Save Money with Smart Home Technology
By Mike Agerbo
June 05, 2018
Product Discovery
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There’s no question that smart home technology makes our lives more convenient, allowing us to schedule tasks and control electronics and appliances remotely. But in addition to this convenience, smart home technology can also help save you money on utilities such as heat and electricity. Here are a few of my favourite ways to save with smart home technology:
The Ecobee4 Wi-Fi Thermostat is the ideal solution for conserving energy and saving on your heating bills. For starters, it allows you to control your home’s temperature whether you’re home or not with the help of an app. It also learns how your home heats up and cools down and uses information about local forecasts to determine the best way to bring your home to the right temperature. Finally, the Ecobee4 comes with a room sensor that helps you manage hot and cold spots in your home. You can simply place the sensor in your favourite rooms to maintain the right temperature. The sensor can tell whether the room is occupied so that energy isn’t wasted heating or cooling when it doesn’t make a difference. With all this information and functionality, the Ecobee4 has been shown to save users up to 23% on heating costs.
In addition to all its smart thermostat functionality, the Ecobee4 has Alexa built right in so you can take advantage of her skills and get things done using simple voice commands.
Being one of the first of its kind, Nest is a pretty well-known name in the world of smart thermostats and with good reason. The company has been a leader in smart home technology for a few years now and the Nest Learning Thermostat is a great example of one of its innovative devices. The Nest Learning Thermostat learns your routine and adjusts the temperature accordingly, knowing that you like it warmer in the morning and cooler in the evening, for example. Using your phone’s location, Nest also knows when you’re out of the house so it can adjust the temperature to keep heating and cooling costs down. Like the Ecobee4, Nest also allows you to control the temperature in your home from anywhere.
Independent studies have showed that the Nest Learning Thermostat saved people an average of 10%-15% on heating and cooling, making Nest the perfect solution if you’re trying to save on your energy bills.
While heating and cooling tend to account for the largest portion of utility expenses, there are things you can do to save on your utility costs apart from installing smart thermostats. Installing smart plugs and lights, for instance, is a great way to ensure that you’re not wasting electricity when you’re not using certain appliances and lights. These devices allow you to turn electronics and lights on and off on a schedule, so you can make sure that everything is turned off when you leave the house or go to bed without having to do it manually. They also allow you to turn electronics on and off using an app, making it easy to turn things on and off even after you’ve left the house. Taking this a step further, you can install the Belkin WeMo Insight Wi-Fi Smart Plug, which gives you all the functionality of other smart plugs while also giving you insight on power draw, usage time, and cost for whatever device is plugged in. It’s a great way to keep an eye on your consumption and identify power-hungry electronics.
Offering similar functionality, installing smart lights allows you to set up a schedule and turn lights on and off remotely using your mobile device.
Ecobee4 Wi-Fi Thermostat
The Ecobee4 Wi-Fi Thermostat is the ideal solution for conserving energy and saving on your heating bills. For starters, it allows you to control your home’s temperature whether you’re home or not with the help of an app. It also learns how your home heats up and cools down and uses information about local forecasts to determine the best way to bring your home to the right temperature. Finally, the Ecobee4 comes with a room sensor that helps you manage hot and cold spots in your home. You can simply place the sensor in your favourite rooms to maintain the right temperature. The sensor can tell whether the room is occupied so that energy isn’t wasted heating or cooling when it doesn’t make a difference. With all this information and functionality, the Ecobee4 has been shown to save users up to 23% on heating costs.
In addition to all its smart thermostat functionality, the Ecobee4 has Alexa built right in so you can take advantage of her skills and get things done using simple voice commands.
Nest Learning Thermostat
Being one of the first of its kind, Nest is a pretty well-known name in the world of smart thermostats and with good reason. The company has been a leader in smart home technology for a few years now and the Nest Learning Thermostat is a great example of one of its innovative devices. The Nest Learning Thermostat learns your routine and adjusts the temperature accordingly, knowing that you like it warmer in the morning and cooler in the evening, for example. Using your phone’s location, Nest also knows when you’re out of the house so it can adjust the temperature to keep heating and cooling costs down. Like the Ecobee4, Nest also allows you to control the temperature in your home from anywhere.
Independent studies have showed that the Nest Learning Thermostat saved people an average of 10%-15% on heating and cooling, making Nest the perfect solution if you’re trying to save on your energy bills.
Smart Plugs
While heating and cooling tend to account for the largest portion of utility expenses, there are things you can do to save on your utility costs apart from installing smart thermostats. Installing smart plugs and lights, for instance, is a great way to ensure that you’re not wasting electricity when you’re not using certain appliances and lights. These devices allow you to turn electronics and lights on and off on a schedule, so you can make sure that everything is turned off when you leave the house or go to bed without having to do it manually. They also allow you to turn electronics on and off using an app, making it easy to turn things on and off even after you’ve left the house. Taking this a step further, you can install the Belkin WeMo Insight Wi-Fi Smart Plug, which gives you all the functionality of other smart plugs while also giving you insight on power draw, usage time, and cost for whatever device is plugged in. It’s a great way to keep an eye on your consumption and identify power-hungry electronics.
Offering similar functionality, installing smart lights allows you to set up a schedule and turn lights on and off remotely using your mobile device.