Samsung has launched a brand new demand response program for its SmartThings good house platform. Flex Join permits your SmartThings linked home equipment to speak with the grid and robotically scale back power use when there’s a spike in demand, which may assist keep away from blackouts. Whereas demand response packages have made for some scary headlines, many consultants consider connecting our good properties to the grid is vital for managing the pressure on our power community.
Flex Join is accessible in New York and California and works with SmartThings Vitality — an power administration resolution. It faucets into SmartThings’ AI Vitality Mode to automate how good home equipment and linked gadgets like lights and thermostats reply to demand response occasions.
AI Vitality Mode, which Samsung says can save as much as 70 % of power consumption when utilizing Samsung merchandise, is a great program that learns your family’s routines and robotically adjusts home equipment and gadgets’ power use to save lots of power primarily based on targets you set within the app.
Based on Samsung, when a requirement response sign is obtained out of your utility firm, Flex Join can robotically activate the AI Vitality Mode to save lots of additional power use in supported home equipment, robotically energy off gadgets — together with third-party lights and plugs — and robotically alter supported thermostats to decrease their power use.
In case you don’t have any supported home equipment, you may nonetheless use the SmartThings Vitality function to obtain alerts when an occasion is triggered. This manner, you may know to regulate your thermostat or not run your dryer.
The Flex Join program is optionally available, and you’ll select which gadgets you wish to enroll, in addition to change them at any time. Any equipment or gadget that works with SmartThings Vitality might be linked to Flex Join. Whereas the appropriate gadgets record is dominated by Samsung home equipment, a number of third-party plugs, lights, and thermostats are supported. Some notable manufacturers embody Wemo, TP-Hyperlink, Aeotec, Ecobee, Sengled, and Resideo (Honeywell Dwelling). There’s additionally help for Tesla merchandise, together with the Powerwall and Loop EV chargers.
Samsung hasn’t offered particular particulars on how utilities will work with this system, if there are plans to broaden to extra states, or when Flex Join will go stay. We’ll replace this publish with extra info once we obtain it.