Page 18 - Green Builder January 2017 Issue

Smart Home Evolution:
Connected and Solar

As solar and smart technology continue to change,

homeowners face exciting times ahead.

BY SARA GUTTERMAN ultimate goal: to provide homeowners with a greater level of control
over their homes. And as technologies in both categories become
T HE SOLAR AND SMART mainstream and affordable, it’s clear that they will not remain stand-
home technology categories alone islands. Rather, they will sync as a part of an integrated ecosystem
are growing at meteoric that empowers homeowners to optimize performance of their homes,
rates. To date, the sectors resulting in enhanced security, cost savings and peace of mind.
have remained relatively
independent, but their convergence WHY GET STARTED?
will soon offer a game-changing level of When it comes to purchasing enabling technologies (smart home
control, independence and peace of mind products or solar), homeowners take the leap for a variety of reasons.
to homeowners. Solar now provides a cost-effective way for homeowners to reduce
their dependency on utilities and play a role in helping to meet our
The global solar industry, expected to
reach $345 billion by 2020, and the global
smart home market, expected to hit $59
billion that same year, are arguably the
building industry’s fastest-growing sectors.

One of the main drivers for this
meteoric growth is the unprecedented
transition from a high-consumption
and low-automation market to the
opposite: one of low consumption and
high automation. This transition is
fundamentally altering the performance
of our built environment and the way
that we interact with it.

COMFORT LEVEL

It’s easy to see why smart home and solar technologies appeal to
homeowners. Smart home technologies that learn our behaviors,
upgrade themselves seamlessly and take the human error out of
home performance make our lives more efficient, convenient and
sustainable. Advanced solar power systems enable us to generate,
store and monitor our own power (and in some states, profit from
that generation by selling power back to the grid via net metering).
They also allow us to become more independent and self-sufficient.

Convergence of these sectors is expected to completely transform
the homeowner experience. Smart home and solar share the same

16 GREEN BUILDER January/February 2017 www.greenbuildermedia.com