Consumer Acceptance

Consumer acceptance is the key to the success of Smart Appliances. The Smart-A project will investigate whether and under which conditions consumers would be ready to make use of the functionalities offered by Smart Appliances.
One of the major research questions will be to which extent consumers want to keep control of the operation of their appliance and which (level of) flexibility they are ready to accept.

These questions have to be assessed in relation to the benefits which can be offered to consumers (e.g. lower electric tariffs).

Consumer acceptance activities will be predominantly carried out in EU Member States where case studies are performed. Nevertheless, a general analysis will address consumer acceptance in other European countries as well.

The methodologies applied will include analysis of existing studies in this field, and a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
A questionnaire-based survey will be performed in 5 countries with support from regional energy utilities and appliance manufacturers.
Phone interviews, based on the results of the survey, will also be conducted in order to refine the qualitative analysis.
In addition, focus groups of 6 to 12 participants will be held in 4 selected Member States.

Both the results of the survey and the focus groups will show under which conditions users might adopt smart appliances.