“Recently, the Building Technologies Office (BTO) introduced a vision for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) research that can accelerate these trends toward smart, connected buildings. Under this vision, buildings leverage web-connected technologies to enable energy efficiency as a power grid resource, yielding energy and cost savings for both utilities and their customers. The portfolio of technologies that will support GEB – referred to here as GEB technologies – includes smart meters, thermostats, and inverters, building automation systems and wireless sensing networks, distributed energy storage, and connected appliances.
In some cases, GEB technologies are already capturing significant market share. For example, a recent IAB study estimates that 17% of Americans already own smart home controls and 11% own smart appliances, while another 30% reported interest in purchasing them. Smart thermostats, among the most popular GEB technologies, accounted for 40% of all thermostats sold in the U.S. in 2015. Continued growth of these market shares will require overcoming challenges surrounding first cost, market structure, and operational effectiveness, as outlined in a previous post.”
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