Towards More Energy Efficient Domestic Appliances? Measuring the Perception of Households on Smart Appliances

Efficient use of energy is high on the agenda. Research has already demonstrated that active feedback on energy use can be effective to encourage households to take energy saving measures. In this perspective, smart grids, smart meters and smart domestic appliances will be of main importance in the near future. There are many stakeholders in this matter, but one that is often neglected is the user, or in this case, the households. Therefore, this article employs a user centric perspective. A quantitative survey was held with 500 households in Flanders. The research aimed to make a segmentation based on the households' perception towards smart domestic appliances. Four segments with significantly different perceptions could be distinguished in the sample. These segments were labelled "Advocates", "Supporters", "Doubters" and "Refusers". A further profiling revealed significant differences between the segments.