Toyota’s Total Energy Management System

Toyota is testing an all-in-one energy management hub in Japan that will synchronize its hybrid cars with energy management system-equipped homes. This will enable remote monitoring and control of power consumed by various household appliances and utilities as well as remotely checking and optimizing a car’s performance.

Fast Company explains:

The Smart Center syncs Toyota’s upcoming plug-in hybrids with home energy management system-equipped homes (including information about power consumption, solar panel electricity production, and electric heat pump hot water volume) to allow remote energy monitoring and coordination. Toyota’s system also takes into account weather forecasts and utility charge-rate information for different times of day to cut down on household energy use and costs. And smartphone users can remotely check on vehicle battery charge, tweak the charging time, and turn the air-conditioning on or off in preparation for use.

Toyota Smart Center system should hopefully be available for use by 2012 in Japan.

Toyota

Fast Company: “Toyota’s All-In-One Energy Hub For Home And Car”