Nearly 50% of Households Interested In Energy Monitoring: Research
By Madhubanti Rudra, TMCnet Contributor
The research firm, Parks Associates (News - Alert) organizes CONNECTIONS, an event that is focused on the market developments and growth factors for advanced digital lifestyle solutions.
This premier Digital Living Conference and Showcase is hosted by leading research firm Parks Associates with support from the Consumer Electronics Association (News - Alert), or "CEA."
This year's conference will be held on June 8-10 in Santa Clara. The highlight of the conference would be to recommend various strategies for the Home monitoring and controls companies. CONNECTIONS will be examining strategies for in-home energy monitoring and control systems providing companies. According to the research firm, these companies can play a lead role to get over the difficult U.S. economic climate. However, according to Parks, the companies should take alternate, more indirect routes to reach mass-market status. For the cost conscious individual consumers, the CONNECTIONS recommendation is: Pay heed to individual applications relating to efficient energy management.
"Almost 50 percent of U.S. households are very interested in an energy-monitoring device, with nearly 80 percent willing to pay $100 provided it saves 10-30 percent on their electricity bill. Energy applications are popular now because of the need for cost savings, but in the end, all home systems will need to be interconnected. By embedding their technologies into energy-related appliances and systems, controls and monitoring companies can get a foothold in the home and start to build traction on a mass scale with consumers," said Bill Ablondi, the director of home systems research at Parks Associates.
One way of grabbing the mass market, for the Controls and monitoring companies, according to the research firm is: forging strategic alliance with the related companies.
Parks suggests that controls and monitoring companies can form strategic partnerships with system manufacturers, service providers, and utilities to build inroads into the market.
The research firm cited the examples of many utilities that have smart grid programs and offer partnership opportunities. However, the popularity of energy solutions has attracted new, nontraditional players. The new Intel (News - Alert) sensor is a good case in point. Intel recently came up with a sensor that monitors power usage throughout a home and shows the homeowner the amount of power used by different appliances and systems.
CONNECTIONS has a wide ranging agenda in the forthcoming conference.
It would include the following panels:
- · Residential Energy Management
- · Getting Consumers to Care about Home Controls
- · Business Models for Energy Management
- · Home Area Network: Architectures and Implications
- · Energy Management as a Key Application for Home Controls
The panels will feature speakers from 4Home, Best Buy, Cisco (News - Alert), Control4, Direct Energy, GridWise Architecture Council, or U.S. Department of Energy, HomePNA Alliance, Ingersoll Rand, Intamac Systems, Powerhouse Dynamics, SimpleHomeNet, and Wi-Fi Alliance (News - Alert).
Other CONNECTIONS Session Topics would be:
- · New Media and Digital Content
- · Consumer Electronics
- · Entertainment Platforms & Value-Added Services
More information about the session will be available at www.connectionsus.com
Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Kelly McGuire
