The pace of smart home and IoT (Internet of Things) adoption will increase in 2021 and beyond. In fact, ABI Research projects that smart home expenditures will rise by 24.4% CAGR by 2026 to reach a whopping $317.6 billion — representing a 5% increase from previous forecasts.
This increase in smart home technology adoption is largely related to the coronavirus, but it’s also related to new tech developments that are finding their way into the market at a breakneck pace. As more people are working from home and social distancing, more people want to leverage recent in-home tech developments to improve the quality of their lives and save on their electric bills in isolation.
At PointCentral, we’re excited to see further smart home technology adoption in the coming year. Without further adieu, let’s look at the five most important smart home and IoT trends to watch out for in 2021.
1. Telemedicine and In-Home Health Monitoring
In pre-covid times, an estimated 36 million telemedicine or remote doctor visits happened each year in the United States. Now, this number is approaching 1 billion per year and it’s likely to increase more in the years ahead. Therefore, we can expect to see greater adoption of in-home medical device technology in 2021. This tech will help doctors evaluate and monitor patients remotely.
In a recent Forbes article, Bernard Marr writes about the use of wearable medical monitoring devices that use IoT technology. We also expect to see the adoption of AI technology that monitors seniors for falls, high blood pressure, heart problems, blood sugar, and other medical issues. Additionally, solutions like the alarm.com Wellness tool serves senior living care centers by alerting caretakers of unusual activity patterns, and it pairs with emergency response pendants. All of this in-home medical tech will help seniors get help faster when a medical problem develops. Furthermore, it will reduce the need for those with health conditions to leave their homes and risk coronavirus infection.
2. Robots to Service Your Every Need?
We’re still quite a few years away from seeing humanoid robots taking care of routine tasks throughout the home, but 2021 will likely see increasing numbers of in-home robot cleaning and lawn maintenance assistants. These domestic robots can give homeowners more free time to enjoy their lives when they aren’t working, and they can help seniors and the disabled have greater independence while taking care of difficult tasks around the home.
The most common domestic robots we’re likely to see in 2021 include robots for cleaning floors, mowing lawns, vacuuming carpets, and cleaning pools. While many homeowners love getting outside to mow the lawn each week, we’ll take a bet that just as many homeowners would rather stay indoors and let the robot lawnmower do the job for them.
3. Technology to Support Working From Home
The reality of COVID, social-distancing, and the need for work-from-home arrangements took almost everyone by surprise in 2020. As we move further into 2021, we will be seeing more infrastructure advancements that support working from home.
First and foremost, 5G technology rollouts will provide better in-home access to high-speed internet and VPN technology. We may also see IoT-based employee performance monitoring tech that allows businesses to ensure that employees are on-task and productive within their home environments. Finally, we could see the adoption of remote working virtual reality (VR) technology that allows employees to attend meetings, complete training sessions, and interact with colleagues in a simulated office or classroom environment.
4. Energy-Saving Technology
With everyone spending more time at home in 2020, air conditioners and heating systems have continued to run all day long, and energy bills have skyrocketed. In this respect, the need for smart home solutions that reduce energy consumption and save money on electricity bills has also increased. At PointCentral, our smart home systems incorporate a variety of IoT and AI-based technologies that can save a tremendous amount of money on electricity each month.
Here’s a quick review of the savings you can expect from PointCentral smart home technologies:
- Smart home energy management systems (HEMS): Approximately 5-22% energy savings
- Smart heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC): Approximately 10% savings on heating and cooling
- Smart thermostats: Approximately 9-16% savings on heating and 15-23% on cooling
- Smart window shades: Approximately 11-20% savings on HVAC costs and 3% on lighting
- Smart appliances and smart electronics: Approximately 2-9% savings on total energy
- Smart lighting: Approximately 7-27% on lighting
- Smart outlets and smart power strips: Approximately 50% on plugged-in energy needs
5. IoT and Data Analytics Technology
As more IoT and smart devices become integrated into the home environment in 2021 and beyond, these devices will be collecting an enormous amount of data on consumers, their behaviors, their energy consumption, and the smart appliances that run their homes. Therefore, the accurate analysis of this data will be increasingly important.
PointCentral smart home systems already employ advanced analytics to improve heating and cooling efficiency in homes. For example, PointCentral’s HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) monitoring service uses AI and machine learning analytics to heat and cool your home more efficiently. The system uses data from tens of thousands of HVAC units gathered over several years to reduce maintenance costs, increase HVAC lifespan, and achieve better energy efficiency.
We expect to see greater use of AI and machine learning technology like this to improve the lives of smart homeowners in the years ahead.
PointCentral: Start Designing Your 2021 Smart Home Now
At PointCentral, we design advanced smart home systems that incorporate the latest security, IoT, smart lighting, smart lock, smart thermostat, and energy-saving technology. If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of turning your home into a smart home in 2021, schedule a free demo from the PointCentral team now.
