LG WashCombo vs. GE Profile heat pump washer-dryers compared, 10 reasons to get either
Over the past few months, a new type of washer-dryer combo has emerged on the scene in North America (Yes, Europe and Asia have had great, tiny heat pump tech for decades). These new big combo units from GE Profile UltraFast PFQ97HSPVDS and now LG WashCombo WM6998HBA (introduced at CES) are now on the market.
I’ve had the GE Profile for 2 weeks, and the LG is on the way for testing head-to-head, but for now, I want to tell you about all of the ways both of these things are amazing, and energy savings is just the tip of the iceberg…
There is a revolution in all-in-one washer-dryers happening right now. Gone are the days of the tiny, 5-hour all-in-ones and we now officially have 2 large efficient heat pump washer-dryer combos to choose from. These are both ventless, take 2 hours to wash and dry, only require a 120V outlet and are loaded to the gills with fantastic technology.
Both of them are compared below but first, here are 10 reasons to get either one of them.
1. Energy Efficiency
Heat pump technology pulls heat from the air and also separates water from the air which makes it perfect for the application of drying clothing. Ventless all-in-one washer-dryers have existed on the market for a long time but have always been too small (for Americans), taken forever to run a cycle, and have boiled clothes, reducing fabric and elastic lifespan. These new machines are standard size and have 4.8-5 cubic feet of capacity.
The energy efficiency adds a lot of other benefits that might not be obvious. You can also make it function as a washer only or dryer only, so you can throw wet mittens in there, or wash delicates you want to hang dry
2. Saving a 240V outlet / space in your breaker box
Both the LG and the GE Profile only require a single 120V outlet, replacing the need for the additional 240V outlet of most stand-alone dryers add to the 120V on most washers.
The freed-up 240V space in the breaker box is perfect timing for those people replacing their pollution-spewing oil/gas heaters with heat pumps/geothermal or adding an electric vehicle outlet or two in their garage. This will likely save many people from the costly expense of having to upgrade their electrical service and/or breaker box for these additions. In fact, upgrading service/breaker boxes cost can often be less than the whole $2000-$2500 price of the washer/dryer upgrade!
For those people who currently have their washer and dryer in their garage, you could imagine simply removing the dryer, replacing the washer with the combo and plugging the car into the now-unused outlet. Maybe a new foldable ebike fits in your newfound space?
For new homes, fewer 240V breakers/outlets/wire runs are going to save cost and complexity.
3. No need for ductwork or air pumps, saves space
Because the machine is self-contained, it doesn’t need a duct or an air pump to move the hot, moist air out of the unit. That has a lot of add-on effects. Less energy to move the air, less lint-cleaning, and, in turn, fewer lint fires.
That also means you can put these machines just about anywhere where there is water and drain hose access. Building houses will now be easier without having to build separate venting spaces.
I can imagine a future where these live inside a walk-in closet in smaller homes, alleviating the need for clothes ever to leave the closet unless worn.
Since the combo units have the same footprint as a typical front-load washer or dryer, you split your floor space requirement in half.
Or if you stack the previous washer and dryer, you can now fold clothes on top of the washer-dryer combo.
Building Washer/dryer units in the middle of the house, away from exterior walls where venting was previously required, will now be possible
Also, if the ducts are long, a dryer will heat up a space for better or worse. In places like Texas, Arizona, and Florida, that’s extra heat for your AC to offset.
4. No longer have to move clothes from washer to dryer
Pretty self explanitory but already in the first weeks of use this has become a game changer. You no longer have to babysit laundry loads or wake up late at night to move laundry from one machine to another. Depending on the type of laundry, which the machine senses, a full cycle can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 2.5 hours. But mostly, it is like charging your car: You put a load in at night and wake up done, with clean, dry clothes.
5. Ventless means lower home heating/cooling costs
Maybe the biggest unsung advantage to heat pump dryers is that they aren’t pumping air out of the home. This is called negative pressure, and it is normalized as air is sucked through holes in your home from the outside, whether that’s windows, under door seals or holes in the insulation. If you live in a temperate climate and leave your screen door open all year, that’s not a big deal. But if you have an HVAC system running, it is going to run a lot harder to offset the outside air temperature being sucked in.
Removing 150 cubic feet of air per minute from a home is essentially like opening a door for outside-temperature air to be drawn in. Multiply that times a 45-minute cycle, and you’re replacing most of the air in a home over the course of a wash. That’s going to be expensive, particularly in very hot and very cold climates.
6. Gentler on clothes
Since clothing is not being superheated, the process is much gentler on clothing, meaning that you can leave many line-dry-only clothes in the dryer cycle. It also means clothes will last longer and need to be replaced less often. As mentioned previously, there is less lint to clean and catch fire.
7. Quieter running
Because there isn’t air blowing out of the unit, heat pump combos are typically much quieter than the resistance heat equivalents, which means they can operate much easier at night or adjacent to bedrooms without waking up occupants.
8. Long term cost savings
The LG is currently $1000 off at $2000, and the GE Profile is about $2500, depending on discounts. That is significantly more than most standalone units but on par with higher-end combinations of washer + dryer. The cost saving is pretty incredible, however. Each wash-dry cycle is under 1 kWh. That means, depending on where you live, each load will typically cost anywhere from 7-20 cents per load or less. Compare that to a typical resistance dryer, which will use between 2-6kW to dry for about an hour or around 4 times that amount for the dryer alone.
(Many variables are here, so I’m doing my math with numbers in the middle.)
Then, if you live in hot or cold climates (or both!), you have to consider all of that heated air you are sending right out of your house. That air loss creates negative pressure in your home, which then is filled with air from outside via small holes in the house or under doorways (or around that dryer vent). Your HVAC system then has to heat or cool that air again. For me, this is a huge added cost in the summer and winter, where our HVAC costs are high. I figure I’m going to save about $1.80 per load overall, and we do roughly 1 load per day for a family of 4.
That’s a conservative $700/year in savings and a mere 3-year payback timeline.
9. Easier/take advantage of time-of-use rates,
Because this is an all-in-one, the washer cycle immediately leads to drying without having to move the laundry from machine to machine. That’s not only easier, but it allows the whole cycle to be done during a night when rates are the lowest.
You put dirty clothes in at night, it runs when the rates are lowest, and you have clean dry clothes waiting for you in the morning.
10. IRA Federal, state and local rebates
Depending where you live, there may be heat pump dryer rebates available to qualified buyers. As with most government programs, the rebates aren’t straightforward but up to $840 Federal money might be available soon.
In Vermont where I currently live, there is another $400 rebate available.
Right there, I’ve reduced the initial up front price in half before I start saving money on energy bills.
11. Bonus: Smart detergent/fabric softener dispenser
Not really heat pump or energy related but both of the units have this and it is really, really cool. The smart dispenser allows you to fill up the reservoirs with detergent or fabric softener for something like 20 loads and it disperses the right amount of each depending on load size. That’s going to save time and overfilling resources and therefor some more money. I love it.
Also, you will have to change from dryer sheets to fabric softener. But the dispenser makes sure you don’t forget.
Also both of these machines have apps which seem like more trouble than they are worth but I’ll let you know after a few months of use.
Downsides
While the upsides of the heat pump washer-dryer combo are plentiful, there are still some downsides.
- The biggest difference is that after a 2 hour cycle, clothes still feel mildly damp and they come out a little more wrinkled than a typical dryer. One option is to continue to run the dry portion for additiona “extra dry”. But in reality, pulling the laundry out and giving it a single “big shake” seems to magically complete the last 1% of drying and the outside air seems to grab up the last of the wetness. It certainly takes some getting used to. Clothes feel dry when worn.
- Because the heat pump doesn’t get quite as hot as the resistance dryer, it doesn’t have the same ability to sterilize clothing in the same way a hot resistance dryer does. I haven’t yet found this to be a problem but it is something to consider. GE touts mold resistant materials in its product literature.
- If you have to rapid-fire a ton of laundry, the 2-hour cycle will take longer than having both washer and dryer running at the same time. For our family, this is pretty rare but if it isn’t, a second unit could be purchased or a legacy washer dryer could be kept around to speed up these laundry marathons.
- These bad boys are heavy! The GE Profile is north of 300lbs and will require multiple people to get it upstairs.
- It is no fun to jump in a pile of 99% dry, lukewarm clothing like it is the warm clothes from a traditional dryer. Kids of the future won’t ever get to experience that joy but also won’t know the burns from metal snaps and zippers. (The GE Profile has a cooling down period at the end of the cycle that could be skipped for that enjoyment.)
So which of these 2 is the better pick? I aim to find out over the next few months when I will have both of the in my house at the same time. But for now, let’s look at the differences on paper:
Size:
We weren’t aware of LG’s entry to the market last month when we opted to purchase the GE Profile. It was delivered a few weeks ago and the initial washes have been within expectations. The “moistness” at the end of a cycle thing is real and it does take getting used to.
But now that we are looking at the LG WashCombo, it seems to meet our needs better.
One of the biggest issues is that we have some cabinetry in our laundry room which would have to be removed for the taller GE Profile model. While both units have the same footprint, the GE is 7.7 inches out of typical washer/dryer height spec. Now that might be good for repairs as the heat pump unit is seperate from the washer unit.
Also the LG’s opening is higher up for ergonomic reasons and it has its own water heating unit.
As for lint, GE Profile requires you to clean the lint catcher after every 5 washes, vs LG which requires you to do it after every wash. However, LG’s cleaning process is much easier and doesn’t involve a vacuum cleaner.
LG’s is a direct drive vs. GE Profile which is a belt drive and has someone who has replaced dryer belts, I’m a direct drive fan. LG’s also has a built-in water heater which seems like a big plus if it can eliminate running a hot water line.
Electrek’s take
It always happens. I was looking at the GE Profile for months and finally bit the bullet when we had a washer leak. Then between ordering and arrival, LG shows off their new model that seems a little better for a price $500 less than what I paid.
The GE Profile has been solid in the week we’ve had it but I’m really looking forward to the LG WashCombo to see if it will be our Forever Washer Dryer.
Buy both at Best Buy here: GE Profile (Haier), LG WashCombo WM6998HBA
Some videos for the GE Profile:
Some videos I’ve found on the LG:
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Environment
‘Repowering’ era for America’s aging wind energy industry begins, despite Trump’s effort to kill it
Jeffrey Sanders / 500px | 500px | Getty Images
On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order indefinitely halting permits for new onshore wind energy projects on federal land, as well as new leases for offshore wind farms in U.S. coastal waters. The action not only fulfilled Trump’s “no new windmills” campaign pledge, but struck yet another blow to the wind industry, which has been hit hard over the past few years by supply chain snags, price increases upending project economics, public opposition and political backlash against federal tax credits, especially those spurring the fledgling offshore wind sector.
Nonetheless, the nation’s well-established onshore wind industry, built out over several decades, is generating nearly 11% of America’s electricity, making it the largest source of renewable energy and at times last year exceeding coal-fired generation. On April 8, the fossil-fuels-friendly Trump administration took measures to bolster coal mining and power plants, but as the infrastructure driving wind energy ages, efforts to “repower” it are creating new business opportunities for the industry’s key players.
This repowering activity has emerged as a bright spot for the wind industry, giving a much-needed boost to market leaders GE Vernova, Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, a subsidiary of Munich-based Siemens Energy. Following several challenging years of lackluster performance — due in particular to setbacks in both onshore and offshore projects — all three companies reported revenue increases in 2024, and both GE Vernova and Siemens stock have moved higher.
GE Vernova, spun off from General Electric a year ago, led overall onshore wind installations in 2024, with 56% of the U.S. market, followed by Denmark’s Vestas (40%) and Siemens Gamesa (4%).
GE Vernova stock performance over the past one-year period.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, installed wind power generating capacity grew from 2.4 gigawatts (GW) in 2000 to 150.1 GW as of April 2024. Although the growth rate for launching new greenfield onshore wind farms has slowed over the last 10 years, the U.S. is still poised to surpass 160 GW of wind capacity in 2025, according to a new report from energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.
There currently are about 1,500 onshore wind farms — on which more than 75,600 turbines are spinning — across 45 states, led by Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas. Virtually all of the wind farms are located on private land, and many of the largest ones are owned and operated by major energy companies, including NextEra Energy, RWE Clean Energy, Pattern Energy, Clearway Energy, Xcel Energy and Berkshire Hathaway‘s MidAmerican Energy, which generates 59% of it renewable energy from wind, including 3,500 turbines operating across 38 wind projects in Iowa.
A growing number of the turbines are 20-plus years old and nearing the end of their lifecycle. So increasingly, operators have to decide whether to upgrade or replace aging turbines’ key components, such as blades, rotors and electronics, or dismantle them altogether and erect new, technologically advanced and far more efficient models that can increase electricity output by up to 50%.
“What’s becoming clear is that more and more of the U.S. installed base [of onshore turbines] has exceeded its operational design life,” said Charles Coppins, research analyst for global wind at Wood Mackenzie, “and now operators are looking to replace those aging turbines with the latest [ones].”
To date, approximately 70 GW of onshore wind capacity has been fully repowered in the U.S., according to Wood Mackenzie, while an additional 12 GW has been partially repowered. The firm estimates that around 10,000 turbines have been decommissioned and that another 6,000 will be retired in the next 10 years, Coppins said.
Damaged wind turbine that was first hit by a tornado then lightning.
Ryan Baker | Istock | Getty Images
Beyond the fact that aged-out turbines need to be upgraded or replaced, repowering an existing wind farm versus building a new site presents economic benefits to operators and OEMs. To begin with, there’s no need to acquire property. In fact, in certain situations, because today’s turbines are larger and more efficient, fewer turbines are needed. And they’ll generate additional electricity and have longer lifecycles, ultimately delivering higher output at a lower cost.
Even so, “there are some limitations on how much capacity you could increase a project by without having to go through new permitting processes or interconnection queues” to the power grid, said Stephen Maldonado, Wood Mackenzie’s U.S. onshore analyst. As long as the operator is not surpassing the allowed interconnection volume agreed to with the local utility, they can add electricity to the project and still send it to the grid.
Public opposition, Maldonado said, may be another hurdle to get over. Whether it’s a new or repower wind project, residents have expressed concerns about environmental hazards, decreased property values, aesthetics and general anti-renewables sentiment.
RWE, a subsidiary of Germany’s RWE Group, is the third largest renewable energy company in the U.S., owning and operating 41 utility-scale wind farms, according to its CEO Andrew Flanagan, making up 48% of its total installed operating portfolio and generating capacity, which also includes solar and battery storage.
One of RWE’s two repower projects underway (both are in Texas), is its Forest Creek wind farm, originally commissioned in 2006 and featuring 54 Siemens Gamesa turbines. The project will replace them with 45 new GE Vernova turbines that will extend the wind farm’s life by another 30 years once it goes back online later this year. Simultaneously, RWE and GE Vernova are partnering on a new wind farm, immediately adjacent to Forest Creek, adding another 64 turbines to the complex. When complete, RWE will deliver a total of 308 MW of wind energy to the region’s homes and businesses.
Flanagan noted that the combined projects are related to increased electricity demands from the area’s oil and gas production. “It’s great to see our wind generation drive the all-of-the-above energy approach,” he said. What’s more, at its peak, the repower project alone will employ 250 construction workers and over its operating period bring in $30 million in local tax revenue, he added.
In turn, the twin projects will support advanced manufacturing jobs at GE Vernova’s Pensacola, Florida, facility, as well as advancing the OEM’s repower business. In January, the company announced that in 2024 it received orders to repower more than 1 GW of wind turbines in the U.S.
Koiguo | Moment | Getty Images
Siemens Gamesa has executed several large U.S. repowering projects, notably MidAmerican’s expansive Rolling Hills wind farm in Iowa, which went online in 2011. In 2019, the company replaced 193 older turbines with 163 higher-capacity models produced at its manufacturing plants in Iowa and Kansas.
Last year, Siemens Gamesa began repowering RWE’s 17-year-old Champion Wind, a 127-MW wind farm in West Texas. The company is upgrading 41 of its turbines with new blades and nacelles (the housing at the top of the tower containing critical electrical components) and adding six new turbines.
In early April, Clearway announced an agreement with Vestas to repower its Mount Storm Wind farm in Grant County, West Virginia. The project will include removing the site’s 132 existing turbines and replacing them with 78 new models. The repower will result in an 85% increase in Mount Storm’s overall electricity generation while using 40% fewer turbines.
Preparing for ‘megatons’ of turbine recycling and tariffs
Another benefit of repowering is invigorating the nascent industry that’s recycling megatons of components from decommissioned turbines, including blades, steel, copper and aluminum. Most of today’s operational turbines are 85% to 95% recyclable, and OEMs are designing 100% recyclable models.
While the majority of mothballed blades, made from fiberglass and carbon fiber, have historically ended up in landfills, several startups have developed technologies recycle them. Carbon Rivers, for example, contracts with the turbine OEMs and wind farm operators to recover glass fiber, carbon fiber and resin systems from decommissioned blades to produce new composites and resins used for next-generation turbine blades, marine vessels, composite concrete and auto parts.
Veolia North America, a subsidiary of the French company Veolia Group, reconstitutes shredded blades and other composite materials into a fuel it then sells to cement manufacturers as a replacement for coal, sand and clay. Veolia has processed approximately 6,500 wind blades at a facility in Missouri, and expanded its processing capabilities to meet demand, according to David Araujo, Veolia’s general manager of engineered fuels.
Trump’s new-project moratorium isn’t his only impediment to the wind industry. The president’s seesaw of import tariffs, especially the 25% levy on steel and aluminum, is impacting U.S. manufacturers across most sectors.
The onshore wind industry, however, “has done a really good job of reducing geopolitical risks,” said John Hensley, senior vice president for markets and policy analysis at the American Clean Power Association, a trade group representing the clean energy industry. He cited a manufacturing base in the U.S. that includes hundreds of plants producing parts and components for turbines. Although some materials are imported, the investment in domestic manufacturing “provides some risk mitigation to these tariffs,” he said.
Amidst the headwinds, the onshore wind industry is trying to stay focused on the role that repowering can play in meeting the nation’s exponentially growing demand for electricity. “We’re expecting a 35% to 50% increase between now and 2040, which is just incredible,” Hensley said. “It’s like adding a new Louisiana to the grid every year for 15 years.”
GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik recently told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the growth of the U.S.’s electric load is the largest since the industrial boom that followed the end of the second world war. “You’ve got to go back to 1945 and the end of World War II, that’s the infrastructure buildout that we’re going to have,” he said.
As OEMs and wind farm developers continue to face rising capital costs for new projects, as well as a Trump administration averse to clean energy industries, “repowering offers a pathway for delivering more electrons to the grid in a way that sidesteps or at least minimizes some of the challenges associated with all these issues,” Hensley said.
Capable of delivering up to 1,200 kW of power to get electric commercial trucks back on the road in minutes, the new ABB MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System is part of an ecosystem of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) that ABB’s bringing to this year’s ACT Expo.
ABB E-mobility is using the annual clean trucking conference to showcase the expansion of its EVSE portfolio with three all-new charger families: the field-upgradable A200/300 All-in-One chargers, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System for heavy-duty vehicles shown (above), and the ChargeDock Dispenser for flexible depot charging.
The company said its new product platform was built by applying a computer system-style domain separation to charger design, fundamentally improving subsystem development and creating a clear path forward for site and system expansion. In other words, ABB is selling a system with both future-proofing and enhanced dependability baked in.
“We have built a system by logically separating a charger into four distinct subsystems … each functioning as an independent subsystem,” explains Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “Unlike conventional chargers, where a user interface failure can disable the entire system, our architecture ensures charging continues even if the screen or payment system encounters issues. Moreover, we can improve each subsystem at its own pace without having to change the entire system.”
The parts of ABB’s new EVSE portfolio that have been made public so far have already been recognized for design excellence, with the A400 winning the iF Gold Award and both the A400 and C50 receiving Red Dot Design Awards.
New ABB chargers seem pretty, good
ABB says the systemic separation of its EVSE enhances both reliability and quality, while making deployed chargers easier to diagnose and repair, in less time. Each of the chargers’ subsystems can be tested, diagnosed, and replaced independently, allowing for quick on-site repairs and update cycles tailored to the speed of each systems’ innovation. The result is 99% uptime and a more future-proof product.
“The EV charging landscape is evolving beyond point products for specific use cases,” continued Halbherr. “By implementing this modular approach with the majority of our R&D focused on modular platforms rather than one-off products … it reduces supply chain risks, while accelerating development cycles and enabling deeper collaboration with critical suppliers.”
Key markets ABB is chasing
- PUBLIC CHARGING – with the award winning A400 being the optimal fit for high power charging from highway corridors to urban locations, the latest additions to the A-Series All-in-One chargers offer a field-upgradable architecture allowing operators to start with the A200 (200kW) with the option to upgrade to 300kW or 400kW as demand grows. This approach offers scalability and protects customer investment, leading to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings over 10 years.
- PUBLIC TRANSIT AND FLEET – the new Charge Dock Dispenser – in combination with the already in market available HVC 360 – simplifies depot charging with a versatile solution that supports pantograph-, roof-, and pedestal charging options with up to 360kW of shared power and 150m/490 ft installation flexibility between cabinet and dispensers. The dispenser maintains up to 500A output.
- HEAVY TRUCKS – building the matching charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles and fleets represents a critical innovation frontier on our journey to electrify transportation. Following extensive collaboration with industry-leading truck OEMs, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System delivers up to 1,200kW of continuous power — 20% more energy transfer than 1MW systems — providing heavy-duty vehicles with purpose-built single-outlet design for the energy they need during mandatory driver breaks. To support other use cases, such as CCS truck charging, a dual CCS and MCS option will also be available.
- RETAIL – the award winning C50 Compact Charger complements the family as the slimmest charger in its category at just 9.3 inches depth, optimized for convenient charging during typical one-hour retail experiences. With its large touch display, the C50 takes the award-winning A400 experience even further — setting a new standard for consumer experience and very neatly echoing our own take on that “Goldilocks” timing zone for commercial charging.
ABB says that the result of its new approach are chargers that offer 99% plus uptime — a crucial statistic for commercial charging operations and a key factor to ensuring customer satisfaction. The new ABB E-mobility EVSE product family will be on display for the first time at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo (ACT Expo) in Anaheim, California next week, then again at Power2Drive in Munich, Germany, from May 7-9.
Electrek’s Take
The ACT Expo is one of – if not the most important sustainable trucking event in North America, featuring all the big names in heavy trucks, construction equipment, material handling, infrastructure – even Tier 1 suppliers. Mostly, though, it’s many fleet buyers’ only chance to test drive these zero emission trucks before writing a big PO (which just makes it even more important).
Electrek will be there again this year, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest news from press events and product reveals as it happens.
SOURCE | IMAGES: ABB E-mobility.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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Along with Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-based ultralight aircraft company Whisper Aero has secured a $500,000 grant to help advance the company’s innovative electric jet motor concept off the drawing board and onto the testing phase.
Earlier this month, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced plans to award $500,000 to Tennessee Tech and Whisper Aero through the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative.
“We look forward to using these award dollars to place students in internships working directly with Whisper Aero leaders,” said Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. “By learning from an electric propulsion innovator like Whisper Aero, our students will gain invaluable perspective and can take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it right here in Tennessee.”
The grant will see a Whisper Aero glider fitted with a pair of the company’s eQ250 electric-powered jet “propulsors” for UltraQuiet flight. Tennessee Tech faculty and students will carry out copper-bird ground testing to ensure the safe integration of engines, batteries, and controllers, and kickstart Tennessee Tech’s new Crossville Mobility Incubator.
Those propulsors, by the way, are super cool.
Whisper Aero’s main claim to fame is its innovative UltraQuiet WhisperDrive (above). It’s effectively an electrically spun ducted fan jet engine that uses a large number of stiff composite fan blades inside a lightweight, acoustically treated duct. With so many blades, the Whisper Aero propulsor can push more air than a conventional prop while spinning much more slowly. As such, the “blade passage frequency” moves up to more than 16,000 Hz – outside the range of most human hearing but not, supposedly, high enough to freak out the beagles.
The Whisper Aero ultralight is effectively an Aériane Swift3 glider fitted with a pair of Whisper’s eQ250 propulsors, each capable of up to 80 lbs. of thrust. The Ultralight has a wingspan of over 40 ft with a maximum L/D of 35:1 and can be stressed to a design loading of +6/-4g, making it capable of some pretty impressive acrobatic feats.
The Swift3 glider is designed for a low speed, low power cruising speed of 45–55 knots with “just” 6.5 hp. Power-off glides from a few hundred feet showed a low sink rate, and a climb rate of 1,250 ft/min with full self-launching power (in other words: the Whisper glider doesn’t have to be towed by a launch vehicle, like a conventional ultralight glider).
Quiet cool
Range under full power is about 109 miles with current battery tech, but it’s expected that range under the latest EPiC 2.0 energy batteries would rise to nearly 170 miles.
Nathan Millecam, CEO of Electric Power System, said, “EPiC 2.0’s leap in energy density and thermal performance has enabled a significant increase in range, a clear validation of our next-gen cell technology. We are impressed by what the Whisper team continues to achieve in advancing electric aviation.”
The press release concludes explaining that flight tests are expected to show that the Whisper Aero glider can be flown, “a few hundred feet away from neighborhoods without any disturbances, while carrying a 220 lbs. payload with full range,” which is all kind of ominous in today’s political climate, but still pretty neat from a purely tech perspective.
The TNGO grant follows a separate grant from NASA awarded last year, though that grant aims to develop the eQ250s – not as a propulsion system, but as a key component in future spacecraft ventilation systems.
Tennessee Tech announces TNGO grant
With support from TNECD’s Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative, Tennessee Tech University and Whisper Aero are partnering to advance next-generation propulsion technology in the aerospace industry. This collaboration will enhance aerospace research and workforce development, ensuring Tennessee remains a leader in cutting-edge mobility solutions.
SOURCE | IMAGES: TNECD; via eVTOL Insights, New Atlas.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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