• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, July 18, 2017

Some consumers may have to be paid to use certain smart home devices.

Just yesterday, a study came out showing that smart thermostats are gaining traction, with North American sales of the devices increasing 64% in a year.

That puts the count of smart thermostats installed in homes at 8 million, as I wrote about here at the time (Smart Thermostats Fuel Smart Home Growth).

Now a new study suggests that number could go a lot higher.

Trouble is, fewer than a third (30%) of consumers believe that smart thermostats are affordable and only 18% would purchase one in the $250 price range, according to a new study by Parks Associates.

However, if given incentives, the dynamics could change.

Offering a $100 rebate more than doubles the percentage of homes that intend to purchase one of the devices.

This means that a rebate program that refunds $100 to the consumer would expand the percentage of households interested in buying a smart thermostat from 18% to 40%.

That would be a significant upswing, since only 40% of broadband households are familiar with smart thermostats and only 11% own one, according to Parks.

Amazon just highlighted a good example of sales incentives working, as its heavily discounted Echo Dot was the top device sold on Amazon Prime day last week.

Here are the Amazon prices of the three leading smart thermostats: Nest, $247; Honeywell, $165 and Ecobee, $249.

Let the rebates begin!