Al Heavens is a Haddonfield, N.J.- based, nationally syndicated, home-improvement writer and author whose newspaper columns, magazine articles and books have been the first word on remodeling for 50 million readers for more than three decades. He is the author of What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home and Remodeling on The Money: Fifteen Innovative Projects Designed to Add Value to Your Home, and was “The Gadgeteer” on Discovery Channel’s Home Matters program.
My last house was not very “smart.”
High-tech was a 1906 coal furnace converted to oil in 1947. It had a 1960s-era thermostat.
We spent $6,000 on electrical work. The electrician was able to run coaxial cable down the old heating chases so we could have HBO in more than just the living room. I strung telephone wire from the basement through a hole in the kitchen floor so I could send stories from my laptop to the office via modem.
It was the late 1990s, admittedly, with the World Wide Web not even 10 years old (1989). At the annual builders’ and remodelers’ shows, however, “smart” technology already was well represented on the show floors.
The most memorable were so-called “hybrid white goods” for the kitchen, including refrigerators with cable-ready TV screens or those that were able to monitor the shelf life of the contents by reading bar codes.
That would not have worked in my refrigerator. Vegetables do not have bar codes, but they sure do have other ways to let you know when they need to relocate to the composting bin.
A lot of what was then on display failed to capture consumer imagination. Christine Quinlan of Food & Wine remarked a few years ago that “companies seemed to think they could add a touchscreen and Internet access to a fridge or put a TV in a range hood and call it smart.”
This week, we’ll look at the evolution of the smart home in the 21st century, and what trends we are seeing in the remodeling industry.
The smartphone contributed mightily to the evolution of smart-home technology. The oven that can download and prepare recipes directly from the Internet never made it into the kitchen, but there is an app that can let you control your crock pot’s cooking time from your phone, for example.
What is a smart home anyway? A smart home is what you get by fitting basic amenities such as appliances with communication technology, giving the homeowner the ability to operate these devices via remote control.
As I have said, interest in smart technology is not new. I devoted an entire chapter of my 2007 book Remodeling on the Money to the subject.
In fact, a survey by realtor.com and YouGov in December 2020 found that 57 percent of respondents said they previously owned some type of smart home technology, most likely a smart TV, smart home speakers, a smart doorbell, a robot vacuum and/or a connected climate control system/smart thermostat.
Smart TVs, by the way, accounted for the largest share of this technology, followed by voice-activated speakers.
The survey also found that the COVID-19 pandemic has led 40 percent of the homeowners responding to the survey to purchase, or be interested in buying, a piece of smart-home technology.
If they had their druthers, a large percentage of respondents would buy a high-tech security system, including a smart doorbell with a camera, according to realtor.com senior economist George Ratiu.
The demand for smart doorbells with cameras probably has less to do with security concerns and more about what FedEx or UPS had just delivered and whether you should get out of your chair to retrieve it from the porch.
The survey showed that more men than women were interested in obtaining smart technology. Those 18 to 34 years of age favored it, while people who live in the Northeastern United States wanted smart technology more than in other regions of the country.
The West, however, had a greater percentage of standalone solar panels than anywhere else.
Parents with children under 18 years of age also were more likely to buy smart technology than other groups, the survey showed.
Parents of children under 18 have felt a significant amount of pressure from the pandemic, having to accommodate not only their work, cooking, and exercising, but also turn their homes into remote schooling hubs. Not surprisingly, they turned to technology in a much larger proportion than parents of adult children or non-parents. More than half of parents with children under 18 at home purchased a smart home device in 2020, compared with 29 percent of parents of adult children, and 41 percent of respondents without children, Ratiu said.
The pandemic had a sobering effect on homeowners. Overnight, they were being forced to accommodate all the activities of the outside world in their houses and quickly discovered that those homes were not up to the task.
The result has been not only a boom in smart-home technology but incredible growth in the remodeling industry. As you might imagine, these two strands are intimately connected.
When asked to rank which smart home features would make a home purchase more desirable in 2021, those aimed at energy efficiency ranked at the top, Ratiu said.
Larger shares of consumers selected solar roof tiles, home battery packs and connected climate control systems as appealing features. Also ranking high were devices designed to enhance a home’s security, such as the smart doorbell and a high-tech system.
These preferences held across gender, with a few nuances. A larger proportion of women responding to the survey chose smart doorbells and touchless faucets, while a larger share of men opted for home battery packs.
It was my wife and not me who opted for a home battery pack after we experienced lengthy power outages (four days in June, 50 hours in August) this summer for the first time in the 20 years we have owned our house.
I wanted a gasoline-powered generator, but I could not guarantee her that it could be operated safely. I also wanted a whole-house natural-gas-powered generator, but was persuaded that solar panels, which would cost about as much, would be better use of our money.
The home battery pack she purchased for $500 was the Jackery Explorer 500, which proved its value when electricity went missing for a few hours later in August. We connected the Wifi to it, and, as a result, I did not miss that night’s episode of Death in Paradise.
As far as the realtor.com survey is concerned, age and stage of life also seem to play a role in technology preferences. Larger shares of younger consumers (18-34) found smart speakers, connected kitchens, smart toilets and automated cocktail makers more appealing.
Conversely, for consumers 55 and older, smart doorbells, home security systems, and home battery packs ranked comparatively higher.
Geographically, sunnier climates played a role in higher shares of consumers in the West selecting solar panels — tiles or standalone, along with home battery packs. Consumers in the South also ranked smart doorbells, high-tech security systems, and smart window blinds comparatively higher.
Parenting status led to a preference for entertainment technology for 2021 purchases. Parents of minor children placed a higher comparative weight on home theater setups, TVs that slide from cabinets or ceilings, and smart speakers, Ratiu said.
No matter which region or demographic in our country, now more than ever, homeowners are thinking smart when it comes to remodeling their spaces. And that trend isn’t stopping anytime soon.
If any of these smart home trends pique your interest, or if you’re interested in renovating and updating your home for the 21st Century, give us a call today at 856-421-5603. And, in the meantime, check out our renovations gallery to get inspired for that next big project!