It has become conventional wisdom that the wave of the future is “smart home” technology from smart utility meters that read a houses energy usage automatically to smart lights that turn off when not in use. The industry has been in development for years, but moved to the forefront of the start-up world when Google bought Nest Labs last year for more than $3B. Nest Labs makes a variety of smart home devices including thermostats and smoke alarms.
Smart home technology marries two of the most talked about trends in business right now – the internet of things and green technology. Given the excitement around these products then, it is little surprise that smart home devices from Nest and others have been able to command astronomical price tags in home improvement stores across the country.
How useful are smart home devices really though? A recent report by the British government suggests that the smart home revolution may be starting to hit some bumps in the road. The British government wanted to begin a national rollout of smart meters to all households across the UK this year. Smart meters are utility meters outside of a home that automatically read energy usage by a house and send that information wirelessly to the utility company. This avoids companies having to estimate bills for customers, cuts down on the costs of meter reading by utility company employees, and can provide consumers with useful information to save money by monitoring energy usage in real time. The most obvious application is in the area of electric meters, but gas meters and water meters also have potential as well.
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