In an era of conscious consumption, energy efficient homes have fast become all the rage. Along with rising energy costs, it’s clear that the propensity towards smart homes has increased exponentially.
While comfort and convenience are major drivers towards this type of technology, it’s, nonetheless, clear that it is the ability to drive down utility costs that really seals its status as a must-have.
If you’re a little confused about how this all works, our blog post takes a look at how these types of devices and solutions help homeowners stay on the green side. Stay woke!
Cost-efficient comfort
With the increasing hustle and bustle of everyday life, the importance of comfort within our homes has only become more pronounced. Given our innate need to stay comfortable at all times, how can home maintenance costs be kept low? Besides, who wants to come back home to a cold house in the middle of winter? Or wait for your home to cool in the peak of summer?
With smart home technology, compromising on your comforts in order to minimise costs is a thing of the past.
Given that smart thermostats and air conditioning can now be controlled remotely through your smartphone, comfort and cost-efficiency go hand-in-hand. These are in fact among the most popular and commonly sought-after smart home products, undoubtedly owing to its superior capability to slash a home’s energy costs.
Optimised energy practices
Given the increasing sophistication of smart home technology, products such as the Home Insights device now provides users with keen insights in to a home’s energy consumption patterns.
Such data provides an understanding of how much energy you consume in a day, which devices consume the most electricity, which part of the day you use more electricity, and the like. By having this kind of information in hand, homeowners are empowered take measures necessary to prevent wasteful usage and expenditure. In the long run, this can even lead to inherently energy conservative practices, which can only mean good things for everyday life and its accompanying activity.
Goodbye, phantom energy
While this isn’t something straight out of your average horror movie, it is, nonetheless, no less insidious.
Phantom energy is something like idle currents, standby energy, vampire energy (?!), or any other term you prefer. It usually takes place when you fail to turn off the power flowing to your home devices from an electrical outlet. Certain sources show that phantom energy accounts for approximately 15% of the total energy consumed by your plugged appliances.
According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, standby power accounts for 10% of a household’s electrical use; clearly showing just how substantial this drainage amounts to. Given the cost ramification of phantom energy, certain smart devices tackle this particular problem head-on; automatically sensing unnecessary power drainage and reducing or stopping this flow of electricity.
Key takeaways
Given the widespread use of cutting-edge technology in the present age, energy efficient homes are no longer a luxury restricted to the wealthier or the more technological savvy segments of society. Increasingly accessible smart home devices and solutions ensure that prohibitive costs or overly-complicated devices don't prevent the rising adoption of such products in society. Overall, this has lead to optimised energy consumption and lowered utility costs, much to the delight of satisfied customers.
At a time where going green has never been more important, smart homes are the answer to efficient energy usage and practices. Incorporating efficiency by design, you can’t go wrong with a smart home and smarter consumption.
