Print this page

Save Money by Upgrading to a Smart Home

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 26 November 2019 07:43
Save Money by Upgrading to a Smart Home Photo by BENCE BOROS on Unsplash

As smart home technology becomes more commonplace among consumers, homeowners need to take advantage of all of its benefits. While this technology has many upsides (like increased automation and security), smart home users should optimize their devices to use less energy in their homes. According to the U.S Department of Energy, the average American household produces 90 million British thermal units (BTUs) in a single year. That's 50% more energy than the average car uses in the same timespan. 

Using your smart home devices to their full potential will help you decrease your energy consumption and help you save a lot of money in the long-run. To get you started on your energy-saving journey, here are three ways you can use smart home technology to save you money. 

Install a Smart Thermostat

It's no secret that heating and cooling your home are the main culprits when it comes to energy costs. Continually monitoring your thermostat and HVAC system can become burdensome and time-consuming. Smart thermostats are crucial if you're a homeowner looking to reduce your monthly energy bills. 

Smart thermostats allow users to control, automate, and monitor their home's temperature from the convenience of their smart devices or smart home hub. With wi-fi thermostats, you can create daily schedules, temperature ranges, and custom-made settings based on your heating and cooling preferences. These thermostats couldn't make monitoring your home's temperature any easier. 

However, owning and operating a smart thermostat isn't going to save you money on its own. You need to ensure that you're still following thermostat best practices. Here are some quick thermostat tips to help you conserve energy: 

  1. Turn your temperature 7-10 degrees back or forward from its typical setting. According to the Department of Energy, this can help you save 10% on energy costs. 
  2. Make sure to avoid extreme fluctuations. Drastically changing your thermostat's settings on a consistent basis will cause you to use a significant amount of energy. 
  3. Once you install a smart thermostat, make sure to tailor it to your schedule. Doing this will help you avoid using your HVAC system when you don't need to.

Use Smart Lightbulbs

Utilizing smart lightbulbs throughout your home is another excellent way to cut back on energy costs. Just like smart thermostats, these long-lasting bulbs allow consumers to optimize their home's lighting through their smart devices. Most smart lights use CFL or LED bulbs instead of your typical incandescent bulbs. By simply replacing your traditional lights with smart ones, you're already using less energy and saving money every month. 

However, to save even more energy, you should take advantage of all of the features that smart lightbulbs offer. With smart bulbs you can: 

  1. Use smart home assistants (like Alexa or Siri) to turn on and off your lights. 
  2. Dim your lights to your liking without having to install a dimmer. 
  3. How often do you forget to turn off the front porch light? With smart lightbulbs, you can set custom schedules so you never have to worry about leaving a light on longer than it needs to. 

Operate Your Smart Appliances Efficiently

Washers, dryers, dishwashers, ovens, and even refrigerators are joining the smart home revolution at a rapid pace. If you decide to own and install a smart appliance, try not to use them during peak hours. When multiple households on the same grid consume energy at the same time, using electricity in your home becomes more expensive. Just like the smart thermostats and lightbulbs mentioned above, use the power of smart home automation to schedule times for your appliances to operate. Creating a smart home routine will help you save money in the long-run. 

Rate this item
(0 votes)
Brandon Jarman

Latest from Brandon Jarman

Joomla! Debug Console

Session

Profile Information

Memory Usage

Database Queries