Freescale Semiconductor (News - Alert), a provider of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets and the Indesit Company, a manufacturer and distributor of major domestic appliances based in Europe have jointly announced that both the companies recently showcased at the Freescale Technology Forum held in Orlando, a Smart Washer that can regulate its own energy use based on cost and availability which will be helpful for the customers in creating their own smart products.

Smart Washer, developed by the Indesit Company features a Freescale ZigBee node, and on the basis of the information received from the local utility via a ZigBee enabled Internet connection to the Smart Grid, the solution automatically adjusts its cycle starting time according to energy cost in a variable costs environment and green power availability.

As a step further in their movement towards the direction of adopting Smart Grid, both the companies have established the Freescale-Indesit collaboration, which will benefit from Freescale’s ZigBee technology. The technology is helpful for the designers in development of simple designs, saving their material costs and also enabling them to deliver high performance solutions so that appliance customers are able to build ZigBee connected smart houses.

In the words of Brett Black, wireless connectivity manager at Freescale, working closely with Indesit, which is a leading producer of industrial white goods, underscores company’s leadership in a broad array of wireless communications targeting the smart grid and energy efficiency.

According to Stefano Frattesi, manager, innovation for design at the Indesit Company, the company is pleased to team up with Freescale on its products using their technology. Frattesi noted that the Smart Washer confirms Indesit’s commitment to innovation for the benefit of the environment and demonstrates company’s pioneering research in the field of Smart Grid to help reduce energy consumption and provide its customers increasingly innovative solutions.

One of the initial companies that became a part of the ZigBee Alliance, Freescale offers platform solutions supporting ZigBee Smart Energy, RF4CE, Healthcare and Home Automation. The company continues to invest in energy efficient technology for the Smart Grid, and allows its customers to address the increasing demand of energy smart control.

Some time back, Indesit had introduced two projects focused on leveraging the Smart Grid to make its products more energy efficient. First project is a worldwide plan that undertakes domestic trials of intelligent refrigerators with company’s Dynamic Demand Control technology, and is able to manage the consumption on the basis of grid availability. Second project, named Energy@home is a research project that will be helpful in testing a system of home appliance interconnections designed to optimize energy consumption.