The technology to link a home systems into one central control is available, but how many home owners do you know who are really plugged in?

That's because manufacturers haven't properly addressed what consumers really want in a connected home, they often don't focus marketing on the demographic "sweet spot" of consumers who most want to be connected and setting up a connected home is just too daunting for most, according to "The U.S. Connected Home Market".

The study is the combined effort of research firm Portland-based Zanthusand the Monterey, CA-based Internet Home Alliance (IHA) -- a nonprofit consortium dedicated to advancing the Internet-enabled home technology market.

For the purposes of the study, a connected home is a home where computers, televisions, lighting and heating-ventilation-air conditioning (HVAC) and home security systems, among other things, are linked to a centrally controlled network.

To obtain insight on consumers attitudes' about digitally-enabled homes, the study included telephone interviews with 1,000 U.S. single-family households as well as focus groups, e-mail surveys and field studies.

The report found that households most likely to want digital connections were those with two college-educated parents, 35 to 44 years old, who have a combined annual income of $75,000 or more and have teenage children. Such families are more prone to adopt technology sooner than other groups and they are looking for tools to cut time spent on the drudgery of household chores. Older consumers are more apt to be Luddites about the issue.

That makes the core connected home market only 17 percent of U.S. home owners or 10.1 million households, the study says.

The study also found that those interested in the connected home were pragmatic about connected home technology. Rather than entertainment or productivity-related technology, households just want to keep up with the Jetsons. Fifty-two percent said a series of remotely activated (say from the office) and interconnected kitchen appliances that could cook a full meal was "very appealing". They also favor controls for lights, air conditioning and heating.

Most consumers, however, continue to resist the connected home. Fifty-eight percent expressed neutral or negative reactions to the concept and many view the connected home as connecting them to work they'd like to leave at the office. They prefer their home remain a refuge, rather than testing grounds for technology that hasn't been time tested.

To overcome resistance to the connected home, the study recommended, among other approaches:

Published: September 5, 2002

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.