The Consumer Technology Association projects the growth of smart home devices could top 15% this year. That’s hardly news to home builders. A survey of small, regional, and national home builders confirms nearly 100% of them view smart home products as all-but mandatory.

The ubiquity of the technology makes it easy to overlook the backbone of the new normal: the energy source that rules them all, electricity.

Electricity’s quiet, take-it-for-granted status is rapidly fading away. Ask any home builder who has designed and built homes with photovoltaic panels. Home batteries. Inverters. Generators. PEVs. They’ll confirm Phase 2 in the Smart Home Revolution is well underway.

Way Forward

The swiftly shifting landscape begs some questions. What’s your home energy management strategy? What can you do to bring simplicity to an increasingly crowded and complex home energy ecosystem? How will you separate your brand from other local, regional, and national builders?

Schneider Electric executive Brad Wills has given those questions a lot of thought.

Clear Vision

Wills is the Home Builder Program Director for one of the energy industry’s oldest and most respected innovators, Schneider Electric. A 27-year veteran of the company, Wills’ perspective is informed with the company’s uniquely qualified insights. For example:

  • Gray Metal Box, R.I.P. “No one thinks of the gray metal box when buying a home. Homeowners often refer to this as a fuse box or breaker box. Yet that box, the load center – or better, what it stands for – is now a part of the conversation in a way it never was before,” Wills says. “It’s time for a smart home energy platform, a solution that finally addresses the operational efficiency of the home.”
  • You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure. Building super-tight, high-performance homes often yields a dividend of a smaller, lower-cost HVAC system. However, most efficiency benefits aren’t as transparent as they should be. Homeowners need device-level insight to make better informed decisions, says Wills. Just how efficient is the washer, dryer, or dishwasher? Are they showing signs of decline a service call might solve?
  • Solar Headaches. Builders acquainted with adding solar power to the home’s energy supply know all about the new boxes, conduits, and wiring required for installation. “It’s an ugly sight,” Wills says. “It’s also expensive, with lots of labor involved. It’s time for a unified energy center to bring all these disparate parts and pieces together with plug-and-play simplicity that saves builders money.”
  • Next-Gen Hub. What’s in if the gray metal box is out? Wills already knows. His company featured its new futuristic all-in-one energy management center at this year’s CES and IBS. “It lifts the game for everyone, especially home builders. A sleek next-gen hub differentiates home buyers with a level of device-level transparency not available today. Home buyers don’t need smart-everything if their energy control system performs many of those duties at the power management level.

The days of the dumb, disconnected gray box may be over. For builders ready to advance to Phase 2 of the Smart Home Revolution, Wills advises, “stay tuned.” Square D by Schneider Electric is readying an array of powerful new technologies that promise breakthrough transformation.

To learn more on how to consolidate smart home, appliance, and energy management into a single intuitive digital experience, visit https://www.se.com/us/en/brands/squared.