3 Megatrends Will Steer Future Home Technology

Data-driven climate control, energy management, and a shift from “wants” to “needs” will spur changes in how builders provide home comfort.

Home performance has evolved substantially in the past 20 years. New technologies have been able to weave home performance right into the fabric of the walls, floors, and every other aspect of the home as an invisible part of home comfort. 

But the idea of a “comfortable” home has matured. It means something more than a warm bed in a safe neighborhood.

Comfort now is more sophisticated and has multiple meanings and demands - from the right indoor air quality to wellness features to automated temperature and lighting - and future iterations will change over time, adapting to homeowner needs.

Looking at what’s changed, and what’s on the horizon, we can make an educated guess about the three megatrends that are influencing product design, home plans and lifestyles.

A Legacy of Performance Testing

As the concept of home comfort started entering the industry, new initiatives started popping up. For instance, the National Comfort Institute was formed in 1993, and Robert Minnick started there as an instructor two years later to explore home performance by doing blower door testing in an effort to find and put the right home comfort metrics in place.

“That made a big difference because most homes are leaky,” he said. “The top floor feels like a sauna and the bottom floor feels like a meat locker because of leakage. Many professionals didn’t know how to design duct systems properly. They would just put in ductwork and pipes and not have rhyme or reason to what they did.” 

Panasonic’s OASYS offers consistent temperature and airflow from room-to-room, balanced air circulation and filtration, ongoing ventilation and filtration of indoor air, humidity control throughout the whole house, easy maintenance and quiet operation.

Another frequently overlooked part of home comfort, he says, were humidity levels.

“In a hot climate, there can be a lot of humidity coming into the house,” Minnick said. “That can cause comfort issues like black mold that has health concerns and comfort challenges.” 

Minnick worked with other industry stakeholders to formalize load calculations to size home equipment properly and to do the right duct fit out. The impact of this more sophisticated building science on comfort is something that the homeowner still doesn’t understand, he says, but they’re keenly aware of utility costs.

For example, results from a recent survey from Green Builder Media show that currently homeowners value saving money more than three times more than enhancing their health and well-being. 

This attention to technical detail falls under the umbrella of “design,” but it’s more than just fancy countertops and a thousand shades of gray wall paint. In the same way, interest in the so-called “healthy home” depend (sometimes invisibly) on technical innovation.  

Megatrend 1: Tapping Data for Home Health

Whitney Austin Gray, is a senior vice president of research at the International WELL Building Institute and was one of the first health experts to lean into the implications that design can have on health outcomes. She points out some gaps in cultural understanding that play a big role in home comfort.  

“When it comes to health issues, we don’t feel empowered to change our space,” she said. “We look for a drug or medicine to intervene. This attitude is what triggered the nursing home era–I cannot change my environment to comfortably age in place, so I have to go somewhere else to do that.” 

Very few stakeholders in residential construction have training in public health, yet Gray points out that 72% of an individual’s day is spent inside their home. 

Carrier’s SmartSave makes it easy to save energy and earn rewards, upon enrollment and continued annual participation, while keeping you in control of your comfort.The product is currently available in select regions of California, Texas and New York with additional regions coming soon.

“Your environment is the greatest determiner of how long you will live, so shouldn’t we design [homes] for health?” she asked. “Architects are not required to get any training in health, but these can be life and death situations if the resident doesn’t understand it.”

A Caveat About Comfort Tech

There are two sides to every story, however. She explains that a simple focus on comfort isn’t always a positive. 

“Historically, the home was a place to be comfortable and spend time away from work,” she said, referring to pre-COVID. “Kids went to school outside the home and it was seen as a place of comfort and respite. Now, it has other demands. The majority of housing wasn’t designed to have two offices in it, and those homes haven’t enabled adaptive change.” 

In other words, if a home’s design isn’t or cannot be adjusted for new living demands, the comfort aspects are quickly diminished. 

At the same time, pursuit of comfort doesn’t always equal better health.

“You want to be comfortable, but actually when it comes to health, comfort leads to lethargy, like non ergonomic set up, and atrophy of muscles,” she said. “Just because you are comfortable, doesn’t mean you are healthy.”

What’s the right approach? Tapping data to create comfort that protects human health, encourages positive lifestyle choices. Gray explains that this combination has both a human and a technology focus. 

“Humans have certain biofeedback loops that get us out of trouble,” she said. “If you don’t pay attention, then you get in trouble. When you are exposed to certain dangerous things and you don’t have immediate feedback or a sensor, then it’s tragic. You need to measure it and take action – that’s what smart home technology can do.”

Right Tech, Right Time

Technology for home health and comfort has to stretch beyond just providing data. It needs to provide a human focus to deliver information in a way for the user to take appropriate action. 

“Certain populations have always had to manage their environment,” Gray said. “If we give them data, we can say you are not a victim of your health condition, you are empowered to make the changes that you need.”

These technologies have been advancing at a rapid pace and, at the same time, adjusting to the need for collaboration and integration to provide what consumers need.

For example, HVAC legacy company Carrier partnered with Leap to launch SmartSave, a program to help homeowners save on energy costs, earn rewards, and contribute to reducing carbon emissions, while also improving grid resiliency. 

The program can optimize HVAC energy use during peak demand or grid events, to reduce strain on the grid without impacting comfort. The big difference with this program is that SmartSave distributes rewards to users who participate in grid events in the form of pre-paid cash cards. The gamification element may help inspire participation and better understanding of how to control home energy for comfort. 

Another legacy company, Panasonic, is breaking the mold with its efforts to reinvent air conditioning for more home comfort. This reinvention of the HVAC which has seen little change in decades is intended as a better solution to the increased demands on heating and cooling from more dramatic climate shifts, along with changes to refrigerant management, and to support the gas to electric transition.

Scott Kirkendall, director of Panasonic’s IAQ business unit, says that the system addresses comfort by being quiet, by offering a uniform temperature and even humidity across the home, by providing cleaner air, by being easy to maintain and repair, and because it can extend the life of the home.

“It always delivers plus or minus one degree from the furthest point in the home and from floor to ceiling,” he said. “Multiple sensors will be throughout the home to measure temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and partial pressure of oxygen.”

The Panasonic OASYS system has been shown to operate at a level 53% more efficient than a home operating at the code minimum, cutting overall cost by 32%.

“We believe integrating IAQ sensing and OASYS components will evolve into a system that can intuitively control occupant comfort and health, better meeting user needs,” Kirkendall said. We will also evolve to provide value through collaboration with hot water systems and energy control like solar and battery beyond resident expectations.” 

With this system and other smart health technologies, the homeowner gets ongoing benefits long term.  

Megatrend 2: Energy Management

As the survey above notes, homeowners care about energy costs and applications. At the same time, they don’t want the burden of (nor do they necessarily have the depth of understanding) to evaluate how different technologies in the home interact.

This is where systems such as the smart home monitor OASIS by EcoFlow come into play. That application uses AI for real-time monitoring and user customization, and is compatible with Matter, so it can connect with other platforms to provide a single-source view of energy sources along with real-time consumption data. The technology makes the user smarter. 

Data on past energy usage, local electric rates, home solar energy generation and weather patterns help the system create custom recommendations and automations, such as keeping batteries charged ahead of severe weather, or helping users make smarter energy decisions to save money.

It’s important to note that the breadth of what’s expected from a home’s electrical service has expanded in recent years, with heavier loads, more integration of solar panels and storage, induction cooktops and so on. Housing is moving rapidly toward full electrification, with highly complex demands on power. Energy management shares the load among various technologies seamlessly.

“From charging your EV at the lowest cost to preparing for extreme weather, OASIS handles the guesswork with flexible, innovative, reliable, simple, and thorough power solutions,” said Peter Linghu, director of product strategy and development at EcoFlow.

Megatrend 3: From Want to Need

Gray said being successful in this space means moving home comfort technology from an option to a necessity. 

“A lot of the technology is stepping in to solve a perceived problem, but what we know about tech innovations is that in order for the products to be successful you have to hit the mainstream,” she said. “You have to find someone who needs you, not just wants you. If it is seen as an option, or a nice to have, what the rich and wealthy do, then it won’t work long term.”

So how does technology make that leap? This problem has confounded smart device makers for a decade or more. She says we can look at the iPhone.

When The iPad was developed before the iPhone, she says, iit wasn’t a critical technology. Users already had computers that could do the job of an iPad. However, when the iPhone was introduced, it took off because it filled a need to communicate with complete convenience. 

“In the past, you’ve seen a lot of technical inventions for the home going, falling away as a nice to have that only a couple people want,” Gray said. 

On the other hand, some technologies have made (or are making) the leap into mainstream acceptance in a big way. Just a few examples of recent year success stories include heat pumps, smart thermostats, integrative structural sheathing, low-e windows, low-flow toilets and heat pump hybrid water heaters. All of these technologies are mature, growing and part of almost every new home build.

Technology has a very big opportunity moving forward. With the ability to customize based on time, population, region, and other features that can help users connect with the why and see the impact from comfort and health investments at home.  

Publisher’s Note: Green Builder's 20th Anniversary celebration is sponsored by: Carrier and Trex.