DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Oct 12, 2016) - Parks Associates, the leading IoT research firm, released research today showing smart thermostat sales in Western Europe will increase from less than 700,000 units in 2016 to more than one million units in 2020. Leading brands in Western Europe include Nest, Tado, Bosch, Hive, Netamo, and Quby. The international research firm will discuss the new industry report, Managing Home Resources: Smart Energy and Water Products, at the 11th-annual CONNECTIONS™ Europe: Smart Home, IoT, and the Connected Consumer, 2-3 November in Amsterdam, with industry leaders including executives from British Gas Connected Homes, Home.ai, mnubo, and Ayla Networks.
"The market for smart thermostats, which has grown to 9% of U.S. broadband households in the past five years, will soon expand to smart water heater controllers," said Tom Kerber, Director, IoT Strategy, Parks Associates. "While the economics are not as favorable as those that smart thermostats have enjoyed, the potential is strong enough to cause major appliance makers in the traditionally conservative industry of water heaters to invest in smart technology. At CONNECTIONS™ Europe, we will address the potential benefits of these devices, including remote access and control, malfunction detection, and leak detection."
Aquanta Inc. recently introduced the Aquanta Water Heater Controller, which uses IoT technology from Ayla Networks, a speaker and sponsor at CONNECTIONS™ Europe, to enable cloud connectivity and remote control of nearly any existing water heater by use of smartphone or another Internet-connected device. Parks Associates analysts note the retrofit capability for this solution helps to bypass the long replacement cycle for hot water heaters, which is a significant barrier. The use cases for smart water heaters include savings in both water and energy costs for the household, in addition to leak detection, which will help drive demand for these solutions among consumers, contractors, and insurers.
"Aquanta has taken an innovative approach to the IoT market by providing a retrofit product that allows people to bring an appliance they already own into the 21st century," said David Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Ayla Networks. "Once a product becomes part of the IoT, the data generated by the connected product can start providing important insights of benefit to the manufacturers and ancillary service providers -- and eventually to consumers. Thanks to our strategic partnership between Ayla and mnubo, you'll be hearing more about IoT-specific data analytics tools for capabilities including real-time operations monitoring and predictive maintenance."