Contrary to what you might think, a smart home can actually be significantly conducive towards environmental sustainability, while also saving you money. Smart home automations, until recently, were assumed to be unaffordable and only reserved for the most select of the upper echelon. As we learn more about smart home products and their capabilities, it’s becoming apparent that in fact investing in a smart home ecosystem can in the long term save you money and even better, be beneficial for the environment.

We’d love to outline a few ways that smart home products can be both good for mother nature and your bank account!

HEATING AND COOLING: One of the biggest tolls on the environment (and the utility budget) are poorly regulated heating and cooling systems. While yes you can set a thermostat in your home, it can really only go so far when controlling your internal temperature. With a smart thermostat you can control your heating and cooling from wherever you are. If you were rushing to get out of the house by a certain time and forgot to turn your system off, you could remotely turn down, or off your your system.  You could also take your smart thermostat even further and have set temperatures for each room in the house, prioritizing the most lived in rooms. This works particularly well for underfloor heating systems.

WINDOW TREATMENTS: Within the realm of heating and cooling are window treatments and insulation. Your windows are your biggest source of heat loss/gain within your property. By installing sufficient window treatments, you can maximize your insulation potential and minimize the need for excessive heating or cooling. Window treatments can include automated shades or blinds to work within the smart ecosystem of your home.

LIGHTING: Electricity has a huge international carbon footprint and research has shown that lighting in particular contributes to up to 17% of electricity’s emissions per annum.  While this is a confronting number, the reassuring news is there is a lot you can do with your smart home set up to lessen your impact. Lighting can also be controlled from your smart phone, so if there is anything in your home that you’ve forgotten to turn off when leaving the house, the remote control via your smart home app has got you covered. There are also lights within the home that are used infrequently. For example how many times do you pop into the walk in wardrobe and forget to turn the lights off. Or go into the laundry to empty the washing machine and only realize the next time you go in there that the lights were left on. For these sorts of scenarios there’s the option of a lighting sensor. This means the lights will turn on and off as you enter and leave the room! No more wasting unnecessary energy (or money)!

IRRIGATION: Scheduled and automated irrigation systems can be extremely effective in water conservation, enabling your home or property to save from 30%-50% on it’s annual usage. For example you can integrate a soil moisture sensor into your irrigation system that will intuitively indicate whether your garden actually needs watering or not. Weather based controllers can efficiently monitor local weather conditions and be in the know about when it’s next expected to rain and when your wilted vegetables might need another drink.

Smart technology really is the way of the future and smart home automations are no exception. Imagine a more intelligent, intuitive & healthier future!

Now that’s pretty smart!