The advent of new technologies has continued to improve the ope-rationalization of smart homes. From home security to energy consumption’s, technology is revolutionizing our lives by making smart homes more safe, efficient, and enjoyable places to live. The following are some tips that are helping homeowners save energy and reduce costs.
Sensor-Controlled Lights
Sensors manipulated lights are being used at smart homes to regulate the temperature in rooms. A study by the Carbon Trust in the United Kingdom revealed that most occupancy sensors can reduce energy costs by 30 percent. This is because they are utilized in turning the lights on and off since they detect the time when the homeowners are in the house and away. Through automatic timers, they are programmed to turn on and off the lights after sunset when people are asleep.
The other rooms like washrooms use motion sensors where they automatically turn the lights off when people are not taking showers or the occupants have spent a certain period without using the rooms.
Energy-Efficient Light Bulbs
Adopting the use of energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and LED bulbs can save more energy bills more than many people can imagine. These type bulbs are very efficient as CFLs use mercury to create a phosphor coating within the bulb fluoresce, thus generating adequate light whilst LED bulbs normally use light-producing diodes as the source of the light. According to the Home Energy Saver, CFLs conserve up to 75 percent and they also last longer as compared to the other types of bulbs.
Since CFLs use Mercury and other toxic substances, their disposal should be done separately with other waste materials to protect the environment as well.
Smart Thermostats
The smart thermostats are connected with most devices including phones, tablets, and enable homeowners to monitor the general consumption of energy by all the devices. Besides, they help in setting the home temperatures when they are away from home. Energy experts noted that most homeowners are finding thermostats useful because they combine clear reports from each particular appliance and present charts for data interpretation. As a result, people can understand which devices are consuming more energy and replace them with more energy-saving ones. In other words, these stores data, learning the daily habits of smart home energy consumption, and helping in making better energy-saving decisions. With this data, a person can set lower temperatures when the room is unoccupied thus saving utility bills.
Smart Power Strips
Some appliances start to consume power immediately when they are plugged in even if they are not switched on. They might include TV cables, laptop chargers, and other stand electronic gadgets. For laymen, this can get them off guard, as they tend to complain about excess electricity bills every month. The ideal solution to reduce this “energy vampires” is to buy a smart power strip that will automatically detect any inactively connected device and cut off the power. There are various types of smart power strips but the most common is the one which allows the plugged-in appliances to function normally without charging ports that don’t draw phantom power when the appliances are off and the other has charging ports for the devices that require it to be kept on. Energy savings can be possible if the homeowners utilize the use of modern gadgets that come with sensors and other technologies to ensure that when the houses are unoccupied, the lights are and power ports are switched off. Similarly, the use of smart appliances that are integrated with IoT can help most people to monitor the power consumption of each device and provide the insights that guide in making the right adjustments aimed toward making the home smarter.
