As the number of residential demand-response programs and the use of smart home technologies has grown over the last several years, an important opportunity has emerged in home performance to increase residential energy savings. Namely, the opportunity to use smart home technologies to target leaky, inefficient homes that cannot hold a constant temperature during a period of several hours once an air conditioner, for example, is turned up or off during a demand response event called as part of a utility program.

Home performance typically includes improvements to the building’s envelope and to its heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation (HVAC) systems, but to date have not often included smart-home technologies with two-way communication systems. This is not because there are no innovative minds in home performance, but because the traditional home performance tool kit does not yet include smart-home technologies that could more precisely (and cost-effectively) identify energy savings opportunities in the home.

Read more. (Home Energy Magazine) http://homeenergy.org/show/article/id/2197/viewFull/