Smart thermostats: are we ready?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the important product features that are to be included in smart grid devices. This will help the decision makers to prioritize the product feature implementations.Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a quantitative approach to determine the important product features. Data used in the model have been gathered by conducting a survey among 22 potential customers who have been living in residential areas.Findings – Although customers understand that a feature to respond to price signals could benefit them, they overwhelmingly prefer cost benefit that an energy demand system would provide.Originality/value – At a time when many are rushing in to implement technologies such as demand side management and any smart devices that go with them, this paper shows that customers may have different preferences than those implementing the technologies.