Saving money with smart home devices: a beginner’s guide
Smart homes help you to stop wasting energy, and that can help you save money too. Here’s how some of the most common smart home devices can help you save.
Do smart thermostats save money?
Setting your heating to turn on and off at certain times helps keep your home warm without wasting energy. But life’s unpredictable, and you might not be bothered to change your heating programme every time plans change.
A smart thermostat makes those problems disappear, as you can control your heating from your phone. Turn it off once you’ve left. Turn it up on your way home. Some smart thermostats even have a geolocation function, so if you leave home and forget to turn off your heating, they’ll ping you a notification.
Are smart thermostats worth the money? Being able to control your heating from anywhere means it’s rarely on when you don’t need it, which could help you save.
How can smart radiator valves help with the battle of the bills?
With smart radiator valves you can heat rooms individually, giving you much greater control. Use a smart radiator valve to manage the heating in a room you don’t use very often, like your spare room.
But the real savings come when you buy one for every radiator in your home. This gives you room by room control straight from your smartphone and makes it really easy to make sure you’re only heating the parts of your home that you’re using.
How can I save electricity using smart lights?
Not all light bulbs were created equal. Hive lights are 80% more energy efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs. As you can control them in lots of different ways, including with your voice, they’re an easy way to save.
Dimmer lights need less power, so start with dimmable smart bulbs. If you forget to switch them off when you dash out of the door, you can turn them all off by tapping the app.
Like the lights on when you’re away on hols? With smart lights, that doesn’t mean leaving them on the whole time. Programme them to automatically turn on at night and off in the morning so it looks like someone’s there. Hive Lights can get even turn on and off in a random pattern to look even more convincing. Pretty crafty, right?
What about energy saving plugs?
Smart plugs turn all sorts of electronic gadgets into more energy efficient products. There are lots of things in our homes that we forget to turn off, like TVs, lamps, fans and speakers. And they just guzzle our electricity without us realising it. But smart plugs turn them into energy saving products because you can control them from anywhere.
The Energy Savings Trust reckon the average household spends £50-£86 every year on electricity for devices in stand-by mode. Smart plugs help keep that money in your pocket.
Most smart plugs cost less the more you buy. So you can then group all your tech stuff together and tap the app once to turn everything off properly.
What other low-cost smart home devices can help me around the home?
Smart motion sensors are a great way to save money without you even thinking about it. Position a Hive Motion Sensor in your hallway, and use Hive Actions to link it up to your lights and heating. So when you go out everything will automatically turn off. It’s a simple way to make sure things are only on when you need them.
Find out more about how to save on your electric bill at Discover Hive.
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