How setting up a smart home can reduce your electricity and water bills

Setting up a smart home not only offers convenience, added security and an easier way of accessing content and information – but it can also save you money.

Smart home products have become extremely popular in Australia and allow customers to monitor and control their devices remotely.

And with the strong wi-fi networks we built during the COVID pandemic, adding smart products to your network and building that ecosystem has never been easier.

But a favourable by-product of having a smart home is being able to reduce your power and water bills.

The connectivity and control smart home devices provide makes it easier to run your home more efficiently.

SAVE POWER

There are several ways customers can reduce their electricity bill if they have smart lights and smart switches in their home.

For a start, smart bulbs are LED and use 75 per cent, less power than a regular globe and can last up to 10 times longer. That’s a cost saving right there.

An example is the Laser Smart 10W LED Light Bulbs $10 (White) or $15 (RGB).

But even being able to do little things like dimming the lights will save you power as well.

Turning lights on and off in your home can be done manually or by using a smart home app.

Connected lights can be turned on and off at the same time or can turn on only when we need them and turn off again once we’ve left the room.

The addition of sensors for both movement and windows and doors sensors can also trigger when a light is turned on and turned off again.

Gone are the days of forgetting to turn off the lights and racking up a higher electricity bill.

A smart switch, like the and the Laser Smart Wi-Fi Plug with Dual USB and Power Monitor ($29), can also save you plenty of dollars when connected to frequently used products and appliances.

And being connected to a smart switch means the product can not only be turned on and off from anywhere but it can be also scheduled to turn on and off at designated times.

For example, you might have a fan connected to a smart switch with instructions to only turn on when it reaches a certain temperature or at a certain time of the day.

And the same fan could also be instructed to turn off when the temperature gets down to a certain level once again.

Scheduling your product to run with the smart switch also gives you the choice of using essential items like a washing machine or a pool pump, at off-peak electricity times including during the night or in the middle of the day.

This means you’ll only be using your electrical appliances when you need them and when electricity is at its cheapest rate rather than running them constantly and adding to your electricity bill.

The same thing goes for your lights.

You may want your lights to turn on at certain times or when you enter your home.

And they can just as easily be turned off at designated times for example when you go to bed or when you leave your home.

The addition of motion sensors and window and door sensors makes it possible to set up a smart routine to activate certain products and smart lights when you enter a room and turn it off again when you leave.

TEMPERATURE CONTROL

Whether it’s cooling our homes in summer or heating them up in winter, getting our homes to a comfortable temperature can be quite a costly exercise.

With a smart home and certain products, like smart thermostats and smart roller shade and blind controllers, it becomes a lot easier to control the temperature in your home and avoid costly electricity use regulating your home’s temperature.

 

For example, you can use a smart switch to turn on a fan in your room rather than activating the air conditioning for the whole home.

Another scenario is turning on your home’s heating or cooling before you get home to reach that ideal temperature before you get home rather than blasting it and keeping it on after you arrive.

Another way of controlling the temperature in your home is by opening and closing blinds and curtains.

A smart roller shade driver like the Aqara E1 can activate automatically to shut out the bright sunlight and keep temperatures down in your home.

The more heat your blinds and curtains can block the less work your air conditioner has to do.

And these will even work when you’re not home either controlled remotely through the companion app or set to automatically engage at certain temperatures throughout the day.

SAVE WATER

There are a range of smart home products designed to help control and monitor our water usage.

A smart water controller like the Connect Water Controller ($179.95) and Eve Aqua Smart Water Controller ($199) gives users precise control of how long they want their water to run and schedule when they want to water the garden or activate the sprinklers and turn them off again.

It’s not uncommon to see water running through sprinklers and hoses longer than we intended.

Now you can take full control and even choose how much water you want to use.

This means you can maintain your lawn or garden intelligently and ensure your plants receive the right amount of water from anywhere and anytime.

Users can set smart schedules and timers to not only keep your plants healthy, but also minimize water wastage.

The Connect SmartHome app can also automate watering based on your local weather conditions so you’re not wasting your water on a rainy day.