Smart Home devices to help save energy

How can you use smart home devices to help save energy?

Ever since this energy crisis started, I began to look into ways to help save energy. Smart devices are a fantastic way, and I want to show you how I learned about this, and what I’m doing to try and reduce my energy bills.

The YouTube #energychallenge

I came across the #energychallenge thanks to my favourite smart home YouTuber Paul Hibbert. Below, you can see the video I watched, and I learned a lot from him.

If you search for the hashtag, you will see other smart home channels who are doing similar things.

Smart bulbs can help save energy

Smart bulbs are one way to save energy. You may be wondering how this is possible. Don’t they always stay on? Yes, they are generally kept on at all times to connect to the internet. However, the energy usage from this is minimal. They use less energy when turned on full compared to traditional LED bulbs, and they can save more energy by dimming the brightness.

Most of my bulbs are set to 50% around 90% of the time. This means I’ll be saving slightly more money because they’re not as bright as a normal LED bulb, but they’re still bright enough for me to see and do every day things at night.

I mostly use Phillips Hue bulbs, but also have some bulbs from Hey! (Buy from Hey, and get 20% off your first order).

Smart plugs and smart power bars to help save energy

Here’s a smart device that doesn’t save money… Echo devices, Nest Homes and HomePod speakers. They are always on and listening for their wake-word. Paul above can tell you how much energy some of these devices use while they’re on standby.

Something you can do to minimise the cost of these devices is by switching them off when you’re not using them. You can smart plugs and smart power bars to turn them off on a schedule like when you’re in bed. You can also use them to turn these devices off when you’re out somewhere.

They can also be used to turn off so many more devices on standby. I use Hey smart plugs and power bars, and you can use this link to get 20% off your first order. They connect to Echo and Nest devices, but they won’t connect to HomeKit.

I love these plugs, because I can schedule all the devices that normally stay on standby while I’m sleeping. If I’m going out, then I can switch them off with my phone or smart speaker devices. Also, the Hey plugs can show you how much the device that’s plugged into it is using.

Smart Thermostats for heating water

Paul Hibbert mentions Tado smart thermostats which can help save energy with your boiler. The thermostat is costly, but they sometimes have a deal every now and then. If you can afford one, then I highly recommend it.

Tado also has thermostats for individual radiators. This means it can help save energy in every room. These are expensive and add up if you have a large house. But if you can afford them, then I highly recommend the Tado ecosystem.

Conclusion

These are my thoughts and ideas on how you can save energy. Have you got any thoughts, ideas or personal experiences? Let us know in the comments below!

Where to go next?

Read my article on Making it into The Times (again) on my personal thoughts on the current energy crisis.