ComEd Awards Four Local Families $180,000 in Smart Home Makeovers

CHICAGO, May 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ComEd announced the four winners of its Smart Home Showcase, a contest awarding four customers with  free, energy efficiency home makeovers valued at $45,000 each. The winners are Alison Tisza from Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood; Lisa Polderman and Leticia Gonzales of Berwyn; and Brandon Smith of Maywood.

"We launched the Smart Home Showcase to demonstrate the value the smart grid brings customers," said Mike McMahan, vice president of smart grid and technology, ComEd. "Smart appliances use technology that communicates with smart meters by telling the appliance when electricity usage is cheaper. This feature gives customers greater options on their energy usage and saves them money on their electric bill."

Launched in December 2012, ComEd's Smart Home Showcase was open to customers owning single-family homes in the communities that are part of the company's smart meter pilot program. The four winners will each receive:

• Whirlpool^® brand smart appliances including a refrigerator, range, dishwasher, clothes washer and clothes dryer. These appliances are equipped with new convenience and control features, as well as energy-management technology that, for example, can make your fridge stop making ice during peak summer times when electricity prices are high.
• Electricity-generating solar panels and battery storage equipment installed by Intelligent Generation. These panels can help reduce energy use by generating and storing electricity for the home.
• A Nest^® Learning Thermostat^™ that learns from temperature-setting behaviors, preferences and surroundings to automatically create a custom heating and cooling schedule.
• An in-home display to help monitor household electricity use.

"The Smart Home Showcase is a great example of how we can incorporate sustainability into our daily lives," said Karen Weigert, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago. "From saving money to creating jobs, innovations like those in the Smart Home Showcase are strengthening Chicago."

ComEd has also been partnering with Whirlpool Corporation to support the launch of smart appliances which started with a rollout in the Chicago area in April. The partners have been working together to help consumers maximize their efficiency and billing savings with the new appliances.  

"Consumers want to connect to their homes in a meaningful way and benefit from functions that allow them to save energy and monitor their appliances even when away from home," said Warwick Stirling, Whirlpool Corporation's global director of sustainability. "Smart grid-enabled appliances have evolved into a broader conversation around the connected home and home management, and our partnership with ComEd is important to help us understand and meet this growing demand."

The Smart Home Showcase winners will share their experiences with their new smart appliances and energy-management technology through social media. To follow the winners' experiences online or to learn more about the Smart Home Showcase, please visit ComEd.com/SmartHome.

ComEd's smart meter pilot program encompasses nine towns serviced by the company's Maywood operating center including Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, Maywood, Melrose Park, Oak Park and River Forest, as well as several wards  in Chicago. Nearly 130,000 customers in these areas are equipped with smart meters and were eligible to enter the contest.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation's leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 6.6 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

SOURCE ComEd