One in eight European households to be "smart homes" by 2019

Usage of smart thermostats, security systems, light bulbs and other home systems controlled by smartphone apps and web portals to rocket, says analyst

More than one in eight European households will be ‘smart homes' by 2019, up from just 1.2 per cent this year, according to research house Berg Insight.

The European market for smart home systems - which under Berg Insight's definition must have a smartphone app or web portal as an interface - is still at an early stage in terms of penetration and maturity, with 3.3 million systems in use by the end of 2014, the analyst said.

According to the analyst, smart home systems can be grouped into six primary categories: energy management and climate control systems; security and access control systems; lighting, window and appliance control systems; home appliances; audio-visual and entertainment systems; and healthcare and assisted living systems.

In Europe, 0.34 million of the systems currently in use are multifunction or ‘whole-home' systems, whereas 2.93 million are point solutions such as smart thermostats, security systems, smart light bulbs and multi-room audio systems. Allowing for the overlap, this means there are currently about 1.75 million smart homes, equating to about 1.2 per cent of European households.

This will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 61 per cent during the next five years, meaning there will be 29.7 million smart homes by 2019 - equating to 13 per cent of households - Berg Insight said. This will make it a €7.6bn market by the end of the forecast period, up from €770m today.

The European market is, however, two to three years behind North America, whose installed base of smart home systems increased by 75 per cent to 10.2 million this year, Berg Insight said.

North America currently boasts 7.9 million smart homes, the analyst added, corresponding to six per cent of all households, making it "by far the most advanced smart home market in the world". There will be 38.2 million North American smart homes by 2019 - equating to 28 per cent of households - on the back of a CAGR of 37 per cent, Berg Insight said.

The analyst picked out Nest, Ecobee, eQ-3, ADT, Vivint, Philips, LIFX, D-Link and Sonos as some of the more successful vendors in the space.

Berg Insight conceded that ‘smart homes' and ‘smart automation' are ambiguous terms used to denote an array of solutions for controlling, monitoring and automating functions in the home. Devices that can only be controlled by timers, switches, sensors and remote controls were not included in its study.