May 9, 2023
Kenmore is Home Electricity Made Easy - Modernize the Smart Home from Appliances to the Electric Grid w/ CEO Sri Solur
- BRT S04 EP19 (181) 5-7-2023
What We Learned This Week
· Kenmore is home electricity made easy. Kenmore is on a mission to modernize the home. Live More & Live Better. Also need to make it Affordable.
· Clean Tech goes w/ the smart home, smart appliances (that connect to the home) and the electrical power grid for better living
Electrical Grid needs to be modernized – cannot handle the current & future power demands
· Homes built Pre-1990 run on Electric Panels that are outdated – costs of $40K + to modernize to handle charging EVs at home
· Design of the Future House would have a Battery in it that could recharge your appliances and electronics during down hours.
· Solving problems in electricity and energy also have the same issues with working on better water and clean food. It is more than just an energy and electric issue.
Guest: Sri Solur, CEO, Kenmore / Brands
https://www.linkedin.com/in/solur
Sri Solur, CEO, Brands
Sri Solur is chief executive officer of brands for Kenmore at Transformco. An industry veteran with 25+ years of experience, Sri has a rich history of success leading high tech products and businesses. He previously served as CPO and GM at Berkshire Grey, a leader in industrial robotics, and was a member of the leadership team that took the company public. Sri also served as CPO at SharkNinja, and was instrumental in bringing the Shark IQ Robot vacuum and NinjaFoodi products to market, while also holding a leadership role to take the company public. Sri spent 20 years at Hewlett Packard, serving as founder and CPO of CloudPrint, the company’s wearables and IOT business. In his career, Sri has created products for world-renowned brands including Hugo Boss, Movado, Ferrari, Juicy Couture, and more. Sri holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from NIT and an MBA from Boston University.
As Earth Day approaches (April 22), Kenmore is empowering greener homes and people.
The trusted appliance maker recently unveiled a new “Home Electrification Made Easy” program that looks to simplify the electrification process and reduce overall costs in transitioning to electric appliances.
Kenmore has set an ambitious goal with the program to electrify one million homes that will ultimately save homeowners one billion dollars over the next decade.
Kenmore’s innovation and energy programs are driving a new generation of electrification for today’s home ecosystem. Some of the company’s core innovations include:
- Expansion of electrification and smart products for every room in the home.
- Addition of electrification enablers, such as smart electrical panels and dynamic Level 2 EV chargers, that help eliminate roadblocks many homeowners have in wanting to electrify their entire home.
- Simplifying rebate and savings programs, such as Congress’ Inflation Reduction Act, to help customers cut costs by taking advantage of available local and national funding and discounts.
- Building relationships with industry leaders in product, service and consumer education to supplement and amplify their mission to electrify American homes.
This electric push comes as a new generation of homeowners seek to invest in smarter, greener home solutions and previous generations are coming up against new government standards making accessibility to like-for-like replacement equipment for their home obsolete.
With Kenmore’s electrification program delivering a quick onramp to affordable green energy homes, homeowners of all backgrounds and budgets have a more attainable path to smart, green home adoption.
Notes:
Kenmore CEO and Appliances
Seg. 1
Major appliances and clean tech and sustainability energy security is a big issue on the macro end. The effect on the electric grid and power lines.
There is lots of demand and potential blackouts. This is a fuel and demand issue. The government and utility companies are working on clean energy. Currently they use fossil fuels and working on using less.
Design of the future house would have a battery in it that could recharge your appliances and electronics storing down ours.
The electric layout of most homes, especially homes built pre-1990s has an 100 amp circuit. If you have modern tech like an EV charger in your house, an electrician cannot set it up because the EV charger will blow up your 100 amp circuit.
It would cost you between $20 and 60 K to upgrade a house for a modern electric set up. Kenmore will install electric panel with load balance for EV vehicles and in-home appliances.
Seg. 2
Electrical layout of a house as you install new appliances. There is a booster within the inflation reduction act. There are rebates for lower income people, where it pays you for getting new appliances. 10 K instant credit for new appliances.
The comparison of older appliances versus new appliances. Many older appliances may run on fossil fuels like a gas range oven or gas water heater. Older HVAC unit has more wear and tear.
On a hot days and really cold days appliances operate at peak and are putting demand on the electric red. Looking for new ways of sustainable clean energy and examples hydroelectric power.
You would have a back up in high demand times, where are you fire up a generator running on fossil fuels.
Do you want to protect the grid for maintenance but also things like cyber attacks. One way you could do this is make all homes standalone energy producers.
Peak rates for electricity or 6 to 10 PM at night. At these times electricity use taxes the grid and also taxes your wallet. Do you want to run your dishwasher post 10 PM.
Seg. 3
We are moving from a world of done by you to a world of done for you. The smart home of the future will help you.
The electrical panel would work with the grid and decide when to charge electronics in your house. Kenmore has electric appliances that works with the electric red. These appliances save you money and also save the grid.
On a bigger scale we need to modernize the electric road. Then in the future build better homes cars and appliances. Inflation reduction act has multiprong incentives for all of this.
When we saw the bull run of tech starting in 2010 it had three things working together. Social mobile and the cloud all came together to create this tech rise. Do you need electricity plus clean energy plus clean water.
A rising tide that can raise all. Do you want to solve problems, what are the pain killers?
Seg. 4
CEO was an engineer by trade. Worked in Boston went to business school and after that he built some products. Worked at Altavista on firewalls and search.
Cloud print on printing mobile with the HP e-print. Worked in wearables at Hugo boss and Ferrari.
Worked at Comcast on Xfinity digital security and high-speed Internet. Worked with shark and ninja on home robots. Worked at Bershire Gray, consumer robots which went public with an IPO.
Then at Brands / Kenmore (also Diehard batteries) - Building better and smarter appliances
Span that I/O build a smart electrical panel. Do you want your appliances to give you repair and maintenance updates.
Whole home electrification. A whole home dashboard controlling your smart home. An example would be your fridge would tell you when you need a new filter. Kenmore is a tech forward company.
Solving problems in electricity and energy also have the same issues with working on better water and clean food. It is more than just an energy and electric issue.
Live more and live better. Also need to make it affordable. Kenmore is home electricity made easy. rebates.kenmore.com they have the blue-collar work ethic with the idea of progress over perfection. Kenmore is a consumer centric team.
Tech Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Tech
More - BRT Best of Tech:
BRT S02 EP52 (99) 12-26-2021 – Tech for the Holidays – BRT
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