you a smarter and more sustainable consumer and it's built to
integrate naturally into your busy daily life. With voice assistant integrations and all your
favorite smart home solutions. Managing your daily energy consumption is easy and it's fun.
Alexa, let's get this party started! Hold on Jena, not just yet. Imagine that you're in the middle
of cooking dinner and realize you haven't checked the laundry. Is the dryer still running? Will you
have enough time to get to the last load before you eat? With Wiser Energy Integrations you can
simply ask Alexa: "Is the dryer on?" and know whether you have to stop meal prep and run to
the laundry room or if things are still spinning and you can carry on with dinner preparations.
Another common occurrence. You're working from home and your kids need the living room set up
for their virtual school lessons. So you say: "Alexa, it's time for school" and the floor and
the table lamps turn on and the TV turns off. Because all of your smart devices are connected
and controlled from a single app. When it's time for lunch you say: "Alexa, school's over" and the
table lights shut off and the TV turns back on. Behind the vision we just shared with you lies the
ability of devices to connect and communicate, enabled by the Energy Center. It brings us all
closer to the vision of the grid to plug connected home, automating your energy needs and making sure
that all the important details are taken care of. And that's it! The home of the future makes
your life simpler by giving you control and visibility over what's happening in your home
at every moment. That's what we continue to focus on as we evolve the Wiser Ecosystem.
Thank you very much, Will, Jena, and JD. We've only scratched the surface of what the Schneider
Electric home of the future can do, but we hope you realize that having control of your
home's energy usage is essential to ensure your home is both smart and sustainable.
Now let me pass the baton to our CTO Yan Golaz and European hub director, Ruhi Kumari,
who can tell you more about our award-winning smart and sustainable home innovations.
It's my pleasure to connect from Grenoble, our European hub, from the smart home innovation in
France. It goes without saying, we are proud to be a leader in smart and sustainable home innovation.
We are thrilled to be recognized by the consumer technology association with four CES 2022 innovation
awards across the sustainability and smart home categories. The Wiser Energy Center, which picked
up two awards. One in the sustainability and one in the smart home categories.
Wiser Energy Center is our European version of the new smart panel, seamlessly integrating solar
panels, batteries, inverters, and cutting-edge energy management. It directly manages
electrical energy from the home and the grid with the help of advanced AI.
Where possible the system prioritizes green energy power, ensuring power-hungry appliances and devices
such as electric cars consume most of their energy from the available solar energy sources at home.
Cyber-secured by design, this intelligent system factors in the time of day, your energy tariff,
consumptions patterns, and even the weather. It allows large amount of solar energy to be
used as emergency backup power, ensuring critical appliances and connected systems are maintained
during the power outage. With the Wiser Energy Center you get to enjoy lower energy bills,
reduced energy loss, and increased use of renewable energy, helping protect the planet
at the same time. This product will be available in France in Q1 2022.
Going back to our CES 2022 award wins, our Merten Ocean Plastic range picked up the third accolade.
We are tremendously proud to be the first company in the industry to offer a range of switches and
sockets made from fishing nets collected from the oceans and hence, help towards creating
a truly functional circular economy. The Merten Ocean Plastic series will be available in Germany,
Austria, and selected European countries in Q2 2022. Last but not least, the fourth CES 2022 award
this year celebrates the new Odace Sustainable Collection. Odace Sustainable is a series of
switches, outlets, and cover plates made from plastic using recycled e-waste such as large
household appliances, computers, and TV sets. Schneider Electric is the first company to create
such a product with up to 70 percent recycled plastics and gives e-waste a new lease of life and
a new home. It is available in France since October 2021. By the way, both products,
Merten Ocean Plastic and Odace Sustainable are compliant with the "Green Premium" program,
which is our internal program that makes sure that our products are made eco-friendly.
Before I give the floor to my colleague, Ruhi, I just wanted to say I'm thrilled that we have
these innovations to empower consumers to choose eco-friendly products coming from recycled and
ocean plastic. Now let's hear from Ruhi about our focus on circularity and green packaging.
Thank you, Yan. I have to say the level of smart home innovation we have seen today
is truly inspiring. It is indeed great to see we are working on cutting-edge technology products,
not just to bring convenience but to also drive sustainability. However, I want to also highlight
that we are also taking multiple initiatives around overall manufacturing of our products
and the packaging as well. We have recently been awarded with "cradle to cradle" silver
level certification for our Merten range of products and branch for our Odace Unica and Ovalis
range of products as well. This certification ensures that we are meeting all defined criteria
of sustainable manufacturing. And for us it is indeed a very proud achievement because it adds
credibility to all the claims we make for our partners and customers, to see for themselves.
We are replacing the normal white packaging boxes with brown packaging boxes which will have around
70 percent recycled content to reduce the virgin wood pulp used. Any color we use is going to be
vegetable oil or water-based ink only. This means a drastic reduction in the amount of water and
energy used and the waste produced during the manufacturing process. We are also eliminating
single-use plastics for our packaging wherever possible. And finally, the CES 2022 award-winning
products are not the only pieces of innovation we have in store for you this year. We are launching
two more offers containing recycled plastic in Europe. One of those is Sustainable Resi9.
This range of Resi9 will have residual circuit breakers and miniature circuit breakers
made up of recycled plastics from post-industrial and post-consumer waste. The second product
made out of ocean plastic is our ELKO Plus range of switches in Norway. Interestingly
both ELKO and Merten recycled ocean plastics are made up of this material called Aculon.
And this material has up to 82 percent lower carbon footprint compared to the normal plastic
we use for our switches. Thus, we are really meticulously incorporating sustainability in
design, function, material, manufacturing, and packaging of our products. And that's it!
Thank you for joining us at CES 2022. I wish you a great New Year and we'll see you again next year.