Consumers Demand Peace of Mind from Products

A new national study conducted for Lowe’s reveals that security/safety is the primary driver behind consumers’ desires to purchase home automation equipment. Cost remains the barrier.

According to CEPro, the data from the Lowe’s 2014 Smart Home Survey reveals that a majority of Americans are generally favorable to smart homes, with 50 percent preferring do-it-yourself solutions, and nearly two-thirds (62 percent) find the smart home most beneficial for monitoring safety and security.

The Smart Home Survey, conducted online in July by Harris Poll on behalf of Lowe’s (makers of the Iris home automation system), polled more than 2,000 U.S. adults aged 18+ and finds that 52 percent of Americans feel that having a smart home is at least somewhat important to them. When it comes to purchasing consideration, more than half (56 percent) of Americans cite either cost or fees as the most important deciding factor (31 percent say monthly fee amount and 26 percent say the cost of equipment), followed by ease of use (13 percent) and security (11 percent).

Additional key findings:

• In addition to citing overall cost as the most important factor in the purchasing decision of smart home products, Americans are more than twice as likely to prefer a DIY solution without a monthly fee over a professional installed/monitored system with a monthly service fee (50 percent vs. 21 percent).
• Forty percent say a benefit of owning a smart home would be to cut costs and save money on energy bills.
• 62 percent of Americans rank security and home monitoring as the most beneficial reason to own a smart home.Overall convenience comes in at third place (35 percent), and protection from floods, fire and other disasters (29 percent) ranks fourth.
• Americans aged 65 and older (24 percent) are more than twice as likely as those aged 18-64 (11 percent) to name ease-of-use as the most important factor in smart home product purchase consideration.
• One-third (36 percent) of Americans, most smartphone or tablet owners (70 percent) wish they could just control something in their home from their mobile device without getting out of bed. An automatic meal machine ranked second (19 percent), followed by the Flying Suit (16 percent).
• In order of importance, Americans who own a smartphone or tablet want to adjust the thermostat (44 percent), turn on the lights (39 percent) or start the coffee pot (27 percent) before getting out of bed.
• Nearly half of Americans (49 percent) wish their home would already be the perfect temperature when they arrive home. Other popular wishes include the lights being on (37 percent) and doors being unlocked (27 percent).
• The top three things Americans wish they could control before they arrive home are actually the same three things they’re most likely to forget to do before leaving the house: turn off the lights (18 percent), adjust the thermostat (15 percent) or lock the door (5 percent).
• Over half of Americans (52 percent) admit they forget to do something when they leave the home.
• 61 percent of parents with children ages 3-17 plan to monitor their children in some way when they go back to school.
• 35 percent plan to buy their child a cell phone
• 19 percent will use at-home cameras.17 percent will receive text notifications
• 13 percent plan to put a GPS or monitoring device in their child’s backpack
• People in the western region of the country (23 percent) are more likely than those in the Northeast (4 percent) or Midwest (9 percent) to put a GPS or monitoring device in their child’s backpack.
• Midwesterners are the least likely (41 percent) to monitor their children in any way when they go back to school.
• Men are more likely (68 percent) than women (55 percent) to monitor their child’s after-school activity.

For the full story, click here.