Abstract
Energy saving happens to be a major topic led by energy challenges and changes in climate all over the world. People’s perception concerning the use of smart technology for saving energy, however, remains within the concept stage. This indicates that individuals always have to talk about the awareness of the environment but will still pay the energy bill given to them. Since there are electricity availability and its significance, modulating the attitudes of consumers towards the idea of energy saving can still be difficult. Notably, the current smart home knowledge is dependent on the people’s understanding of their behaviors and integration of such knowledge into the smart machinery. Having been involved in Paris agreement concerning the climate change in the year 2015, American’s needed to embrace the idea of smart home technologies so it can enable reduction of energy intake. The article focuses on the insight of America homes in regards to smart technology as well as its significance to saving energy. The smart home and its sustainability are built on energy, simplicity, water efficiency, flexibility and environmental friendliness.
Introduction
Climate change has been a global challenge for a decade. Human beings activities have somehow led to changes in climate in the whole world. The changes have however led to the rise of emissions from greenhouses in peoples’ account (Pachauri and Meyer, 2014).According to the study, greenhouse gases have resulted in extreme changes of weather to humans and natural systems. These climate changes comprise of droughts, floods as well as interrupted food production. All these have eventually forced individuals to move to areas that are a bit safe. When people get exposed to heat waves the get affected health wise hence spreading disease across many territories.Production of heat and electricity have contributed to approximately 25 percent of the premier proportion in regards to greenhouse gas emissions.
Worldwide environmental difficulties have led to global trend as well as energy-saving demand and smart home technology to heighten the energy consumption efficiency. According to the survey in America, households accounts around 20 percent of electricity. This is an indication that all electrical appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators are energy labelled and some people are embracing the idea of smart home.
The primary role of sustainable smart home in America is to enable households’ energy efficiencies and is growing to be more important. The study has been carried out on consumers’ awareness and opinions towards embracing new technologies. The survey has also been done on the integral role involving the technologies in regards to energy usage and how it can be reduced. Balta-Ozkan et al. (2014) describe smart home as being a home that has been furnished with connected appliances, sensors and tools also for communication. A smart home can as well be controlled tenuously. As a result, smart homes provide people with the flexibility of controlling the consumption of electricity as well as changing their lifestyles to control electricity. Besides, smart home in America has been noted to have improved security and safety. In fact, the overall smart home market has been projected to arrive at a value of 40 billion dollars and more by 2020.Smart home market penetration is high in America followed by Germany and Japan. Smart home metering, home computerization devices and appliances appear to be among the several technologies used regarding reducing the intake of electricity in many households. This paper aims at finding out the households’ activities concerning the use of energy. The paper also attempts to give the implications of smart home technologies implementation as well as how it can be done to enable it sustainability and success.
Literature Review
This section is relevant a review of the current knowledge concerning the discussion
Energy Usage within the Households of America
Kagan research media people in S&P Worldwide Market and Intelligence indicates that U.S number of people in smart homes has grown to above 15 million till 2016.However; the total number can be equated to 12.5% of some households. The percentage is indeed projected to grow to around 28% by the end of 2021.This is also an indication that households are main users of electricity.
Smart homes have simply existed for a long time on the power of reality. It is indeed something of a space-age idea that seems to be quite close. However, having the smart products full on the shelves of both brick-and-mortar and online stocks, the smart home has grown to be real. Sustainable smart home is turning out to be an essential component of the industry dream of technology in America. The research reports that the current industry vision involved in IoT-enabled World has to be more convenient regarding intelligent, security and modified experience. In fact, the convenience appears to be an attainable vision in the nearer future through the IoT reality times seems different. For instance, to come up with real value, IoT need to solve real difficulties not merely connecting a big number of devices. An individual should enter a smart home that intends to establish the goal of creating the exact cost for the consumer. At its best, a sustainable smart home should create new efficiencies, solve problems and also save money.
Smart City should be equipped with unified infrastructure able to operate optimized through data collection as well as communication from different connected units. Having been in line with such idea, the America and other developing countries have incorporated several technologies to cut down energy consumption. The technology also does the monitoring and data collection from all connected users. The country aims at attaining energy efficiency, in which smart and proactive planning can be utilized to create safety as well as comfortable atmosphere.
Households View of Energy Savings within the Smart Homes
The integration of Smart homes in a Smart Grid environment in regards to households’ electricity management as well as consumption happened to be the goal and believed that users could reduce energy consumption (Makovich, 2011).Therefore, its significance to understanding the real perception of homes on energy saving by embracing smart homes.
In fact, there are so many studies that have indicated that households’ primary view of saving energy using smart homes is decreasing the cost of electricity. The findings have been ranging on the same level in households in various countries. Nevertheless, it worth revealing that many people are concerned with environmental issues hence would want to embrace the idea of energy saving.
Methods and Aim
The global demand and trend for smart technology are needed to decrease the consumption of energy. (Pachauri and Meyer,2014), mentions that heat production and electricity have led to 25 percent of the biggest share regarding total GHG emission. This shows the need for sustainable smart homes in different countries and particularly America so that GHG emissions could be reduced. Although the government of America has been promoting energy-saving programs and policies, there is an only small number of empirical studies carried out in people’s homes. However, some studies show that individuals are willing to partake in smart homes technology. The households have been found to embrace the idea positively for the sake of living a convenient life. The findings should not, however, be generalized to America’s context as infrastructure. This is because; culture, government support, eco-system and other aspects could be different in America. As a result, there it is essential to recognize energy saving within the households of America thru smart homes.
Survey Discussion, And Findings
Communication and information technologies are transforming modern lifestyles deeply. In America, people are refining the idea of “space” by changing the coffee shops and homes into working areas. This was the research done in a coffee shop whereby people no longer go to the theatre but instead sit and in their home areas streaming movies and making themselves comfortable. Shopping has been transforming to online purchasing of groceries, food other consumer goods. Time diary has also been conducted to quantify peoples’ lifestyles and trends. Time diary list individuals’ activities from the time they woke up till they retire to bed. Along with a colleague, we did the data analysis from 2003-2012 using the American Time Use Survey. The survey is carried out every year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of U.S. It has helped gain awareness concerning the digital lifestyle as well as its impact on energy use.
The recently published findings are shocking. Americans were spending nearly all days at home in 2012 in comparison to 2003. It was noted that even when energy consumption was displaced such as the required electricity in server farms, individuals still used less energy. This may help me good news, but it also considers the efficiency of energy usage.
Respondents indicated their understanding of how household connected devices use energy. In fact, washing machines, air-conditioners and heaters have scores ranging from medium to high. The air-conditioners seem to consume too much energy as compared to other devices. As a result, many respondents agreed that if individuals consumed the energy efficiently, appliances would enable them to save energy. Besides, Government legislation concerning the market available is another factor that the survey respondents lean towards acceptance and agreeableness on its effectiveness. In fact, the Chinese government has also been observed to have the policies established to increase the efficiency of energy in households.
In Regards to smart homes in America, the survey showed that smart home idea in appliances is likely to save electricity. The survey emphasized on consumers’ awareness concerning the saving of energy. Besides, the purchase choice can deeply unfold the plans of a user for a long time.
Conclusion
Some people view electricity as being a normal service which can be obtained without a struggle. Some of them do not understand that the commodity has a big impact on their lives. Smart homes and smart technology will need the participation of consumers to take action so that they can monitor the devices hence saving energy. Though some people could be concerned with energy savings and environment, it is clear that security and comfort has a great impact on their lives. The current research indicated a maturity gap and design involving the technology since it does not take individuals’ perceptions and behaviours as one of the smart home scheme functionality.
Sustainable smart home in America and other countries will, therefore, be successful if the technology is well made with artificial aptitude modules. The smart home technology should allow the interactions between the consumers and the appliances. To succeed in attaining sustainable smart home within America, smart home expertise should be intensely incorporated into utility sectors and public amenities, for instance, health areas and smart grids. For instance, smart meters need to detect behavioural patterns and immediately take the initiative to enable easy management of lights. It is always good to understand when to turn on some appliances too, for instance, the washing machine. Smart meters are said to be at its early stage. However, Americans believe it will be among the top project designed to improve smart homes in some years to come.
References
Balta-Ozkan et al., 2014. Balta-Ozkan, R. Davidson, M. Bicket, L. Whitmarsh Social barriers to the adoption of smart homes
GhaffarianHoseini, AmirHosein, et al. “The essence of future smart houses: From embedding ICT to adapting to sustainability principles.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 24 (2013): 593-607.
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Issues Sci. Technol. (2011), pp. 61-70
Makovich, 2011 L.J. Makovich The smart grid, Separating perception from reality
O’Neill Jr, Gerald D., James C. Hershauer, and Jay S. Golden. “The Cultural Context of Sustainability Entrepreneurship.” Greener Management International 55 (2009).
Pachauri and Meyer, 2014 Pachauri, R.K., Meyer, L.A., 2014.IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. The contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.
Seyfang, Gill. “Community action for sustainable housing: Building a low-carbon future.” Energy Policy 38.12 (2010): 7624-7633.
