According to a recent report by the British government, the Government’s £11bn programme to install energy smart meters in every home by 2020 may be at risk of failure. There have been many setbacks and problems in the plan to make more homes smart, involving the installation of the meters, which take automatic gas and electricity usage readings and send them back to energy companies. The ultimate aim is that this will eliminate estimated billing and encourage households to save on energy costs through monitoring their consumption. “We do not believe that near-universal smart meter roll-out will be achieved by 2020,” said the Energy and Climate Change committee report. However, it does show that the country’s leaders can see the benefit of smart home technology and in fact, those who already have smart meters are already seeing reductions in their energy consumption, with research published last month showing “high satisfaction rates and confidence in the technology.” Chairman of the committee, Tim Yeo, said: “Smart meters could generate more than £17bn in energy savings for the country.”
Confidence in Technology
This confidence is enhanced by another recently published home automation report which shows the global home automation market valued at USD 4.41 billion in 2014, with an estimated growth rate of 26.3% from 2014 to 2020. Modern day home automation solutions use the latest digital technology to provide better performance and efficiency and according to the report, the market is “primarily driven by growing need for effective solutions in various domestic applications such as lighting, safety and security, energy management, entertainment (audio and video) and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning).” Interestingly, the highest revenue generating segment was safety and security in 2013. Unsurprisingly, North America was the leader in the home automation market in 2014 followed by Europe and Asia Pacific collectively accounting for more than forty percent of the global market revenue share. Experts have said that a rising awareness towards energy conservation and ability to manage energy consumption through automation technologies are the main influences on the market growth of home automation, together with the rise in smartphone-based home automation solutions. Companies like UK-Automation are at the forefront of smart home technology with a range of branded products for safety, security, lighting, HVAC, energy and entertainment. So even if the smart meter scheme is not initiated by the proposed date of 2020 into every home, you can still make significant savings by installing some of the energy and cost saving products that can be found on UK-Automation’s website.