Creating a Sustainable Future
Like our purposeful innovation, we focus on sustainability initiatives that matter. An energy-inefficient, late 1920s vintage bungalow in West Lafayette, Ind., became a living laboratory for appliance and resource efficiency research, thanks to a combined effort by Whirlpool Corporation and Purdue University.
As part of our corporate commitments to sustainability and advancements in the homebuilding and remodeling industries, Whirlpool Corporation engineers are working with Purdue University to be the first to transform an existing home into a net-zero energy, water and waste structure. Called the ReNEWW House — for Retrofitted Net-zero Energy, Water and Waste — the structure is being renovated to include energy-saving features, solar panels and a gray water system that reuses water from appliances and showers to provide water for other uses in the house, like toilet flushing. Net-zero energy means that energy production equals energy consumption over the course of a year.
Throughout the next three years, participants in the Whirlpool Engineering Rotational Leadership Development program and who are enrolled in the graduate program at Purdue University will have the option to live and work in the house, creating a unique learning experience.
The home also has a Gladiator brand finished basement that doubles as a laboratory. Engineers installed an instrumentation system that monitors key data to help develop a next-generation, high-efficiency appliance suite in conjunction with Purdue University.
The goal of the project is to learn more about resource sustainability, as well as demonstrate how any home can become resource efficient when the right kind of modifications are made. After this valuable research is complete, the results will be shared with homebuilders and remodelers interested in the benefits of sustainable building. The project will also provide valuable insights to Whirlpool Corporation engineers for future product design.
Involvement in the ReNEWW House is a continuation of the sustainability efforts that take place every day at Whirlpool Corporation, reflecting the company’s efforts to conserve water, reduce energy consumption, reduce carbon intensity and minimize or eliminate waste.