Smart Grid systems are soon to be all the rage, as is apparent by the amount of press coverage the topic has received in recent times. The latest news is that 17 million units are expected to ship in 2014, flooding a fledgling market despite fears of an ongoing recession.
The vast majority of this market is going to come from the utilities offering packages for this new technology. Standalone units are expected to hold only a small piece of the market share.
Whatever we may think of this technology, we can all agree that it’s on its way. Millions of homes will have automated grids filled with appliances that can communicate with the utilities, feeding data back to the consumer.
Personally, as impressed as I am, I will be infinitely more impressed when my washer informs me that I’ve accidentally thrown in one of my wife’s dry-clean-only dresses. I can’t wait until my dryer tells me that it refuses to dry one of my wife’s sweaters, because it will shrink. Imagine your fridge saying, “Hey you! Please throw that milk away. It expired last week!”
Now THAT will be a smart appliance.