How Do Millennials Really Feel About Smart Home Tech?

Our latest focus group finds young adults are intrigued by smart home electronics. Green Builder Media asked our Next Generation Influencer Group for suggestions that we could pass along to builders about implementing smart home features.

In this video, members from our Next Generation Influencer Group discuss their preferences and experiences with smart home technology. Security, automation, lighting, and ventilation are the baseline functionalities that are both sellable and desirable. But, the group was also interested in more advanced systems that save energy, water, and money.

 

Millennials want smart home functionality, but only a few have the interest, time, or skills to do DIY installations, so they depend on their builders, remodelers, and integrators to do the work for them. The self-proclaimed “nerds” of the group expressed concern that the general public does not have the ability to successfully implement complex setups. 

Their advice to builders: offer homes with integrated smart homes systems.  

Regarding renewable energy sources and battery storage, millennials want a programmable system to save money with time of use plans and energy arbitrage. Additionally, they want products that connect and communicate with the other systems in their homes to find the perfect balance between energy efficiency and performance.

“My battery is designed to, from our peak load time from 2-7 pm, to feed solar to the grid and run our house off the battery,” explains Brett Little, the program manager at Green Home Institute.

Furthermore, millennials are concerned about resiliency and redundancy—they want to be able to control their homes if the internet goes out, so be sure to have a backup plan for those smart home systems.

Check out this page to hear more millennial thoughts on sustainability, healthy homes, lifestyle choices and much more.


Publisher’s Note: This content is made possible by our Today’s Homeowner Campaign Sponsors: Whirlpool, Vivint, myQ, Sonos and Jinko Solar . These companies take sustainability seriously, in both their products and their operations. Learn more about building and buying homes that are more affordable and less resource intensive.

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