Ford and KB Home showing C-MAX Energi and smart grid at ZeroHouse

Ford and KB Home have launched a co-marketing campaign featuring the Ford C-MAX Energi in the homebuilder’s ZeroHouse 2.0 model home in San Marcos, Calif. The initiative is meant to raise awareness for a lifestyle of electric-powered vehicles, solar power systems and smart appliances. At an event on Friday a C-MAX Energi is on display, plugged into a charging station built into the ZeroHouse.

The demo shows how the typical American family can potentially save money while reducing their impact on the environment, all by adopting a combination of highly efficient home design, the latest in smart home technology and an affordable plug-in hybrid vehicle.

They call this the MyEnergi Lifestyle, and it features leveraging smart grid technology so that energy-consuming devices are more energy efficient, while time shifting electricity usage to a less expensive time of day. It involves enrolling in time-of-use metering with the electric company, so that the cost per kilowatt-hour varies by the time of day.

An example are refrigerators that postpone energy intensive activities like ice-making to night-time, or electric cars that postpone their recharge time until night-time. Electricity rates late at night are always very low, because there is little electricity demand.

The charging station built into the ZeroHouse is engineered to charge the vehicle during off-peak hours for maximum cost efficiency. The ZeroHouse goes even further, as it’s the first WaterSense-labeled home built in San Diego County, uses the Schneider Electric Wiser Home Management System, dual-pane, low-emitting windows, a roof-mounted solar panels by SunPower, and energy efficient appliances from Whirlpool.

“We’re so pleased to announce our new relationship with Ford, and to have the opportunity to use our innovative new ZeroHouse 2.0 as a true model for an energy-efficient and sustainable lifestyle that we know many of today’s consumers desire to achieve,” said Jeff Mezger, president and CEO, KB Home. “We continue to refine our ZeroHouse 2.0 options and benefits by further developing and incorporating some of the latest new home building practices and technologies available today.”