Statements Miele
Photo: Gerwens; Miele
When bus technology started emerging more than 10 years ago, there were predictions that the kitchen would be the control centre of the home by 2010. That hasn’t happened yet. How do you see the future of the technologised kitchen?
It’s true that networked household technology hasn’t penetrated the mass market yet. But when it comes to premium construction projects, there’s definitely a demand for the technology. At Port Olpenitz on Germany’s Baltic coast, for instance, a project involving 1,000 exclusive holiday homes is currently under construction. The vast majority of them are to be equipped with communication-enabled appliances from Miele. So far Miele is the only manufacturer to have developed a matured technology in this field: Miele@home. As well as being suitable for integration in bus systems, which allows our customers to benefit from convenience and security functions, smart grid enabled household appliances represent a new pillar in the Miele@home technology. Household appliances in the smart grid mode automatically kick in when the least expensive electricity tariff applies and thus open up new savings potential. In 2011, Miele will be launching a smart grid enabled washing machine, dryer and dishwasher. At the very latest when the difference between inexpensive and expensive tariffs is so big that investing in smart grid technology will pay for itself within a few years, smart grid appliances will become a mass market. I believe this will become reality just a few years from now. Another service we’ll be launching in 2011 goes by the name of InfoService and will enable Miele appliances to relay a malfunction notification to a central computer via router and Internet. These examples show that, as far as this technology is concerned, we are at the start of an exciting development, and Miele is a leading player in this field.
Christian Gerwens, head of Miele-Vertriebsgesellschaft Deutschland, talks about:
- World of design
- Sustainability and healthy food
- Interaction between household appliance
- Cologne as the place to meet within the kitchen industry