Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction: Smart Homes and Their Users

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Smart Homes and Their Users

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((BRIEFSHUMAN))

Abstract

This chapter introduces the book, its rationale and objectives, and the new data sources on which much of the analysis is based. Smart home technologies (SHTs) are now commercially available amid the promise of a smart home future. But there is a dearth of informed research on the users and use of SHTs in real domestic settings. This book is one of the first attempts to explore systematically how and why people use SHTs, and what impact this has on different aspects of everyday domestic life. A field trial of 20 households using commercially-available SHTs provides new data on in situ usage. This household-level data is contextualised by national-level market studies using both surveys and content analysis of industry marketing material. These new datasets are used throughout the empirical and analytical chapters of the book.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • AlAbdulkarim L, Lukszo Z (2011) Impact of privacy concerns on consumers’ acceptance of smart metering in the Netherlands. In: IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC), Delft, The Netherlands, 11–13 April 2011. pp 287–292. doi:10.1109/ICNSC.2011.5874919

  • Aldrich FK (2003) Smart homes: past, present and future. In: Harper R (ed) Inside the smart home. Springer-Verlag, London, pp 17–39

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Aune M (2007) Energy comes home. Energy Policy 35(11):5457–5465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baillie L, Benyon D (2008) Place and technology in the home. Comput Support Coop Work 17:227–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balta-Ozkan N, Boteler B, Amerighi O (2014) European smart home market development: public views on technical and economic aspects across the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Energy Res Soc Sci 3:65–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balta-Ozkan N, Davidson R, Bicket M, Whitmarsh L (2013a) The development of smart homes market in the UK. Energy 60:361–372. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2013.08.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balta-Ozkan N, Davidson R, Bicket M, Whitmarsh L (2013b) Social barriers to the adoption of smart homes. Energy Policy 63:363–374. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.08.043

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BPIE (2017a) Is Europe ready for a smart buildings revolution? Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE). Belgium, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  • BPIE (2017b) Smart buildings decoded. Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), Brussels, Belgium

    Google Scholar 

  • Brush A, Lee B, Mahajan R, Agarwal S, Saroiu S, Dixon C (2011) Home automation in the wild: challenges and opportunities. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, 2011. ACM, New York, pp 2115–2124

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavoukian A, Polonetsky J, Wolf C (2010) SmartPrivacy for the Smart Grid: embedding privacy into the design of electricity conservation. Identity in the Information Society 3(2):275–294. doi:10.1007/s12394-010-0046-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook DJ (2012) How smart is your home? Science 335(6076):1579–1581. doi:10.1126/science.1217640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Covrig CF, Ardelean M, Vasiljevska J, Mengolini A, Fulli G, Amoiralis E, Jiménez M, Filiou C (2014) Smart grid projects outlook 2014. JRC science and policy reports

    Google Scholar 

  • Darby S (2010) Smart metering: what potential for householder engagement? Build Res Info 38(5):442–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidoff S, Lee MK, Yiu C, Zimmerman J, Dey AK (2006) Principles of smart home control. In: International conference on ubiquitous computing, 2006. Springer, Berlin, pp 19–34

    Google Scholar 

  • DECC (2009) Smarter Grids: the opportunity. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), London, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • DECC-OFGEM (2011) Developing networks for low carbon: the building blocks for Britain’s Smart Grids. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), London, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Despres C (1991) The meaning of home: literature review and directions for future research and theoretical development. J Archit Plan Res 96–115

    Google Scholar 

  • EC (2015) Communication from the Commission C(2015) 6317 final. Towards an Integrated Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan: accelerating the European energy system transformation. European Commission (EC), Brussels, Belgium

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards W, Grinter R (2001) At home with ubiquitous computing: seven challenges. In: Ubicomp 2001: Ubiquitous computing, 2001. Springer, Berlin, pp 256–272

    Google Scholar 

  • EESC (2015) Changing the future of energy: civil society as a main player in renewable energy generation. European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Brussels, Belgium

    Google Scholar 

  • Firth SK, Fouchal F, Kane T, Dimitriou V, Hassan T (2013) Decision support systems for domestic retrofit provision using smart home data streams. In: The 30th international conference on applications of IT in the AEC Industry. Move towards smart buildings: infrastructures and cities, Beijing, China, 9–12 Oct 2013

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford R, Peniamina R (2016) Smart homes: what New Zealanders think, have, and want. University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedewald M, Da Costa O, Punie Y, Alahuhta P, Heinonen S (2005) Perspectives of ambient intelligence in the home environment. Telematics Inform 22(3):221–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gangale F, Mengolini A, Onyeji I (2013) Consumer engagement: an insight from smart grid projects in Europe. Energy Policy 60:621–628. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.031

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • GfK (2015) Smart home beats wearables for impact on lives, say consumers. GfK, Nuremberg, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  • GfK (2016) Smart home: a global perspective. Paper presented at the CES 2016, Las Vegas, USA, 12 Jan 2016

    Google Scholar 

  • Gračanin D, McCrickard DS, Billingsley A, Cooper R, Gatling T, Irvin-Williams EJ, Osborne F, Doswell F (2011) Mobile interfaces for better living: supporting awareness in a smart home environment. In: International conference on universal access in human-computer interaction, 2011. Springer, Berlin, pp 163–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Haines V, Mitchell V, Cooper C, Maguire M (2007) Probing user values in the home environment within a technology driven Smart Home project. Pers Ubiquit Comput 11(5):349–359

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harms E (2015) Smart home—good things come to those who wait. Paper presented at the 8th international conference on energy efficiency in domestic appliances and lighting (EEDAL’15), Luzern, Switzerland, 26–28 August 2015

    Google Scholar 

  • HMG (2009) The UK low carbon transition plan: national strategy for climate and energy. HM Government, London, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoenkamp R, Huitema GB, de Moor-van Vugt AJC (2011) The neglected consumer: the case of the Smart Meter Rollout in the Netherlands. Renew Energy Law and Policy Rev 4:269–282

    Google Scholar 

  • Kane T, Cockbill S, May A, Mitchell V, Wilson C, Dimitriou V, Liao J, Murray D, Stankovic L, Stankovic V, Fouchal F, Hassan T, Firth S (2015) Supporting retrofit decisions using smart metering data: a multi-disciplinary approach. In: European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ECEEE) summer study on buildings, Hyeres, France, June 2015. pp 1009–1020

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlin B, Ford R, Sanguinetti A, Squiers C, Gannon J, Rajukumar M, Donnelly KA (2015) Characterization and potential of Home Energy Management (HEM) Technology. Pacific Gas and Electric, San Francisco, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis SCR (2012) Energy in the smart home. In: Harper R (ed) The connected home: the future of domestic life. Springer-Verlag, London, UK, pp 281–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin Y-J, Latchman HA, Lee M, Katar S (2002) A power line communication network infrastructure for the smart home. IEEE Wirel Commun 9(6):104–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M&M (2017) Smart home market by product, software & service, and geography—global forecast to 2023. Marketsandmarkets.com, Seattle, WA

    Google Scholar 

  • McLean A (2011) Ethical frontiers of ICT and older users: cultural, pragmatic and ethical issues. Ethics Inf Technol 13(4):313–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mennicken S, Vermeulen J, Huang EM (2014) From today’s augmented houses to tomorrow’s smart homes: new directions for home automation research. Paper presented at the proceedings of the 2014 ACM international joint conference on pervasive and ubiquitous computing, Seattle, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Mozer M, Dodier R, Miller D, Anderson M, Anderson J, Bertini D, Bronder M, Colagrosso M, Cruickshank R, Daugherty B (2005) The adaptive house. In: IEE seminar digests, 2005. IET, pp v1–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyborg S (2015) Pilot users and their families: inventing flexible practices in the smart grid. Sci Technol Stud

    Google Scholar 

  • Orpwood R, Gibbs C, Adlam T, Faulkner R, Meegahawatte D (2005) The design of smart homes for people with dementia—user-interface aspects. Univ Access Inf Soc 4(2):156–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paetz A-G, Dutschke E, Fichtner W (2012) Smart homes as a means to sustainable energy consumption: a study of consumer perceptions. J Cons Pol 35:23–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park SH, Won SH, Lee JB, Kim SW (2003) Smart home—digitally engineered domestic life. Pers Ubiquit Comput 7:189–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson HJ (2009) A ‘smart house’ is not a home: the domestication of ICTs. Info Syst Front 11(5):599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robles RJ, Kim T (2010) Applications, systems and methods in smart home technology: a review. Int J Adv Sci Technol 15:37–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohracher H (2003) The role of users in the social shaping of environmental technologies. Innovation: The Eur J Soc Sci Res 16(2):177–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Solaimani S, Bouwman H, Baken N (2011) The smart home landscape: a qualitative meta-analysis. Toward useful services for elderly and people with disabilities, pp 192–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Strengers Y (2013) Smart energy technologies in everyday life: smart utopia? Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA. doi:10.1057/9781137267054

  • Takayama L, Pantofaru C, Robson D, Soto B, Barry M (2012) Making technology homey: finding sources of satisfaction and meaning in home automation. In: Proceedings of the 2012 ACM conference on ubiquitous computing, 2012. ACM, New York, pp 511–520

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson C, Hargreaves T, Hauxwell-Baldwin R (2015) Smart homes and their users: a systematic analysis and key challenges. Pers Ubiquit Comput 19(2):463–476. doi:10.1007/s00779-014-0813-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodruff A, Augustin S, Foucault B (2007) Sabbath day home automation: it’s like mixing technology and religion. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, 2007. ACM, New work, pp 527–536

    Google Scholar 

  • Zion (2017) Smart home market: global industry perspective, comprehensive analysis and forecast, 2016–2022. Zion Market Research, Sarasota, FL

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science, Society and Sustainability Research Group (3S), School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Tom Hargreaves

  2. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Charlie Wilson

Authors
  1. Tom Hargreaves
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Charlie Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tom Hargreaves .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hargreaves, T., Wilson, C. (2017). Introduction: Smart Homes and Their Users. In: Smart Homes and Their Users . Human–Computer Interaction Series(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68018-7_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68018-7_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68017-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68018-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation