It’s been said that home is where the heart is. But as Nelson Mandela once noted, “a good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”

This is the perfect descriptor of a smart home. Smart home technology is one of the newest additions to the real estate industry, making living spaces luxurious and comfortable while helping homeowners save money and energy. After all, what could be better than controlling almost every device in your home with a single app, no matter where you are in the world?

Smart home technology has evolved significantly, and Canadians are beginning to realize the tremendous benefits these devices can bring to their lives. In fact, a recent study revealed 89% of Canadian homeowners believe it’s important to have energy-efficient appliances or devices when buying, building or renovating a home. Moreover, most Canadian homeowners are interested in further integrating energy monitoring systems (71%) and smart switches (63%) into their homes.

It’s clear the future for the home automation industry is bright. With that in mind, here are the top trends driving the adoption of smart home technology in Canada.

1. Environmental impact

Homes and buildings are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). After accounting for the electricity used for heating, cooling, lighting and appliances, they total 18% of national GHG emissions and account for more than 50% of all emissions globally.

With more and more companies embracing a hybrid work model, meaning more time at home, this number is set to drastically increase in the coming years. As Canada aims to achieve its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, we’re seeing more homeowners embrace technology in the fight against climate change.

The practicalities of this vary, both in the current and future potential. For Canadians looking to keep a more sustainable home, the ability to access real-time data on energy use provides an opportunity to not only gain insight but to improve their home’s environmental impact. Just as a Fitbit or Apple Watch allows you to monitor your health – and ideally, improve it – centralizing your home’s usage data allows homeowners to set and meet specific environmental impact goals. For example, if their hub or app converts their home energy usage into carbon emissions, occupants can easily track their progress towards a net zero home.

As homes become smarter, this process will not only become more effective but more efficient. In adopting emerging technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, our homes can use data insights to continually optimize and automate energy usage. In other words, they’ll learn and anticipate when, where and how much energy is required to efficiently light, heat and power themselves while maintaining the occupants’ comfort needs.

Innovations in solar technology will also soon make it a viable energy source for a broader spectrum of residential homes and locales. This has the potential to mainstream the prosumer movement – where energy users generate power from renewable sources, which they can often sell back to the grid – a key milestone in attaining net zero home emissions.

By helping Canadian homeowners gain insight and control their energy usage, smart home technology delivers Canadians the opportunity to make their homes more sustainable while lowering their environmental impact for the betterment of all.

2. Control

Years of excessive energy usage have made our homes profoundly wasteful. Recent innovations such as smart meters and systems that let us control heating and lighting from an app are starting to change that, but we still don’t really understand how our homes operate. For example, our energy bill tells us how much we’ve consumed but not when, by which appliance in which room or, crucially, how effectively. By contrast, your car tells you how many miles you’ve got left until you need a refill or what the remaining range is on an electric charge. In other words, we have no insight that allows us to make smarter decisions and waste less.

We all like the idea of better control through ease of technology. This phenomenon can be seen in the mass adoption of wireless speakers, video doorbells, intelligent assistants and climate control devices. To gain true control of our homes, they need to become truly intelligent. To do this, smart panels can be installed in our electrical systems and appliances can be retrofitted or embedded with sensors. We also need to be able to integrate all our current and future smart devices under one central app. By allowing more robust systems to be tailored to the occupants’ needs, the home experience will become more comfortable, sustainable and resilient.

3. Cost savings

Simply put, we’re facing a sharp rise in energy costs. With the rapid adoption and coming expansion of electric vehicles and accompanying infrastructure as well as the electrification of heat, global electricity consumption is expected to double by 2050. If we continue down this current path, our energy bills could skyrocket, increasing by as much as 70%.

By adopting and applying smart home technology, homeowners will be able to identify the best energy source and when to use them to reduce costs. With the implementation of data-informed AI-based predictions and automation, Canadians will have the potential to reduce consumption and heating costs by up to 50%. And just as importantly, they get to save on energy without having to compromise on comfort.