What are smart appliances?

When I asked a few friends this question the other day, they told me a smart appliance is a refrigerator with a tablet on the front. Others told me it was a coffee maker you can control with your smartphone. Another friend said it’s an appliance connected to a smart plug that you can program to turn on and off via an app. Well, they are all right but let me help simplify it for you.

According to Market Research Future’s Smart Appliance Market Report, they define a smart appliance is “…the next generation of home and kitchen appliances that can receive, interpret, and act on a signal received from a user, and then, automatically adjust their operation to save energy or perform other functions.” With built-in connectivity and sensors, smart appliances allow users to operate these machines remotely to help them operate more efficiently and provide routines that can save them money on their energy bills.

How big will the smart appliance market be in a few years?

It’s going to be big. Experts are predicting it to be a $96.2 billion industry by 2030. What will be driving the growth of smart appliances? It will be the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in these machines. Smart appliances will be able to speak to one another and capture tons of data. Then AI will use this data to make your life more enjoyable, safer, and more productive. It’s that simple but could be scary for some consumers.

What types of products are considered smart appliances?

There are various types of smart appliances available today. Besides the ones you would expect to be in this group like smart ovens, smart washers, smart dryers, smart dishwashers, and refrigerators, there are smart air conditioners, smart water heaters, smart security devices, and smart deep freezers. There are also smaller appliances like smart air purifiers, lighting systems, smart coffee makers, smart kettles, and robot vacuums. All are designed to help make your life easier and save money.

How do smart appliances save you money?

One-way smart appliances save you money on energy usage. Many new smart appliances are coming with energy sensors that monitor the appliance’s energy usage. These sensors learn how you use your appliance and over time come up with suggestions on how you can save money on your energy bill. For instance, your smart refrigerator might suggest raising the temperature inside the refrigerator by 1 or 2 degrees for X hours a day. Doing so could save you $X a month on your energy bill. Or maybe your dishwasher will recommend that the best time to run a load to conserve water usage is at 2 AM daily. These little suggestions when combined across a full lineup of smart appliances will have significant benefits for the homeowner as well as the environment.

Here is another good example of how smart appliances can help you save money. Big home appliances, like washers, dryers, ovens, and refrigerators have been staples in the home for generations. When you moved, more than likely these machines stayed with the house, and you got new ones with your new home. And if any of the appliances needed repairs, you would call the repairman who would charge you a fee to come and just look at the appliance to see what was wrong with it. Once he was done identifying the problem, he would tell you the price to repair it. And if you are lucky and decide to have the repairman fix your appliance, he might not charge you for the initial visit.

Today, this process is getting updated thanks to the entry of smart appliances. Homes with smart appliances have a built-in notification capability when things go wrong. Instead of your repairman diagnosing the problem, your smart appliance will do it and then send you a nonfiction or an alert saying why it is not working properly. (Note: Some smart appliances might warn you of a potential problem ahead of time.) The user can then contact a repairman who will log in to your appliance via the internet and see what is wrong. At this point, the repairman will be able to tell the owner if he can fix it and how much it will cost. He will also let you know when he can come and fix it. The homeowner now has the option to either schedule a time for the repairman to come and fix the appliance or they can call another repairman to see if he can come sooner and at a lesser cost. This is just another way smart appliances can help save you money.