2022 has brought great news to the Smart Home market.
The increases in the cost of energy, combined with incentives and bonuses (in particular that referring to Building Automation), have prompted Italians to pay more attention to their consumption by implementing strategies that focus on the benefits of home automation.
In 2022, the Italian Smart Home market was the first in Europe for growth rate on an annual basis: in fact, the sector recorded an increase of 18% compared to the previous year, reaching 770 million euros.
These are, in summary, the results of the new research promoted within the Internet of Things Observatory of the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic.
ANSA agency
In Italy 124 million connected objects, 2 for each person - Hi-tech
PoliMi, Internet of Things market exceeds 8 billion euros, +13% (ANSA)
However, the research shows that consumers are still poorly aware of the link between energy saving and home automation: to save energy, most Italians already adopt virtuous behaviors (81%) or buy devices and appliances that consume less (42%). while there are still few who use smart objects for real-time consumption monitoring (17%) or who manage heating and cooling via app (11%).
Finally, there are very few Italians who manage accumulation systems and self-production from renewable sources (4%) or activate services to optimize consumption (2%).
Trovaprezzi.it has created the Smart Home Observatory to analyze the preferences of Italians in terms of smart appliances and smart products.
Heating, air conditioning in rooms, electrical systems, control systems for windows, doors and burglar alarms, as well as various components of the house to be controlled remotely: everything can now be programmed in order to facilitate domestic life, while guaranteeing an increase in efficiency of the home, with consequent reduction of waste and savings on bills.
By analyzing the 100 types of searches most frequently carried out by Italians - including audio speakers and voice assistants, wireless light bulbs, smart TVs, intelligent washing machines, air conditioners, switches and wifi video surveillance systems, smart thermostats, condensing boilers, robot vacuum cleaners - the observatory has recorded from January 2022 to March 2023 over 860,000 searches overall*.
Among the products preferred by Italians - in addition to solutions related to home security such as burglar alarms, doors and windows and video surveillance which were the first to enter Italian homes - today we find air
conditioners
(31.8% of total searches*), with Daikin and Mitsubishi leading the brands in the sector.
The prices to buy a 12000 btu inverter air conditioner in class A+++ start at 339 euros for the Argo Charm 12000 btu inverter in R32 in A+++ Wi-fi optional, the air conditioner with dedicated app thanks to which it is possible to remotely control all the features of the device.
In the field of home appliances,
smart washing machines
they always arouse a lot of interest, totaling 21.3% of the total searches*.
Among the most desired class A+++ slim washing machines we can find, for example, the Candy CS 1272 DE/1-11 (available from 249 euros).
This washing machine is equipped with NFC connectivity which helps to improve the washing experience, simply and directly from the smartphone via a special app, thus taking advantage of numerous functions, including the Smart Cycles function which allows you to download additional washing cycles.
Another great confirmation are
smart TVs
(with 20.9% of total searches*) which have already been present for years in all Italian homes.
The prices and models are really many, but all TVs are equipped with functions and services related to the internet.
On the other hand, solutions for managing heating (boilers and thermostats) and lighting (connected light bulbs, smart switches and smart sockets) remain niche products.
How much does it cost and what products are needed to have a smart home?
Trovaprezzi.it has collected a panel of smart products among the most sought after by Italians at the best online price (surveyed in the week of March 27-April 2, 2023).
With a cost of less than 2,500 euros it is possible to have a smart home:
LG OLED C2 48” television → starting from €871.59
Google Nest Hub speaker (Second generation) → starting from €51.93
Robot vacuum cleaner iRobot Roomba Combo → starting from €265.00
Baxi Duo-tec Compact E condensing boiler → starting from €733.00
Samsung WW90T534DAE washing machine → starting from €492.16
Smart switch → starting from €4.81
Smart bulb → starting from €2.51
