The speaker discusses the challenges faced when deploying an energy management system in households, from hardware and software stack to accessibility and integration. They explain how energy savings can be achieved through PV power and proper control over when energy is consumed, and discuss the challenges of connecting and controlling devices such as inverters, EV chargers, and heat pumps. They also emphasize the importance of automation in achieving energy cost savings and stress the need for open source based energy management systems to give households greater control over their energy usage.