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IKEA Pilots New Energy Saving Feature in Smart Plug
May 13,
2024 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
IKEA is a leader in sustainability, and they continue to forge ahead with that mindset as they pilot the new Energy Insights feature, to enable customers to monitor their electricity consumption and use energy smarter. The feature is now available in the Swedish IKEA Home smart app and will be further improved and developed throughout the year.
As energy costs and consumption continue to capture homeowners’ attention, IKEA embarks on a journey to create digital experiences and smart energy products designed to help customers save energy and make better decisions around their electricity consumption at home. Marking the beginning is the pilot launch of Energy Insights in the IKEA Home smart app – aiming to enhance customers' understanding of their own energy use and help them adopt energy-efficient habits.
"At IKEA, we are dedicated to making everyday life simpler and more convenient by integrating smart solutions into the home. We want to enable our customers to connect their energy data with their everyday life, so that they can understand and manage their energy usage in smarter ways. It's about giving everyone the tools to reduce their energy bills and enhancing their ability to adopt smarter energy habits,” says Mikael Szalay, product owner at IKEA of Sweden.
Energy Insights offers real-time data on energy consumption and electricity spot prices and compares your home's usage to similar households. This aims to empower customers to use their energy-intensive appliances more efficiently. By understanding the best times to consume energy, customers can save money and lower their energy usage.
In the future, Energy Insights will offer personalized advice on how to save energy, with practical and actionable tips. Additionally, it will provide recommendations on products and services that help reduce energy use, with solutions available directly from IKEA. The feature does not require any smart home products to function. Customers can access this service by simply logging into the app with an IKEA Family account.
In October, IKEA will expand its smart home energy offerings by introducing INSPELNING, a new smart plug that measures energy consumption for any device. INSPELNING can be connected through the DIRIGERA smart hub to help you understand how energy efficient your plugged-in devices are, and lets you control or automate their usage in the IKEA Home smart app (separate from Energy Insights).
"We see an increased interest in smart home products and specifically those that can help save energy. By offering cost-effective smart energy solutions we want to enable more people to participate in energy-saving practices,” says David Granath, range manager at IKEA of Sweden.
“This feature is just the beginning of our journey towards providing comprehensive smart energy solutions for the home. As we continue to develop the IKEA Home smart system, we are eager to add more features that will contribute further to energy efficiency in the home," added Granath.
The Energy Insights feature will be available in the Swedish version of the IKEA Home smart app. The learnings from this pilot project will be used to explore how the initiative can be scaled up and made available for other markets, as well as inform future product development.