The Emergence of the Energy Smart Home

NHPC releases report on integrating smart grid technologies into home performance

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- At the National Summit on Integrating Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid, the National Home Performance Council (NHPC) today released  "Making Sense of the Smart Home: Applications of Smart Grid and Smart Home Technologies for the Home Performance Industry," discussing the evolution and future prospects of smart technology to enhance energy efficiency and home performance.

"It is time to break down the silos between traditional energy efficiency and smart grid policies and programs," said Kara Saul Rinaldi, Executive Director of NHPC and the lead author of the report. "The emergence of smart home technology and advanced data from smart meters has the potential to be a game changer in advancing whole-home energy performance."

Programs, contractors, and utilities benefit from educated and energy savvy consumers who understand how their behavior impacts energy use, as a result of new technologies that can monitor, analyze, and communicate energy use. New technology and data can help contractors predict a home's energy saving, generate leads on cost-saving improvements, and make measurement and verification of energy savings easier, cheaper and more accurate.

The paper was released today at the National Summit on Integrating Energy Efficiency & Smart Grid, being held at the W Hotel in Washington, DC. The NHPC has partnered with the Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid (ADS) and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) to host this first-of-its-kind event, bringing together the energy efficiency and smart grid communities for two days of presentations, dialogue and learning.

"This event and this report showcase the enormous, largely untapped potential that smart grid technologies can provide to policymakers, contractors, and building owners who are seeking to increase and incentive building energy performance," noted Saul Rinaldi. "The time has come where buildings are emerging as extensions of the smart grid."

The National Home Performance Council (NHPC) is a nonprofit working with governmental agencies, utilities, state programs, contractors, and others to provide cutting edge research and policy analysis to drive innovative policies and programs aimed at boosting the home performance industry's growth and profitability. Please visit us at www.nhpci.org.

SOURCE National Home Performance Council