[londons_explore]

Many "smart" home appliances are also substantially more efficient... The fridge which does defrosting at night to save energy and be able to have a smaller compressor, the washer which measures the incoming water temperature and clothes weight and adjusts the water level and runtime to reduce energy use, etc. Many of these devices might overall halve energy use compared to a device from a decade ago.

Sure, some of those energy savings are a result of better design and materials rather than clever electronics and software, but often the two must be used together - for example the washing machine that can be lightweight because it uses software to rearrange the washing in the drum for the perfect balance... And a lightweight washer reduces energy consumption to heat it up...

[operatorius]

The ones that youve described are simply more efficient. What I was referring to are devices that needlessly have integrations via apps, social media or can be simply controlled by connecting them via wifi. These are needlessly more complicated, have more moving parts and these parts are now scarce.

[selfhoster11]

Smart == IoT for the current-day market. The fridge that defrosts every night does not need an Internet connection, yet today's market will make sure that it does without an actual need.