Winter has arrived. And with it comes a spike in your heating bills. But new smart home technology can not only keep Old Man Winter at bay, but also save you money. Here are four smart home devices that can help save you big money this winter.
Smart Thermostats — Surely by now you have heard about smart thermostats and their power to save you money. Winter is when they really shine. Take for instance the Nest Learning Thermostat generation 3, which is programed to learn your incoming and outgoing patterns to efficiently heat ayour home. So instead of having to run your heater all day so you come home to a nice warm house the Nest will learn your patterns all by itself and adjust accordingly.
Motorized Shades – More so than wasting heat from your HVAC system, the loss of heat that is already inside your home may be an even bigger cost this winter. Motorized shades or smart shades are a great way to trap in the heat that you’ve generated during those cold winter months, extending those precious (and expensive) kilowatt hours you spent on heating. On the flip side, south-facing motorized shades can be set to rise to allow thermal energy from the low-in-the-ski winter sun to heat your home.
Water leak and freeze detectors — One way to save money in the winter is to avoid potential catastrophe. Frozen pipes and faucet leaks can be big money sinks either when they happen or even more so when you’ve given them time to develop. So water leak and freeze detectors, like the Honeywell Lyric, can be placed near potential problem areas like the water heater or the washing machine. The units communicate via Wi-Fi and use a simple app to alert you if a leak or frozen pipe is detected.
Smart HVAC Vents – New sensor technology is allowing HVAC registers to minimize wasted heat during winter in areas of the home where no one is. For example, why are you heating the guest bedroom in the winter when no one is staying there? Odds are that the HVAC ducts are connected to the same zone as the master bedroom where you are sleeping, so it’s easy for a homeowner to feel helpless. But closing the registers in the guest bedroom can mess up the air flow of an HVAC system, which is properly balanced between cold air returns and vents. A new smart ducting system from HiberSense adds sensors for temperature, pressure, humidity, motion, indoor air quality and ambient light to your home’s heating vents, bringing system protection and comfort.
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