International. According to a new report from GTM Research, voice-activated devices will be critical to energy in the smart home. By 2023, 28 percent of U.S. households will deploy smart thermostats; 36 percent will have at least one voice assistant device and use the device as a smart home control platform.
GTM Research estimates that home energy management technologies will result in $24 billion in hardware sales for market players from 2016 to 2023, according to the new report, Energy Management in Connected Homes.
The rise in home interactivity has been driven by safety, convenience and convenience, not energy savings. "Both customers and utilities recognize that customers only think about saving energy when their energy bill is an important part of their expenses," said Fei Wang, senior grid analyst and author of the report. "The savings potential is so small that it's hard to maintain customer engagement."
This is evident in the explosion of voice assistant devices sold in 2017. These devices have been largely sold as tools to enable hands-free information and audio services to improve customer comfort, but they are also becoming the human interface or even the brain of the smart home.
Google and Amazon are among the most well-known players in the voice assistant space, and GTM Research estimates that there will be 129 million of these devices deployed by 2023, making it a key technology for the home energy market. Technologies that focus more exclusively on energy management, such as smart thermostats and smart lighting, are expected to experience more conservative growth.
A smooth customer experience will be a competitive advantage in this market, Wang said. "Automating and reducing requests to react to network events are key to keeping customers engaged and avoiding customer fatigue," Wang said. Automation will allow connected devices to seamlessly engage with demand flexibility programs without active customer recognition while ensuring customer convenience.
