The development of smart homes market in the UK

Smart homes will be a key component of smart grids as without them the functionalities and capabilities offered at network level will not be realised fully by householders. Yet an extensive body of literature focuses on energy consumption and management services via various demand side management programmes and informs us of a significant variation in the realisation of these benefits to reduce demand. However services which can be enabled via smart technology are much broader than simply energy consumption and management, spanning from assisted living to security to remote monitoring, control and management of appliances and devices. Using a combination of in-depth deliberative public workshops, expert interviews and a review of the existing literature, this paper gives an overview of services that smart homes can offer and reveals key barriers to smart home adoption such as interoperability, deregulated electricity supply industry, UK housing stock characteristics, tenure as well as reliability, security, and cost of smart technologies. The findings indicate a need for a holistic view for the design and delivery of smart home services so that consumers are offered integrated services across energy consumption and management to air quality management to security, allowing for individual or tailored services for householders.