4 Smart Home Upgrades to Improve Your Energy Efficiency

The home of today is becoming unlike any other home in the past. How energy-efficient will the home of tomorrow be?

Only time will tell.

For now, learn about the main smart home upgrades to improve your energy efficiency.

By the way, we’ll skip the talk about smart thermostats (just remember they’re probably the biggest smart energy saver) because you’ve heard about those many times on this blog already:

1. Timers, Motion Detectors, and Dimmers

Granted, because of LEDs, lighting doesn’t cost nearly as much as it used to. Now, you can drive down the cost of lighting even further with a few simple updates.

Add motion detectors to your garage, hallways, and bathrooms. Never worry about forgetting to turn the lights off again.

Dimmer switches work well for your living room or dining room. You can even preset brightness levels to your liking.

Timers work best for porch and outdoor lights, which you may use for security or just to celebrate the holidays.

2. Automatic Irrigation

Water bills can easily get out of control when it gets dry. But that’s no problem with an automatic irrigation system that monitors the local weather and waters your lawn accordingly.

These systems even let you monitor your water usage.

You can also program schedules if you prefer.

3. Smart Appliances

Yes. They have a cost up-front. However, if you’re going to replace your current appliances anyway why not invest in smart ones?

You’ll get better energy savings over the life of your appliance that you didn’t in the past.

Many also come with “smart grid” capabilities. That means they can have a two-way relationship with your electricity provider, if they support such technology.

The benefit of that is that your electricity company may recognize your appliance and send it electricity made from renewable resources.

Or, it may work together with your appliance to minimize your electricity usage and save you more money.

4. Smart Blinds

How can smart blinds possibly save you electricity?

Simply program them to go down during the day when the sun shines its brightest (which heats the inside of your home and causes your AC to run more).

During the winter, program them to stay open so the sun can shine in and help heat your home.

Having a truly smart home can give you an even bigger increase in your energy savings.

Which of these sounds most useful to install at your home?