Consumer Acceptance of Smart Appliances

Abstract

The Smart-A project The project „Smart Domestic Appliances in Sustainable Energy Systems (Smart-A)” aims at developing strategies how smart domestic appliances can contribute to load management in future energy systems. In order to do this, the project assesses the options for load-shifting by a variety of appliances across Europe and compares these with the requirements from energy systems both on the supra-regional and the local level. It is expected that these systems will have to integrate larger shares of renewable energy in the future, which are partly intermittent, and therefore will require a smarter management of generation, network capacities and demand. The technical aspects of the assessment include an analysis of potential changes to appliances operation, of characteristics of local energy generation (from renewable energies and also cogeneration) and of load management requirements in the larger electricity networks. The project also features a detailed assessment of the acceptance of smart appliances operation by users, and an evaluation of the usability of available control technologies and communication standards. The overall potential of smart appliances is assessed based on a model which takes into account the variations of appliance use and the framework conditions in energy systems. The project is conducted in cooperation with manufacturers of appliances and electric utilities. The findings from the analysis are being tested with experts in regional case studies in selected European countries. This report This report provides a summary of the results of the consumer research with its main findings. It gives an assessment of the acceptance level of consumers with regard to smart appliances. Based on the findings of the quantitative and qualitative research strategies are outlined how to increase the consumer acceptance.