• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, November 5, 2015

Consumers see the smart home coming but many aren’t necessarily trying to be at the head of the line to sign up.

As inevitable as it is, smart home technology is exciting to just over a third (36%) of consumers, based on a new study.

But it’s likely that a consumer would start by purchasing e a small number of smart devices, according to the Smart Home Technology report by The Demand Institute, a joint venture of Nielsen and The Conference Board.

The researchers found that 71% of consumers would consider purchasing a smart home product, with smart thermostats leading the list of items.

In many of those cases, consumers would be bringing smart devices into houses that already exist. New homes may be another matter. Most consumers expect that houses built in the next five years will include smart technology.

The study found consumer familiarity with smart home technology to be low with stated barriers of price, security and lack of standardization with 64% saying they do not know much about smart technology.

This is no surprise along with the idea of consumers wanting any smart technology to be rather straightforward to set up and use, as I wrote about here just yesterday (Smart Homes: 74% Want Devices to Be As Simple to Set Up As Cable TV).

Besides thermostats, wireless speakers and home security monitoring are the most popular and well-known smart home products, followed by interest in smart lighting and door locks, according to the study.

Like most aspects of The Internet of Things, starting small will likely be the order of the day for the individual homeowner looking to make their home smarter.