The smartphones we carry around in our pockets are powerful tools that make life easier, and every advancement in technology enhances their impressive capabilities. The next big step forward for this type of “smart” technology is into our homes.
Smart home systems, with their extensive automation, sensing, and remote control capabilities, offer a lot of environmental benefits. If you’re not yet sure why this matters, consider that making your home more efficient will save you money as well as affect your carbon footprint. There are many ways to go about reducing your carbon footprint, and implementing smart tech in your home is a good place to start.
Here are is your smart home guide and a few environmental benefits from integrating smart technology into your home.
Temperature Regulation
Smart thermostats are programmable, but the most advanced ones go beyond that, actually sensing what’s happening in the environment and adjusting to your behaviors. Simple programmable ones will help you save energy by kicking on the heat or AC only when you need it and adjusting the temperature when no one’s home. They offer more advanced programming than previous generations of programmable thermostats so you can set them for both weekday and weekend schedules, and you can also control them from your phone as plans change.
Home sensors
Speaking of sensors, there are various types of smart home sensors available for almost anything imaginable, such as light and temperature sensors, which will turn off lights and thermostats in case you forget. Leak sensors can be placed in out-of-the-way locations to catch leaks before you’d see evidence of them, saving you money in repairs and preventing water from being wasted.
Lighting systems
Smart lighting has a couple of components: the bulbs themselves and networked systems that provide automated or remote control of the lights being on or off. Start with smart lighting by replacing regular bulbs with something like Philips Hue bulbs, They’re LED, which is much more energy-efficient, and offer remote control. Many of them offer temperature ranges, as well, so you can adjust the lighting environment as your needs change throughout the day. What’s more, LED bulbs are mercury-free; even efficient CFLs still contain this hazardous substance.