From product to service - strategies for upscaling smart home performance monitoring

Smart home technologies provide an opportunity to address the housing design or retrofit-performance gap and to improve the building regulations. It is currently used to manage comfort, security, and resource efficiency but, adoption remains piecemeal, and disparate. This study aims to explore how householder perceptions of housing quality, and the cost-benefit of improvements informs the adoption of smart technologies. Further, it bridges the theory-to-practice gap by proposing the product-as-service domains that can be deployed for the upscaled implementation of smart home performance monitoring. The survey method returned 972 nationally representative responses. Factor analysis was then used to establish the housing quality priorities, and home improvement drivers that combine to inform the adoption of smart home performance monitoring. Findings show that householders will adopt technologies in return for a 'benefit' if reliable smart systems and data-feedback mechanisms are packaged as: (a) commerce services to support utility efficiencies and cost savings, (b) convenience and control services to improve comfort and wellbeing, (c) information and communication services to inform behaviours and decisions, and (d) entertainment services to satisfy hedonic needs. The paper concludes with practical, scalable implementation strategies for smart home performance monitoring. Thus bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Automated summary

Smart home technologies have the potential to address housing design gaps and improve building regulations. However, their adoption is currently fragmented. This study explores how perceptions of housing quality and cost-benefit analysis inform the adoption of smart technologies. The findings suggest that reliable smart systems and data-feedback mechanisms packaged as commerce, convenience, information, and entertainment services can drive adoption.