Smart home appliances
Smart home appliances serve such a wide range of domestic needs that, for solution designers, they now form one of the most attractive sectors of the consumer IoT market. As we use refrigerators, ovens, washing machines and vacuum cleaners every day, they need to be both dependable and intuitive. Manufacturers therefore increasingly add connectivity to domestic equipment so it can be remotely monitored, controlled, upgraded or even repaired.
$285bn
Global smart appliances market size in 2030
45%
Homes in North America classified as smart homes
$406bn
Overall smart homes market size in 2030
For consumers, this connectivity delivers major gains in convenience. Connected appliances can be activated using a smartphone, for example, to perform tasks such as warming an oven or turning on an automated vacuum cleaner at a useful moment, such as when the owner is on their way home. Connectivity also enables appliances to communicate with their owners. A smart freezer, for instance, can send notifications if you accidentally leave the door open. A smart washing machine might also alert you when it detects a plumbing issue, or to suggest an additional spin cycle. The enhanced safety potential here is also considerable – a hot iron can send you an alert if you leave it unused for more than a given duration, while a smart oven can let you know if it detects burning or continues to run after it has been emptied.
Smart appliances are typically built with short-range technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, including the increasingly popular Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Fixed device locations and home Wi-Fi networks make these technologies natural partners for connected appliances. However, newer short-range technologies like Wi-SUN and Zigbee are growing in use.
Smart appliances help to curb the cost of living
The reasons for embracing connectivity in the home go beyond convenience and safety. In the face of rising costs of living, a key driver of connectivity is households’ need to limit energy and water bills. Through data analytics and machine learning, connected appliances can be configured to operate during low-demand periods when utility costs are lower. Demand for energy-efficient appliances is the biggest driver of growth in the broader smart home market – ahead of rising broadband penetration and government incentives for households to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Forecasts indicate the global smart appliances market will see a CAGR of more than 10% between 2025-2030, growing to $285 billion. Meanwhile, the wider smart home market will grow at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2024 to reach $406 billion by 2030.
Relevant product categories
With electricity grids under growing pressure, many consumers are also installing their own rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems. This is both to reduce the cost of energy and protect themselves from power cuts. To meet that demand, manufacturers are creating platforms to manage solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicle chargers, and energy-hungry connected appliances, such as tumble dryers and ovens, in an integrated way. Such platforms can lower electricity use by 20-35%. As utilities employ dynamic pricing to balance supply and demand, connected appliances can be configured to function at price thresholds. Similarly appliances with batteries can be programmed to charge only when prices are low.
Quectel supports the growth of smart home appliances by providing a vast range of durable, compliant, multi-functional modules that feature:
Socket Secure Layer to meet strict security and privacy requirements in data transmission
Wide temperature ranges to ensure durability in harsh environments
Ultra-compact, durable packages to meet the needs of mass-market devices
MIMO antennas to greatly reduce errors and boost data speeds
Technical advances in smart appliances
The smart appliances market is also benefiting from advances in computing power and connectivity. Machine learning can, for example, enable autonomous vacuum cleaners to monitor cleaning requirements and set their own schedules. Meanwhile, faster broadband and advances in Wi-Fi technology are making it feasible for people to connect dozens of devices simultaneously. In many homes, smart appliances now need to share Wi-Fi capacity with everything from cameras and connected locks to light bulbs and environmental sensors, as well as laptops, smartphones, printers and TVs. The latest generations of Wi-Fi, such as Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7, employ a radio technology called orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), which allows one transmission to deliver data to multiple devices simultaneously.
Consumers now own large numbers of connected devices. In Europe for instance, households own an average of 74 electrical items (excluding lights), of which 61 are in regular use. The industry is therefore making it easier for householders to control different products from different manufacturers. The Matter interoperability protocol, for example, has widespread backing. It enables device control through different smart home and voice services, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant. The first Matter specification focused on basic devices, such as light bulbs, locks and thermostats. Then Matter 1.2 added support for refrigerators, air conditioners, dishwashers, washing machines and vacuum cleaners. More recently, Matter 1.3 added support for energy and water management, ovens and tumble dryers.
ACK SDK for Matter video
Our FLM263D 2.4GHz single-band Wi-Fi 6 module embeds the ACK SDK to connect products to Matter-compliant controllers – see how smart bulbs can be controlled via the FLM263D in this video.
Keeping connected appliances secure and in service
Importantly, awareness is growing among manufacturers and consumers of the need to protect privacy by preventing hacking and unauthorized data access. Manufacturers increasingly use over-the-air software updates to plug potential security holes. They also encourage consumers to change default settings and employ complex passwords.
To build ongoing relationships with consumers and gather insights for product development, manufacturers will increasingly package smart home appliances into an “as-a-service” proposition. For example, consumers could subscribe to a suite of connected kitchen appliances that the manufacturer remotely monitors, upgrades and repairs. Connectivity could enable the manufacturer to send customers more dishwasher tablets or coffee beans before they run out, for instance, and provide tips on how to extend appliance lifetime and reduce energy and water consumption.
Such “appliance-as-a-service” propositions can help the industry meet its growing regulatory obligations to ensure its products are repairable and to minimize the number of components sent to landfill. When a connected product signals it needs replacing, the manufacturer could retrieve it from the customer for refurbishment or recycling. Thus, helping to create a more circular economy with less waste and a lower impact on the environment. For consumers, circular services like this remove the hassle of having to dispose of old equipment and source replacements. Manufacturers meanwhile will be able to ensure households always have working appliances, whenever they need them.
Relevant products
MCU Bluetooth HCM010S
Wi-Fi & Bluetooth FGS060N
Wi-Fi & Bluetooth FLM263D
How we can help to connect smart home appliances
Smart appliances typically utilize short-range technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with increasing use of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). This is because of the fixed location of most appliances and existing home Wi-Fi networks makes them natural partners. Newer short-range technologies however, like Wi-SUN and Zigbee, are growing in use across smart home applications with distinct strengths in node scalability, security and cost.
Cellular connectivity is less common, due to generally higher power consumption and cost – but the technology is seeing increasing uptake for applications requiring connectivity outside the home network without a gateway, such as smart safety systems with cellular backup or remote asset trackers. As the range and sophistication of smart appliances grows, there could be greater demand for cellular options such as LPWA and LTE.
Across all aspects of smart home appliances, we have the hardware, support services, experience and scale to help you maximize your opportunities. To discuss how, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
