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Smart From The Start: ‘Smart Home’ Is Becoming ‘Sustainable Home’

The concept of a "smart home" is rapidly evolving, driven by technological advancements and changing societal needs. The smart home market was valued at over $79 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $314 billion annually by 2026, partly fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic which redefined residential living requirements. This shift emphasizes new-age design, efficiency, and innovation, leading to a demand for advanced amenities within homes. Dan Bridleman, SVP of Technology at KB Home, a major U.S. homebuilder, highlights that building smart homes effectively starts at the community level, particularly with ensuring adequate bandwidth through fiber optics from the outset. A significant challenge in the current smart home landscape is the fragmentation of ecosystems. Many homeowners find themselves managing numerous applications—such as Apple Home, Google Nest, Google Home, Airthinx, myQ, Awair Home, Dyson, Wemo, Nanoleaf, and Govee Home—each with its own interface and password. This complexity makes managing a smart home inconvenient and user-unfriendly. Bridleman advocates for a singular, integrated app or ecosystem to streamline control, mentioning existing platforms like HomeKit or Amazon Alexa as potential, albeit currently incomplete, solutions. Despite extensive smart home capabilities offered by tech giants like Amazon (with Alexa) and Google (with Nest Hub Max), their focus often remains on smartphones as the central organizing principle, which still necessitates managing multiple disparate systems. Bridleman’s approach at KB Home focuses on integrating intelligence from the ground up rather than as an afterthought. This means incorporating smart technologies during the construction phase based on client preferences, allowing for capabilities that are difficult to retrofit into older homes. Examples include roofs that detect leaks, windows that intelligently adjust for sunlight, and walls designed to withstand strain. Future possibilities even extend to drone delivery ports and automated kitchens, showcasing a vision where smart homes are inherently designed for advanced functionalities. Beyond mere convenience and automation, the definition of a smart home is increasingly intertwining with sustainability and resilience. With growing concerns about grid instability, particularly in regions prone to natural disasters like California, smart homes are evolving to integrate solutions such as solar panels, battery storage, and rainwater cisterns. These features not only reduce environmental impact but also provide energy independence and resilience during power outages. Bridleman points out that California's move towards all-electric homes within the next few years underscores the importance of microgrids, where homes can generate and store their own energy, using it during peak demand or emergencies. This transformation means a smart home becomes a sustainable home, benefiting both the planet and its inhabitants by ensuring essential services like heat, light, and power remain available even when the external grid fails. This integrated, resilient approach opens doors for future power sharing and distributed energy production models. #SmartHome #SustainableHome #IoT #HomeAutomation #EnergyEfficiency #RenewableEnergy #Resilience #KBHome #ConsumerTech #SmartHome #SustainableHome #IoT #HomeAutomation #EnergyEfficiency #RenewableEnergy #Resilience #KBHome #ConsumerTech

45 months ago

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