By John Voket
Do you have enough hours in the day? We bet most of you wish you had more!
While connected appliances can’t make a day longer, they can help recapture more of your time. In fact, one recent study showed connected appliances save a typical household 100 hours a year.
According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), these time savings can be sourced from several areas. If you’ll be away from home for a while, for example, connectivity ensures your appliances stay in working order while you’re gone. Should an appliance need repair, connectivity revolutionizes the process—manufacturers are already developing features in which repair technicians remotely identify problems and, in some cases, remotely repair them.
Day-to-day, a connected dishwasher, for instance, could “learn” when you typically wash dishes and begin washing them automatically. Clothes washers, in another instance, can give you guidance when it comes to cleaning a certain type of garment, saving you time spent researching.
What’s more, connected appliances have the potential—with the Smart Grid—to drive energy cost savings and improve the environment, automatically reducing energy use based on users’ preferences, or allowing users to access renewable energy when available.
Want to learn more? Download AHAM’s white paper, Home Appliance Connectivity: Limitless Potential (www.aham.org/industry/ht/d/Join/pid/84076), for an introduction to the possibilities connected home appliances hold, as well as what manufacturers are doing to keep them safe and secure.
