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The household of the future – a European perspective
Claudia Häpp, Project Leader Smart Grid / Home Connect from BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
50% of private household energy demand is consumed by appliances such as dishwashers, fridges, washing machines, and dryers. I met with my colleague Claudia Häpp, Project Leader Smart Grid / Home Connect from BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH, the world’s 3rd largest company in the home appliances sector, to learn more about the European roadmap and market for smart appliances.
Claudia, how would you describe the household of the future?
The household of the future is going to be integrated into our digitized and networked world. I’m expecting users to enjoy a maximum of flexibility, since they will be able to use smart user interfaces to get information and control home systems regardless of time or location. For appliance manufacturers, the term “household of the future” implies a need to develop solutions and services that simplify people’s ever more complicated day-to-day lives and significantly increase transparency in how home appliances are utilized.
Which factors drive research and development for smart appliances?
Smart appliances are a major step in getting people to be aware of, and to accept the importance of, managing household energy consumption. I am convinced that intelligent home appliances are now more than ever an expression of a lifestyle that seeks to be responsible, modern, and sustainable. That’s exactly why the combination of performance, ease of use, energy efficiency, and network / smart grid capability is such a major driver for our sector. Households that already make use of their electricity supplier’s variable tariffs can achieve significant savings through the smart grid: users involved in the MeRegio pilot project report that their energy costs are some 25% lower. One way to make the most of today’s variable electricity tariffs using smart appliances is to give washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers preset starting times, so they turn themselves on when electricity is cheaper.
Which technology makes appliances smart?
For me the most important thing is not to come up with technologies that serve no real purpose. There’s much more to it than just controlling your oven or whatever via your smartphone, tablet PC, or notebook, or having refrigerators that scan barcodes and automatically order fresh food. Technical visions of that sort have been around in Asia for over ten years. But not even in that region’s technology-loving markets has the idea of the smart home really managed to get off the ground yet. As I said, connectivity is pointless if it’s only there for the sake of it. In my opinion, what we should be trying to do with it is drive home-appliance efficiency even higher through smart control concepts, while ensuring broader acceptance by tangibly improving the user experience.
Considering the German market, is the lack of a smart grid slowing down the smart appliances market? What is BSH’s strategy to cope with the current situation and still be prepared for the future?
A number of things have to happen before smart grids can become an integral part of the energy system of the future and support the move to new forms of energy. Households must be equipped with the technical infrastructure to allow users to control their appliances in an integrated way. Energy suppliers have to come up with new business models. And the sector needs to agree on common standards in areas such as data transmission, so that users can make the most of their smart appliances’ features.
One major factor in the success of smart grids is the mindset of users. They need to be looking more closely into different tariffs, carefully considering alternative sources of energy, and making active use of the new transparency of information. In this arena, too, much remains to be done – as the example of smart meters shows. A lack both of standards and of clarity in legal requirements means these meters are being introduced only slowly into the market. What’s more, it’s users that are having to pick up the associated additional costs – but since they can see little additional value in expensive smart meters, demand for the technology is weak. That in turn is slowing down its development on the part of metering operators and energy suppliers, creating a vicious circle that will have to be overcome before smart meters can truly take off.
Even though home appliances are at the end of this chain, many appliance manufacturers are already putting in a lot of effort to adapt their product portfolio to support smart grids, and they are actively shaping the development of the necessary infrastructure. That said, I don’t believe the smart grid is about to eclipse the importance of energy efficiency in home appliances.
Claudia, if you had to take a guess, what would you say the smartest appliance of the future will be?
A recent survey carried out on behalf of the Bitkom high-tech association shows that one in three Germans now owns a smartphone. So how about a smartphone that sorts my dirty laundry for me?
Claudia, thank you for the interview!
We all want to use less energy and therefor pay less for the energy. But the energy provider is mostly interested in delivering energy at lower cost and managing demand response. The two goals are not in sync. As a current consumer of electricity provided by the grid, I plan to use less and less until I no longer am dependent on the grid; smart or not.
The power company owns the smart meter and they have a right to read the meter; but they have no right to go beyond into my home. That is my private domain.
When you use the terms like smart grid and smart meter, those are the terms of the energy provider. On my side of the meter, I want independent control of how I use my electricity. I will get power rate feeds online from companies like genability, an independent aggregator of available rates, and drive my usage based on their data, not my local provider.
Eventually there will be home software available for personal demand response (for monitoring and managing the energy usage in my home) with no need of the power company to intervene. They’re welcome to my overall house usage, which they can add to the community aggregate to determine grid scale demand response; but I suspect homeowners will NOT be amenable to having the power company turn appliances on/off just to meet their own demand response issues in order to maximize shareholder value.
Bosch seems to want to be on the side of everyday people; to help us be “connected” with the Internet of Things, but I suspect their primary client will be energy providers and the primary goal will be for grid scale demand response to lower energy costs; not for lowering bills of residential energy consumers.
I hope you publish my comments and look forward to alternative views.
Regards,
Chris.
Dear Chris,
Thanks for your comment – we welcome diverse views and of course publish comments, which foster discussion!
As you can see from the heading, this is a European perspective. I am currently working also on a North American perspective as we recognize that these markets are totally different, e.g. relating to data privacy, availability of smart meter infrastructure, variable tariffs, and business models. I suppose that this will even more touch your concerns. Stay tuned – there is more to come.
I think the topics you raise are all valid points. At least here in Germany from what I can see, there is not yet a fully defined landscape, and interests and needs of both consumers and utilities still have to be matched (which might take a while). From several sources I have learned that Europe is in smart grid learning and developing mode. There is high engagement in pilot projects (e.g. for eMobility networks, virtual power plants, smart home services) and development partnerships. As far as I can see, the US market tends to me more advanced commercially. I looked at the company that you refer to, genability. Interesting. Thanks for sharing this; another proof point for the US. Just to show you a contrast: In Germany, only around 10% of energy providers have variable tariffs on offer.
So what I still hope is that the German energy turnaround, which naturally affects Europe as a whole, helps us to get utilities, consumers and also industry players such as Bosch in sync.
Anita
Dear Chris,
thanks a lot for this comment! Indeed, when we started to work on smart appliances and got in touch with smart grid and smart meters, we had some really eye-opening discussions with utilities around Europe and US. Most of them mentioned the idea of directly controlling our appliances. This will definitely NOT be the case – and it was never our intention! We as manufacturer may offer the possibility to take part in smart grid by providing the necessary technology. Each consumer himself can decide, whether to take part or not. This is agreed within our European association (CECED) and our North American Association (AHAM). On appliance level we will provide user interfaces, consumers can switch the “smart grid option” on or off. Our field trials show that people are willing to change their behaviour if they can save money and lower their electricity bill. Without this monetary benefit, no utility in the world will find consumers to take part in smart grid. I like your idea of the home software for personal demand response. In Europe there are several activities which show this direction. From my point of view the visualization of energy usage will be a first step towards more energy efficiency in private households. Up to now most consumers have no deep knowledge about their personal energy consumption in general and their main consuming appliances at home. A lot of things around smart grid are still under discussion except one thing: with super energy efficient appliances (…from Bosch of course …:-)) you do the right choice.
Regards,
Claudia
I dont think the issue is smart appliances or smart grids but smart homes. You can place 2-3 solar panels onto your roof in order to generate electricty for your Saturday morning wash day. Then again we need smart people for smart homes. People who are willing to change how they do things.
Hi Andre, your comment arrives just in time and you bring up the core question: The “human” side of the story. There are different layers and as you pointed out, the smart appliance is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Just yesterday, my colleague Stefan Ferber (http://blog.bosch-si.com/the-greenest-raw-material-can-software-move-us-to-a-greener-economy-2/) launched the thesis that e.g. for the energy and the ecological turnaround decisive factors will be people’s creativity and their personal energy. Also, when you look at developments in society and Generation C (http://blog.bosch-si.com/for-generation-c-energy-is-social/), maybe this generation will be the “tribe of smart people” seeing the benefits of supporting technology tools and apps to gain, share and apply their insights.
When Home appliances made by the companies ,the main motive of the companies as it would be as smart as they want ,most of the product they made are based on low energy consumption , well companies always try to make with best quality but electronic items require proper care and repair for life long existence .Now Due to advance in technology so many new techniques like voice control , recognization,motion sensing are coming in equipments so they require proper warranty or cover so that after buying we will not bothered about its repairing.