While traditional builders such as Lennar, KB and Meritage are making strides towards smart home automation as standard, some prefab smart home builders believe that it is more advantageous to integrate smart home features into the factory production process than it is to “layer gadgets” on a traditionally constructed home.
Prefab startup Kasita offers factory-built homes with pre-wired and pre-integrated smart thermostats, lighting, shades, and speakers, all of which can be managed by voice control. The whole home system may be remotely managed by Kasita, and can be remotely updated and improved. "[The home is] both software and hardware," says Jeff Wilson, Kasita’s founder.
Acre, another prefab startup, delivers its flat-pack homes with a pre-integrated zeroBOX system, which controls the home’s smart home system, solar panels, and optional Tesla power wall.
Enthusiasm for smart homes is growing. Nearly half of U.S. consumers (48%) intend to buy at least one smart home device this year, a 66% rise over 2017, according to Parks Associates. But market researchers estimate that by 2025 only 10% of houses globally will be smart, compared to 82% of new cars—which share similarities in manufacturing with prefab homes—by 2021.
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