"smart home" articles

There is growing interest from consumers in saving energy and being more energy efficient. Energy savings and reduction of energy bills have always been leading drivers of smart home technology. When included in energy management programs, smart home devices help reduce barriers to saving energy.   Smart home device capabilities include the following:   Remote control of energy-consuming products – Smart home devices allow consumers to...

The smart residence starts at the front door. Smart door locks, smart access control systems, networked cameras, video doorbells, smart garage door openers, parking access solutions, and other IoT devices represent a new generation of access control and monitoring solutions. Smart door lock adoption continues to be driven by strong multichannel sales efforts and continual product innovation. The majority of residential door locks installed in the US are mechanical, but an increasing...

Extending a smart home platform to support connected health and wellness applications and services is a natural pathway forward for many smart home platform providers. The connected health market represents several interesting use cases that converge with the smart home industry. Consumers spend less than 1% of their time interacting with the traditional healthcare system (i.e., hospitals, clinics, doctors, and health coaches). Home, on the other hand, is where consumers spend most time...

Utility programs designed to reduce residential energy consumption have been available for decades. However, consumer participation in these programs is very limited. Currently, only 19% of US internet households use a time-of-use (TOU) rate plan from their utility or energy provider. A lack of consumer awareness and lack of consumer engagement with energy consumption and conservation act as barriers to the adoption of these programs. Customers who invest in energy...

The smart home will achieve significant penetration and widespread adoption among consumers, but the rate and speed of adoption are dependent on many factors. As connectivity in the home increases year-over-year, smart home players have a chance to capitalize on and push the smart home forward. No single company holds the future in its grasp. And, despite the promising future and the smart home’s remarkable potential, there is still a disconnect between market hype and...

Last week, Parks Associates hosted a virtual session “ Home Energy Management Solutions: Driving Energy Savings ,” Thursday, June 30, as part of the 13th annual Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer . In these sessions, we shared our research and also conversations from the industry on consumer adoption of smart energy devices and interest in energy management use cases. Our latest consumer study, “ Smart Energy at Home: Renewable, Responsive, Resilient ,” reveals most...

Multi-dwelling units (MDUs) and multifamily properties are buildings designed to house several different families and contained in a single building or several buildings within one complex. The building is typically divided into separate housing units and is owned by one entity. Additionally, Parks Associates research reveals that 34% of US broadband households are MDU residents. MDU categories consist of apartments, condominiums, duplexes, quadruplexes, townhomes, and dormitories....

Connectivity in the home and the addition of connected devices continue to expand year-over-year, with consumers now owning an average of 16connected devices, with the majority coming from the mature connected CE product category and the remainder from smart home and connected health products. The increasing levels of connectivity in consumers’ lives provide easy targets for hackers and present security and privacy vulnerabilities for consumers.  The glossary of terms...