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How To Drastically Reduce Energy Costs Using Home Automation

Automation is simply an old idea given a new coat of paint. Less energy used = more money for you. It could be used with the generic appliances we all have, but that requires us to be in certain places at certain times, and the economic variables are too high to really be able to say for sure if you can save money by physically controlling all the elements which make up your day to day life with 12v actuators at home. Automation removes those variables, replacing them with almost complete control over the home and the machinery within it. Having automated temperature control, for example, allows you to more easily control the temperature of your home, as well as the hot water. The remote control which automation gives you also eliminates the need to be in the proximity of the boiler when this happens, thus also taking away another barrier to truly controlling the amount of money you use for powering your home.

reduce home automation energy costs

There are several simple ways in which home automation can be used to help you and your family save money on your home. Some of these are simply old adages made easier by automation, while others would not be possible without automation. Read on for five simple ways in which to save money:

  • Don’t leave lights on – put everything off when you leave the house. It is surprisingly easy to leave lights on, forget to turn hair straighteners off, not put the music off when you leave the kitchen after making breakfast. Beforehand, this meant that the lights\music\hair products stayed on until either you came home after work or errand running (or a holiday, God forbid), or until you remembered that they had been left on, and rushed home to switch them off. Automation gives homeowners two separate methods of dealing with this situation:
    • There is an ‘all-off’ command which can be sent from the mobile device which controls the automation remotely, which can be used when leaving the house, or at any other point.
    • This command can be slaved to an outside trigger: the door closing, or the alarm being armed are popular.

home automation app

  • Close your curtains – letting sunlight and heat into a room can heat it up very quickly, a fact which can play havoc with your heating and air conditioning systems. Use automatic blinds or curtains – when the room reaches a certain temperature or sunlight level, then a command will be sent to them to close.
  • Heating timing – thermostats can be tricky to try to control, but automating them does make it easier. Use automation to control them remotely, and synch them up with other systems so that they work together.
  • Use fans – fans can make the heating system more efficient, since they move air around. Automating them can allow you to take advantage of the outside temperatures by programming them to come on at certain times.
  • Motion sensors – motion sensors are useful in a number of ways when it comes to saving money through home automation. While there are obvious applications in terms of security cameras and so on (which will save a lot of money if they catch a thief), there are also more everyday uses for them – using motion sensors attached to lights means that lights will stay off unless the sensor sees movement in the room, thus saving money on the lights.

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