Save energy with a smart home
When you think of a smart home, you think of all kinds of products that make life easier: opening curtains, switching on lights, playing music, controlling the heating… Bringing more plug-in devices into your home often means that the energy bill will go up. But with smart accessories you can do the opposite: you can make your home more energy efficient! And you can see that on the energy bill. Which energy-saving accessories do you need? You can read that here!
- Energy and water meter
- Smart thermostat
- Smart radiator knob
- Smart lights
- Smart plugs
- Motion sensors
- Smart curtains
Energy meter and water meter
Know what you use by keeping a close eye on your energy costs. This is possible with a smart energy meter, which sends the measurements directly to your smartphone. Some energy suppliers offer an app that allows you to consult the values ​​of your electricity and gas consumption on your iPhone, but this does not always happen in real time. A better solution is to read the values ​​directly from the P1 port, which can be found on recent smart meters.
You can get started with a Raspberry Pi yourself or purchase a ready-made solution in the form of the HomeWizard P1 Energy that we have discussed. For 30 euros you know everything and can see exactly when there were peaks. HomeWizard also has solutions to monitor the energy generation of your solar panels and smart plugs to unmask sneak current.
We recently discussed HomeWizard’s new water meter, which allows you to see exactly how much water you use when showering or doing the dishes.
Save energy with a smart thermostat
With a smart thermostat you can save a lot of energy. Such a thermostat can not only be controlled remotely, but also learns from your behavior. This way the thermostat can take into account when you are or are not at home. This way you can save around 30 percent on your energy bill. We obviously prefer a variant with HomeKit, but you can also choose Google’s Nest or another system.
Save energy with smart radiator valves
With a smart thermostat you can control the temperature in your entire home. It is on, off, or at a certain temperature. But you undoubtedly have rooms that do not need to be heated continuously at all. Consider the guest room or the basement. The guest room only needs to be warm when you have visitors and you only need to heat the cellar slightly if there is a threat of frost. With a thermostat knob or radiator knob you can regulate the temperature very precisely per room. You save because you only heat rooms where necessary. There is a wide range of thermostat knobs to choose from and they are regularly on sale, sometimes in a starter package with thermostat.
Save energy with smart lights
With smart lights you can automate when the lights turn on and off. This way, the lights only come on when necessary and they don’t stay on for too long. The energy-guzzling light bulbs have now been replaced in many households by the much more energy-efficient LED lamps, but even with these economical lamps they still add to your energy bill. The smart home system (such as HomeKit) knows whether you are at home. You can control this with motion sensors, based on your GPS location or by using timers. If you come home every day at 6:00 PM, you can set the lights to turn on.
Smart lamps also come in handy when you are on holiday, because by switching on a lamp in different rooms at irregular times it seems as if you are at home. You don’t have to have all the lights on all the time.
Check your options for smart lamps here.
Save energy with smart plugs
With a smart plug you can control devices remotely. For example, an appliance that consumes a lot of power in standby is the boiler in the kitchen cupboard. It does not have to remain on if you go on holiday for a long time. You can also easily switch devices on and off, which is especially useful for devices that are not ‘connected’ themselves. If you have forgotten to switch off a power guzzler, you can still do this remotely.
It is also useful that with smart plugs you can often monitor energy consumption, so that you can keep an eye on idle consumption. This way you can check which appliances consume a lot in standby and are a drain on your energy bill. The avid user immediately buys an entire power strip, each power point of which can be operated separately.
Save energy with motion sensors
Motion sensors ensure that lights only turn on when necessary. Perfect for the toilet or other areas where you rarely visit and where the light is regularly left on unnecessarily. This way you save energy unnoticed. The light dims automatically and eventually turns off if no movement is detected for a longer period of time. These sensors are often very cheap and pay for themselves in no time.
Smart curtains to save energy
You can open and close the curtains yourself, right? But you are not always at home and closing the curtains can help keep the heat inside. You also have less insight into moments when you are on holiday. So it’s a good idea to also automate your curtains. We have a separate guide on how to control your curtains with HomeKit. From cheap roller blinds from IKEA to customized systems from Luxaflex and Velux. But also solutions to make your existing curtain smart, such as Aqara and SwitchBot.
Want to know more about smart home products? We have an overview of HomeKit products for sale in the Netherlands, so you can make your entire home smart.
