Smart homes may be hyped on convenience & high tech comfort, but they could do a lot more . A new study says they could help deliver carbon reductions, energy bill savings and improved system resilience across the country.
The authors say that mass adoption of solar energy like roof top panels, battery storage, intelligent controls and other smart energy technologies in the home could unlock a range of benefits.
Homes would be able to save money, lessen their environmental impact and even potentially sell power back to the grid through a local energy marketplace says the Solar Trade Association. And if scaled-up across a portfolio of 4.4M homes they could see benefits for the whole electricity network.
Smart homes have been talked up from an energy perspective for a while of course. Smart meters came first, then smart home thermostats linked to a range of heating and cooling room systems and gadgets around the house, and more recently battery storage to sop up, store and re-use excess clean energy.
This has put energy control into the hands of customers, either directly on wall controls or from phones on the go. It’s been a compelling argument for robust home broadband as well as a growing range of home technologies like connected blinds, air conditioners, heaters, lights, sensors and batteries.
But it’s seen only piecemeal uptake, either because home owners think it’s too complicated or too expensive, or perhaps a bit of both. The smart home and cabling industry-along with government, building companies and trade groups-haven’t done a good job of selling the idea either.
Lux Research in their “Delivering Smart Home Energy Management,” puts the blame on two siloed parts: the smart home ecosystem covering security, convenience and comfort, and the extended home ecosystem covering on-site energy generation, energy storage, and electric vehicle charging. “There are no smart home/energy management offerings that deliver on all home ecosystem capabilities,” said lead author Jessica Hernandez.
In Australia we already have the Home Wiring Essentials covering both ecosystems. We’ve already done all the work to really see a home tech and energy revolution, one that delivers on convenience and energy as one system. They just need connecting.
Cheers
John Fennell
