10 Interesting Energy Conservation Views and Homeowner Sentiments Towards Smart Homes

Ener­gy effi­cien­cy has had a pres­ence in the home improve­ment indus­try for sev­er­al decades, with stan­dards enact­ed around the top­ic of con­ser­va­tion at first a state and then nation­al lev­el. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and smart home tech­nol­o­gy, while new­er, have also carved out space in the mar­ket, with new tech­nolo­gies fre­quent­ly emerging.

How­ev­er, there is sig­nif­i­cant vari­ance in home­own­er sen­ti­ments and per­cep­tions on improve­ment projects revolv­ing around smart home automa­tion, sus­tain­ably built prod­ucts, and ener­gy conservation.

Data from our recent Home­own­er Trends in Ener­gy Effi­cien­cy, Smart Home and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Study shows notable dis­tinc­tions in how aware and knowl­edge­able dif­fer­ent cus­tomer demo­graph­ics are about these top­ics, as well as their per­ceived impor­tance and what moti­vates rel­e­vant home improve­ment investments.

What Homeowner Sentiments Influence the Energy Conservation and Smart Home Industry?

Ener­gy effi­cien­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and smart home improve­ments share some over­lap in terms of their over­ar­ch­ing pur­pos­es, which include mak­ing liv­ing spaces func­tion more smooth­ly, enhanc­ing com­fort and con­ve­nience, and, ide­al­ly, pro­vid­ing long-term cost sav­ings to customers. 

There are also marked dif­fer­ences, which are impor­tant for indus­try stake­hold­ers to be aware of to opti­mize prod­uct devel­op­ment, cus­tomer sup­port, and mar­ket­ing. Here are a few impor­tant trends iden­ti­fied in our report regard­ing cus­tomer sen­ti­ment and prod­uct usage in regards of ener­gy con­ser­va­tion and the smart home mar­ket:

1. Differences are Noticeable Among 7 Distinct Life-Stage Segments

Our research indi­cates that there are sev­en dis­tinct life-stage seg­ments when it comes to all three emerg­ing home improve­ment cat­e­gories: ener­gy effi­cien­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and smart technology. 

These seg­ments include

1. mid­dle-income families
2. mar­ried retirees
3. emp­ty nesters
4. low- to mod­er­ate-income families
5. unmar­ried retirees
6. sin­gle-work­er families
7. sin­gle young adults

They exhib­it dif­fer­ent moti­va­tions and influ­ences for pur­su­ing projects and mak­ing invest­ments into home improve­ment, with mid­dle-income and low- to mod­er­ate-income fam­i­lies the most like­ly seg­ments for future invest­ments into home improve­ments aimed at these par­tic­u­lar purposes.

2. Older Homeowners Prioritize Energy Conservation

Old­er home­own­ers have a ten­den­cy to pri­or­i­tize ener­gy effi­cien­cy over sus­tain­abil­i­ty and smart home improve­ments. In fact, approx­i­mate­ly three-fourths of home­own­ers in both the 55 to 64 and 65-plus age brack­ets list­ed ener­gy effi­cien­cy as impor­tant when it comes to deci­sion-mak­ing for home improve­ment projects. Smart home improve­ments were impor­tant to less than one-third of indi­vid­u­als in these demo­graph­ics. That indi­cates there is some work to be done con­nect­ing with old­er home­own­ers about sus­tain­abil­i­ty and smart home improve­ments, but they are already primed to pur­sue projects designed to fos­ter ener­gy effi­cient hous­ing. Also, take into con­sid­er­a­tion that mar­ried retirees account for 24% of total home improve­ment spend among all cus­tomer segments.

3. Younger Homeowners have Higher Awareness of Smart Technologies

Younger demo­graph­ics — ages 25 to 34 — show high­er aware­ness of and famil­iar­i­ty with smart home tech­nolo­gies, sug­gest­ing future growth in this cat­e­go­ry as these indi­vid­u­als age and enter into the home­own­er phase of their lives.

There is a sig­nif­i­cant drop-off in famil­iar­i­ty with smart home automa­tion when it comes to home­own­ers aged 55 and old­er. That being said, there is still ample oppor­tu­ni­ty for indus­try stake­hold­ers when it comes to fos­ter­ing a deep­er under­stand­ing and famil­iar­i­ty among all demographics.

Along with devel­op­ing inter­op­er­a­ble smart home sys­tems to enhance con­ve­nience and effi­cien­cy, man­u­fac­tur­ers should also con­sid­er their mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing and how to com­mu­ni­cate the ben­e­fits of smart tech­nolo­gies and prod­ucts. User-friend­li­ness is also crit­i­cal to make smart home prod­ucts more appealing. 

4. Cost-Savings are an Opportunity and Challenge

Sav­ing mon­ey can be a strong moti­va­tor for home­own­ers to under­take home improve­ment projects involv­ing smart tech­nol­o­gy and sus­tain­able project designs, mate­ri­als, and products. 

They look for­ward to trim­ming util­i­ty bills, con­serv­ing water, and decreas­ing long-term ener­gy use with the right type of win­dow or insu­la­tion, or by replac­ing an out­dat­ed appli­ance or installing renew­able ener­gy systems. 

How­ev­er, finan­cial con­cerns are also preva­lent among dif­fer­ent demo­graph­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly amid ris­ing infla­tion. Address­ing finan­cial bar­ri­ers via infor­ma­tion sup­port is para­mount. For exam­ple, man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers should focus their mar­ket­ing on finan­cial ben­e­fits and pro­vide detailed, acces­si­ble infor­ma­tion on prod­uct ben­e­fits and poten­tial cost savings.

5. Awareness and Usage of Financial Incentives Go Hand in Hand

Despite resource avail­abil­i­ty, there are still a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of home­own­ers who are unaware of or do not plan to use incen­tives or rebates for smart home and sus­tain­abil­i­ty improve­ments, such as the Ener­gy Effi­cient Home Improve­ment Cred­it; this sug­gests a com­mu­ni­ca­tion gap between man­u­fac­tur­ers and customers. 

Man­u­fac­tur­ers could address this chal­lenge by pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion, facil­i­tat­ing prod­uct com­par­isons, and offer­ing post-pur­chase sup­port. Our research also indi­cates that indi­vid­u­als who have moved to new homes in the past three months are more than twice as like­ly as those who have not moved to be aware of finan­cial incen­tives relat­ed to ener­gy effi­cien­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and smart home improvements. 

When the aware­ness increas­es, so does the usage. Con­nect­ing with recent movers is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers. Addi­tion­al­ly, incen­tives and rebates are per­ceived by cus­tomers as the top way that man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers can sup­port home­own­ers in uti­liz­ing prod­ucts for these types of projects; a third of home­own­ers also ref­er­enced financ­ing as an impor­tant means of support.

6. Comfort and Convenience Motivate Smart Home Improvement Activities

Com­fort, con­ve­nience, and healthy liv­ing are key moti­va­tors for invest­ment into home improve­ment for approx­i­mate­ly 42% of home­own­ers. Addi­tion­al­ly, smart home sys­tems are the most like­ly emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies to be adopt­ed in the next five years.

That rela­tion­ship is worth explor­ing for indus­try stake­hold­ers, as many smart home tech­nolo­gies and prod­ucts are designed for that exact intent: improv­ing the liv­abil­i­ty, com­fort and con­ve­nience of a home. Many house­holds in the U.S. have at least one smart home device installed, and there is sub­stan­tial room for growth in the smart home mar­ket.

7. Social and Environmental Consciousness is Growing

While ris­ing costs are the great­est moti­va­tor for increased invest­ment into home improve­ment prod­ucts over the next five years, envi­ron­men­tal impact and cli­mate change con­cerns are still ref­er­enced as dri­vers for about one-fourth of homeowners. 

There also appears to be some grow­ing aware­ness around these top­ics as well, with rough­ly 9% of home­own­ers say­ing their per­spec­tive on envi­ron­men­tal and social con­scious­ness has changed over the past five years. Young adults demon­strate the most aware­ness and con­cern in this area; about one-third of home­own­ers in this seg­ment — the high­est per­cent­age among all home­own­er seg­ments — cit­ed envi­ron­men­tal impact as a worth­while rea­son to increase invest­ment into home improve­ment prod­ucts that are ener­gy effi­cient over the next five years.

8. Family, Friends and Website are Primary Outlets for Research and Advice

Approx­i­mate­ly one-third of home­own­ers con­tin­ue to rely on the input and knowl­edge of friends and fam­i­ly when it comes to home improve­ment projects across all three cat­e­gories. That demon­strates just how impor­tant word-of-mouth is. Sec­on­dar­i­ly, home­own­ers use home improve­ment web­sites as infor­mal infor­ma­tion sources for their projects and the prod­ucts involved. 

How­ev­er, when look­ing for more for­mal advice, home­own­ers will turn to retail­er web­sites to research their options — and old­er adults are 18% more like­ly to rely on for­mal sources of infor­ma­tion than younger home­own­ers. Bol­ster­ing the infor­ma­tion on your web­site and using it as a means to con­nect curi­ous home­own­ers with your brand can encour­age them to uti­lize your prod­ucts for their upcom­ing projects.

9. Homeowner Segments Approach Energy Efficiency in Differing Ways

Mar­ried retirees are the most like­ly home­own­er demo­graph­ic to adopt ener­gy-effi­cient appli­ances as a way to enhance this aspect of their home. 

Mean­while, mid­dle-income fam­i­lies are the most like­ly to pur­sue renew­able ener­gy instal­la­tions — such as solar pan­els and bat­tery stor­age — as well as elec­tric-vehi­cle charg­ing infrastructure. 

Young adults are almost equal­ly like­ly to adopt ener­gy-effi­cient appli­ances as renew­able ener­gy prod­ucts. This is just one indi­ca­tion of the dif­fer­ences sur­round­ing aware­ness and pri­or­i­ties when it comes to ener­gy effi­cien­cy and sustainability.

10. Middle-Income Families are a Highly Accessible Segment Over the Next Five Years

Over the next five years, more than one-thirds of home­own­ers plan to invest in smart home sys­tems and ener­gy-effi­cient appli­ances. When it comes to smart home improve­ments, mid­dle-income fam­i­lies are among the most reach­able seg­ments for man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers, as they are 26% more like­ly, on aver­age, to adopt smart home sys­tems and 29% per­cent more like­ly to adopt res­i­den­tial ener­gy-man­age­ment sys­tems than all oth­er home­own­er seg­ments. Sus­tain­ably built prod­ucts and improve­ments are also high­est among mid­dle-income fam­i­lies, as well as the young adult and low-mod­er­ate income fam­i­ly segments.

Making Informed Decisions with Comprehensive Research

These trends among cus­tomer sen­ti­ments and pur­chase deci­sions are just a few of the insights includ­ed in our Ener­gy Effi­cien­cy, Smart Home and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Study, avail­able to all HIRI mem­bers. The full report also pro­vides action­able con­sid­er­a­tions for man­u­fac­tur­ers and dis­trib­u­tors when it comes to prod­uct devel­op­ment, com­mu­ni­ty build­ing, and finan­cial, infor­ma­tion­al, and cus­tomer support.

Along with this study, Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute (HIRI) mem­bers have access to a rich archive of over one mil­lion dol­lars worth of exist­ing home improve­ment indus­try research, as well as new stud­ies and data pub­lished on a month­ly basis.