5 ways living smart can save you and your home energy.

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5 ways living smart can save you and your home energy.

By emily.bailey

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Energy savings

With these tips, you can cash in on smart home technology for energy savings and beat the prices you’ve paid for electricity. This Earth-friendly approach to living is a win-win for you, your home and the environment.

 

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Like many homeowners, you may be searching for creative ways to be more frugal with utility spending. With smart home devices, you can make your house more energy efficient, lower your energy bill, and make life a bit easier with hands-free voice control. With these tips, you can cash in on smart home technology for energy savings and beat the prices you’ve paid for electricity. This Earth-friendly approach to living is a win-win for you, your home and the environment.
Man cooking in kitchen while using Alexa smart speaker.

Turn down the thermostat before leaving home

Heating and cooling your house require the most energy at any given time. A programmable or smart thermostat makes it easier to adjust your indoor climate to weather changes or who is at home and save on electric bills. Energy.gov estimates turning down your thermostat by 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day could save you up to 10 percent annually on heating and cooling costs. Before you leave for the office or a family outing, turn down your thermostat for a lower energy bill.

 

Don’t want to come home to a cold or hot house? With a smart thermostat, start warming or cooling your home at the push of a smartphone button before you even leave the office. If you’re living even smarter, program your thermostat to regularly adjust automatically.

Light the way to smart living and saving money

Smart home systems often feature voice assistance for actions like controlling your lights hands-free. This helps ensure your lights turn on and off at your command, whether triggered by a special routine phrase or only sometimes. When you limit usage in your home, you notice how much energy may have been wasted before you were living smart.

 

Saving money on electricity goes way beyond simple voice commands or home automation. Try installing light sensors to turn your lamps on only when someone is in the room. Similarly, you may also add geo-fencing, which automatically turns lights on and off based on where a connected smartphone is.

Kitchen appliances can be smart, too

Some smart ovens are faster to preheat than traditional models. Program the cooking process based on what you’re making and even monitor your dish’s progress using built-in sensors. All of these features can translate to less wasted energy.

 

If you think a refrigerator doesn’t need to be smart, think again. On the most basic level, making sure the door closes properly helps to conserve energy. A fridge that notifies you if its door is open also saves you money. So does the ability to see inside the refrigerator without opening the door. A refrigerator that automatically knows when to reduce its energy consumption during the power grid’s peak hours while still keeping your frozen foods frozen, yes, saves you money.

 

But what about conserving energy of a different kind? Some smart features or appliances might not reduce your financial expenses quite so obviously, but if they make your life easier, that seems like pretty good savings to us.

Smart locks help you save money, energy and time

Smart locks like the Schlage Encode Plus™ Smart WiFi Deadbolt and Schlage Connect™ Smart Deadbolt make everyday life more convenient, enabling you to share access codes with family, friends, handymen, dogwalkers and others you may want to grant temporary access. No more keeping track of spare keys. No more rushing home from work to let someone in—just do it from a compatible app on your smartphone.

 

When you’re ready to add more convenience, make your smart lock part of a home automation sequence. Try setting up a Welcome Home routine, for example. When you unlock your door, the lights turn on and your thermostat goes up. Or maybe you’re leaning toward a Goodnight routine that locks your doors and powers down electronics while you relax in bed.

 

You never have to wonder if you locked a door when you can check its status remotely from your smartphone. And when you trust in Schlage, you can be confident in the quality of your door locks. All of our smart deadbolts earned the highest marks from BHMA, so you know your home is safe and that your lock will continue to function correctly throughout its lifespan. Invest in hardware that stands up to the elements over time without losing its style.

Robotic vacuums clean for you

Make it a clean sweep of convenience with a robotic vacuum. Many can now be scheduled to run using smartphone apps and voice control. There’s even one that will take photos and videos when it senses movement in the room. Consumer Reports cautions that these vacuums don’t have the same suction power as a standard upright vacuum and their effectiveness depends on your type of flooring, but they can surely help with everyday cleaning maintenance.

 

Adding home automation routines could be your next best solution for going green and saving the most money on electricity. To be even more energy efficient, sync your smart speakers, refrigerator and all other IoT devices. Find how Schlage can bring more simplicity to your life at Schlage.com or on Twitter and Facebook. Trust your home to Schlage.