Smart homes ‘could help halve carbon emissions and energy bills’

Researchers say the mass adoption of solar, battery storage, intelligent controls and other smart energy technologies in the home could unlock a range of significant positive impacts

Smart homes could help deliver carbon reductions, energy bill savings, and improved system resilience across the country.

That’s the conclusion reached in new research from scientists at Loughborough University in partnership with the Solar Trade Association and Advance Further Energy, who say the mass adoption of solar, battery storage, intelligent controls and other smart energy technologies in the home could unlock a range of significant positive impacts.

Individual households would be able to save money, lessen their environmental impact and even potentially sell power back to the grid or other homes and businesses through a local energy marketplace – the report states if such a system were scaled-up across a portfolio of 4.4 million homes, they would not only benefit these individual homeowners but the entire electricity network.

It adds tools to manage electricity use can enable distributed energy and storage-equipped houses to provide enough rapid flexible power to flatten spikes in demand, helping to balance the electricity system without the need for costly reinforcements – these households could also more than halve carbon emissions and energy bills too, helping the UK work towards its net zero targets.

Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of the STA said: “We now have an opportunity to make our homes active contributors of the flexibility needed to maximise the potential of renewables, rather than simply passive consumers of electricity.

“The evidence is here – deploying smart energy technologies across the country not only cuts carbon and helps households save on their energy bills, but can actively minimise spikes in electricity demand which place the grid under intense stress. It is not simply the homeowner who stands to benefit from solar and energy storage, but everyone.”

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