Smart Thermostat Sales Double in a Year

Nest Connected Thermostat M2M Internet of ThingsThey are undoubtedly still a niche product, but smart thermostats are gaining traction with consumers, according to the latest research from Berg Insight, which reveals that the number of N. American and European homes with one of the device more than doubled in 2014.

In fact, sales of smart thermostats in N. America and Europe rose by 105 per cent to 3.2m. America led the way, posting 107 per cent growth for a total of 2.5m devices, while Europe saw a 96 per cent increase for a total of 0.7m.

Berg Insight forecasts that the number of homes with smart thermostats in Europe and N. America will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 64.2 per cent during the next five years to reach 38.2m in 2019. N. America will remain the largest market at the end of the forecast period, with 24.6m homes that have smart thermostats, whereas the installed base in Europe is expected to reach 13.6m homes by 2019.

The N. American smart thermostat market is led by Nest, Honeywell and Ecobee. In Europe, the leading smart thermostat vendor is eQ-3, whose smartphone-controlled radiator thermostats have been installed in more than 300,000 homes. Other successful initiatives include the smart thermostat solutions offered by the energy companies British Gas in the UK and Eneco in the Netherlands. British Gas’ Hive solution had approximately 140,000 users at the end of 2014, whereas Eneco had signed up around 100,000 users for its Toon solution.

Berg believes that smart thermostats represent a particularly attractive opportunity in the smart home market, as they appeal to consumers, energy companies and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) service providers alike.

Consumers embrace smart thermostats primarily due to the potential for energy savings, increased comfort and convenience. For energy companies, they open up new possibilities to introduce consumer-friendly demand response and energy efficiency programmes. These programmes can enable significant capital savings as lower peak load can reduce expenditures on reserve power generation and the need to purchase energy on the spot market. Adding intelligence to residential heating and cooling systems furthermore opens up new opportunities for HVAC service providers. Predictive maintenance and remote diagnostics can allow repair and maintenance activities to be streamlined and conducted more efficiently.

There’s more information about the report here.