What did CES 2023 offer up in the current cost of living era?

Recent Gekko research revealed that the cost of living crisis has had a dramatic impact on consumer spending with 66% slash spending on non-essential considered purchases and 43% on essential items. On a day-to-day basis, the main priority for many is ensuring that the bills can be paid and as a result, a large proportion of homeowners are looking for ways to save money, whether that’s cutting back on the heating or even switching appliances to save on electricity.

So, against this backdrop, we watched with interest for the big reveals and announcements that were coming out of CES in the first week of January to see what might appeal to cost-conscious consumers thinking of investing in money-saving and more efficient solutions for the home.

It’s no surprise that a tech giant like Samsung managed to grab headlines at CES and the updates to their smart home solution certainly presents some tangible savings for homeowners. Samsung’s SmartThings Energy and in particular their new AI Energy Mode which offers support for more devices and regions with even more significant savings. This new update includes 15% more energy consumption savings for compatible refrigerators, up to 20% for compatible air conditions and up to 35% for compatible washers on selected cycles. This update will allow the user to save electricity on these products which equates to savings on the user's energy bill. The SmartThings Energy service which can be viewed on the SmartThings app available on both Android and iOS can show the energy consumption of the user's SmartThings products and how much the estimated cost is. You can view this by day, week or month and it will even break down the energy consumption per hour. This app is very handy to keep track of the “Demon Appliances”.

If multitasking is your thing then a desk, bike, and computer combo might just appeal, with the added benefit of saving yourself a bit more money on your electricity bill. The eKinekt BD 3 from computing brand Acer addresses this somewhat niche requirement. They have branched out into the world of fitness with their eKinekt BD 3 exercise bike which is designed to be a desk, where the user can work and exercise at the same time whilst also producing electricity that can power the user's laptop. Acer stated that cycling at a somewhat leisurely pace of 60 RPM (revolutions per minute) for an hour can generate up to 75 watts of power.

Moving out into the garden, a new solution to tackle water wastage was announced. The Moen Smart Sprinkler Controller can monitor the moisture levels of your soil and tracks local weather conditions. The user can also monitor water usage and estimated savings as well as set up customised watering schedules that take advantage of weather tracking so the sprinkler will not activate if the rain is predicted in the area which in turn will save the user money. Thinking about the UK 2022 summer drought, this kind of solution would certainly help users become more efficient in their use of water, cutting consumption, wastage and cost.

Although not announced at CES, something that has been gathering a lot of momentum recently and will be featured on the spec sheets of many new products revealed at CES is Matter, a new proprietary standard for home automation that has the potential to offer indirect savings for consumers. Matter is essentially Smart Home 2.0. In simple terms Matter is a new wireless standard that should unify the smart home and make operation easier for users. This means that every smart device you may have such as a smart plug or smart light will talk to each other as opposed to how it used to work with each device being locked to that specific manufacturer and then locked to a specific control centre such as Google Home or Apple Homekit. Until now, with non-compatible standards, consumers have essentially been locked into a brand/product's ecosystem if they want full functionality. However, now the user will be free to mix and match and not worry about losing the functionality of their products because they’re mixing manufacturers, this, in turn, will save the consumer money as they can take advantage of sales rather than having to wait for that one specific product to drop in price as there are always alternatives for every smart home product.

This is by no means a conclusive list of products that can help consumers save on their household utility bills but rather some of the notable ones that we saw coming out of CES2023. There are of course other products either already available or coming onto the market that can assist with saving on energy consumption. From smart plugs that can be turned on and off remotely so helping users cut down on energy consumption to readily available smart light bulbs, which being LED, offer immediate tangible savings over traditional light bulbs.

CES 2023 was a step in the right direction for sustainability and pro-consumerism, with a lot of companies focussing on the overall sustainability of their products and ensuring that energy consumption is kept to a minimum as in these current times saving money on the electricity bill is a must. This all ties in with the increased industry focus on home appliances and energy saving. In the UK trade body AMDEA is educating the home appliance retail sector on how consumers can make savings when using products as part of its highly successful Know Watt’s What campaign in helping combat energy price rises.

In terms of pro-consumerism, one of the most important updates to come from CES 2023 as mentioned earlier is Matter which opens up the opportunity for consumers not to be tied down to specific manufacturers and allows full Smart Home Freedom. Expect smart home brands to be increasingly vocal about their Matter integration and compatibility.

To read the full article by Callum Puffett, Marketing Executive please visit our Blog
Photo by CES