The potential for energy savings from Home Automation

Multifunction Energy Meter

Home automation’s application can be extended beyond just security monitoring or programming the thermostat. Smart network advocates have for a long time seen home automation as a key to successful energy management programmes

Fox Business mentions that energy savings and eco-friendly house features are driving them to consider automation. The change to “smart meters” was promoted as a way of empowering consumers by giving them better information about how and when they’re using energy,.  That’s why many home automation firms are designing systems that interact with the smart meter, and integrate the data that it provides.

Device Evolution for Energy Savings

Smart thermostats that can detect when you’re awake or moving around in the house and alter the temperature to your pre-desired settings automatically.- it requires hundreds of adjustments a day for a thermostat to be as effective as possible and deliver as much cost saving as possible.

LED technology uses approximately 1/6th of the energy of traditional light bulbs.  There are now controllable LED lighting products on the market which have a full colour spectrum and can save money while delivering optimal lighting conditions.

LG has launched the Smart Refrigerator at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2013. This fridge is designed to communicate with your home Wi-Fi and other smart devices.  As food is purchased and then placed inside, this refrigerator will inventory it – tracking expiration dates so you can ensure that all your food gets eaten on time. It also synchronizes with your phone and can create mobile grocery lists on demand.

Our current Energy Saving Devices

Energy Management & Remote Healthcare

Introducing bigger ideas like energy management and remote healthcare into home automation will be challenging.  Matt Eyring, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Vivint IncEyring said. “Anytime you introduce highly regulated, multi-party payments, it’s hard to figure out how it will work.”

The difficulty of developing more complex business models has held up the advance of home automation in the past.  Although technology and standards have caught up with the vision of a truly connected home, the utilities and healthcare services are yet to see the profits in it for them. That could slow further development of home automation beyond the standard, self-contained home security and thermostat management model.