Social impact of decarbonization objectives through smart homes: Survey and analysis

Abstract

The technological development and economic growth of renewable energy are the key solution for almost full decarbonization of the energy systems. The sustainability and energy efficiency, artificial intelligence and connectivity will be the determining elements towards reaching this ambitious goal. Household appliances and tools for controlling energy consumption, temperature, lighting, etc. In the smart home will play a key role to increase awareness of families' energy consumption. IoT (Internet of Things) devices for the smart home allow us to monitor consumption and pay attention to efficiently energy use. However, savings are not the only important element of the smart home. Together with the digital control of the home these are elements that include a fundamental dimension: decarbonization, which is the cornerstone of the energy transition, which must involve an epochal change of mentality to our society where digitalization and people's well-being meet. The paper deals with social analysis of large cities population perception on integrating renewable energy sources and necessary devices to transform existing houses in smart homes towards economic wellbeing and decarbonization of the energy sector. Different classes of respondents were interviewed – owned and rented fome, rural and urban inhabitants, different segments of age, various number of inhabitants in urban areas and the capital, women and men, high-income and low-income, different levels of education – to support or disregard smart home technological development and reveal the different perception towards further usage of smart devices for daily benefits.