If you live in a country where electricity is cheap, you may not need to worry about energy wastage. Unfortunately, that is not the case in many parts of the world. In Europe, the United States, Canada, the Uk, Australia, and almost all countries of the world, electricity bills are usually a significant part of the cost of living. Worst still, a substantial quantity of the energy being paid for is not used.
There are many devices at home that will start consuming power once they are plugged, whether you use them or not. An example is your TV. One way to stop those devices from using energy is by unplugging them. But that may be a lot of work if you have many of them and you need to plug and unplug now and then. Luckily, those devices can automatically be disconnected from power with a single command on your phone with home automation. If you have Alexa, you may let her do it for you. You can do voice control with Alexa and Google assistant, with a simple command like ”Hey, Alexa , turn off the TV.”
Another way people waste energy is through lighting. The bulb in your driveway is important, but that is when someone is driving through the area. You don’t know when you will need it, but you don’t have to keep it on all the time. You can automate your home such that the light only turns on when someone is there and off when there is nobody. Hence you will only consume energy when you need it and save a lot on the energy bill.
How Home Devices Consume Energy
Luckily, we know a lot about the power rating of our home devices as these devices are rated. Depending on the weather condition in your location, lighting and heating are the major cause of energy usage. As a contractor, it is your responsibility to assist your client to minimize energy consumption. You may need to advise them on the best approach to mark their homes smart. It is not a secret that many home owners do not know the difference between smart bulbs and smart light strips. There are many ways to effectively manage the energy consumption in homes or business places. Let us look at some of the products that can save energy.
Smart Home Products That Can Safe Energy
The following products can help reduce your energy consumption and consequently your energy cost.
- Smart Thermostat
- Smart Water Leak Sensor
- Smart Lighting Bulb
- Smart Garage Door Opener
Now let’s look at how these devices can save energy.
How Smart Home Help in Saving Energy
A home is regarded as a smart home if home automation devices are installed. That means the devices in the home can take action on their own. Suppose your focus is to reduce energy usage. In that case, you can install devices that will enable energy usage only when necessary and disable it when it is not needed. Let’s look at some common ways to achieve this.
- Smart Thermostats
A thermostat is a device that can detect the temperature of a place or substance and regulate the temperature as required. On a cold day, you may need to put on your heater, and if the day is hot, you may want to put on the air conditioner. However, if the day temperature is fine, you may not need your heating system. A smart thermostat can do all these for you. It will regulate the temperature of your home to a fixed value irrespective of the weather condition. If the thermostat is connected to the central system, it can even switch the heating and cooling system off when you are away. This will offer comfort and save energy.
- Smart Water Leak Sensor
Smart water sensors help detect the condition of water in your pipe and possible leakage. If there is water leakage in your home, the sensor will alert you immediately. This will help you act on time and prevent water loss or damage that flooding can cause. The device can also monitor water temperature and warn you if there is a possibility of water in your pipes freezing which may lead to blockage of your pipe.
- Smart Lighting Bulb
If you install smart bulbs in your home, the system will detect movement and turn on the light once someone steps in. It will turn it off immediately after the person goes out. That means you will never be in darkness, yet you won’t consume energy you don’t need.
- Smart Garage Door Opener
Many people have garage door openers, but their openers are not smart. A smart garage door opener will not only open your garage door when it senses your car and closes it when you are out, but it will also inform you about the activities in your garage. With an application on your phone, you can know if your child has taken a car out of the garage when you are away. If you doubt if you close your garage door or not, you can check on your phone anywhere, you are. If you need to close it, you can send instructions from your phone to your garage door irrespective of your distance from home. Now let’s look at how garage door openers help save energy.
Garage door openers use communication between the garage door sensor and the door opener to open the garage door. That means the sensor and other electrical components must be powered on all the time since they don’t know when you will be back. A smart garage door opener prevents this energy wastage by allowing you to switch off the electrical components of the garage door when you are away and switch it on when you are back. With that, your garage door will consume energy only when you are opening or closing it.
Integrated System
You don’t need to have a different control mechanism for each of your home automation devices. You can link all of them to one source. If someone enters your room, the heat, the lighting, and other devices can start working automatically. With that, you will save on the cost of controlling your devices.
How Much Can You Save?
The average cost of electricity in the US is $0.15, and an average home uses about 30Kwh a day. That makes the average electricity bill to be around $135 in a month. Even if you save only 10% of electricity with home automation, you would have saved about $160 in a year. In 20 years, you would have saved more than the cost of home automation. However, home automation has more benefits than cost-saving.
Other Benefits of Home Automation
With home automation, you can be in charge of your home security even when you are miles away. You can respond to your guest remotely control your home gadget from anywhere. Also, reduction of energy usage is good for our environment. Therefore, building a smart home may be your way of helping the environment. If your company is into smart home business, then home automation can be a good source of income for you. Insurance companies can also benefit from home automation as it can effectively prevent problems that may lead to claims.
Best Brand for Saving Energy
After you have concluded making your home smart, you also have to decide which brand is best for you. Below are some manufactures that you can trust their products:
- Siemens
- Schneider Electric
- Control 4
We Can Help You
At Lavinia Smart, we supply wholesalers, resellers, agents, and contractors with smart home devices. We are based in China but supply products to buyers in every part of the world. You don’t have to order your devices from different sellers. We are a one-stop supplier. You can get everything you need from us. All our products are of high quality and with a guarantee.
Take-Away
A smart home will help you save on the cost of electricity. It will also increase the security of your home and enable you to control devices in your home from anywhere. However, it is essential that you buy from a reliable supplier.
References
USA electricity prices, September 2020 | GlobalPetrolPrices.com
Electricity use in homes – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
