How smart technology contributes to the efficiency of a green home

Eco friendly houses are designed to be energy-efficient. Every element of their construction exists to make the most of resources such as power and water. And when combined with elements of smart technology, eco friendly homes maximise energy-efficiency and save homeowners even more on their monthly running costs.

Here’s how smart home technology turns a green and eco friendly lifestyle home into a green smart home:

Monitoring and managing energy usage

When not living in a green smart home, the only way to keep track of energy usage is looking at our monthly electricity bill. And seeing it increase at certain times of the year would indicate more power was used to run the home during that time. For example, in winter the higher electricity bill is attributed to using heaters to keep warm.

When adopting some energy saving habits, such as turning off the lights in rooms that aren’t occupied, we then wait to see what effect it has on the electricity bill. Or perform an energy audit on all the appliances in the home to work out how much is spent on heating, lighting, cooking and cleaning.

All these methods are helpful, though they cannot give the detailed information really needed to get a handle on our power usage. And if we want to achieve maximum energy-efficiency, it would take months of trial and error to find the most effective techniques for reducing our energy consumption.

By contrast, smart home technology constantly monitors the energy used to light, heat and run a home. We have instant access to information on how much power our home is using at that instant. And, we’re able to look back over days, weeks and months of data to identify patterns. Without smart home technology, it would be impossible to gather this information and have it readily available at our fingertips.

This information gathering, by the way, also applies to the usage of harvested rainwater.

The real benefit of monitoring our power consumption is what we can do with it. Information is empowering, and with large amounts of data it’s easier to manage and make decisions about our energy usage – accurately budgeting our expenses well into the future and calculating precisely how much energy we’ll save by implementing new features, such as a photovoltaic solar power system.

We’ll immediately see the effect our new green and eco friendly living habits have on our power consumption. Smart technology allows setting the temperature for individual zones within the home. During the summer, the temperature is turned lower so the home is cool and comfortable. Within 24-72 hours, it will have reached the desired temperature. The adjustment in the required temperature is immediately visible via the home’s energy consumption system. Adjusting the temperature up or down by a degree or so will immediately reflect on the electricity usage, and the same will occur in the winter. The efficiency is immediately evident.

Green and eco friendly living is luxurious and with the addition of a smart home technology system, it is possible for homeowners to enjoy luxury using energy and money efficiently. Not only is the Hydronics Radiant heating and cooling system remarkably efficient at maintaining a comfortable home environment throughout the year, the smart home technology makes it easy to monitor power consumption and manage efficiency and costs.

Manage everything from the computer or smartphone

No matter where we are, we can access the smart home technology system from our smartphone app, computer or laptop. And that means we are able to adjust the Hydronics Radiant heating and cooling system, or monitor our electricity usage even when not at home.

Smart home technology isn’t complex. The system is simple to navigate and allows checking on our home no matter where in the world we are. We don’t have to be home to change settings, we easily do it from our smartphone while on the go.

And there’s another example of how smart home technology contributes to the energy-efficiency of a green and eco friendly home. Because we have access to the system whenever needed, we stay informed of our energy consumption and are able to take the necessary steps.

With a few taps of our smartphone, we log in, check our power consumption and make the necessary changes. This technology not only helps us run an energy-efficient home, it saves us time and effort too.

Living green and eco friendly is a way of life. It’s about more than doing the right thing for the environment; it’s about taking control of the resources we use every day, and finding ways to use them efficiently. We’re thus not taking our electricity usage and its associated costs for granted.

After all, reducing our power consumption is a good way to cut down on our monthly expenses. We don’t have to sacrifice our comfort and convenience to keep our electricity bill low. The addition of smart home technology to eco friendly homes means that energy-efficiency can be maximised. Greater savings make sense for homeowners and the environment. The idea of constructing homes with a combination of green and eco friendly living features and smart technology is the future of housing developments all over the world. And that’s because they both offer homeowners the ability to manage the resources they use, without giving up modern conveniences. The smart home technology simply offers us the ability to manage power consumption in our home efficiently, conveniently and from wherever we are.

Eco friendly homes have become more than simply ‘green’ homes, thanks to the addition of smart home technology. As people have become aware of how easy it is to monitor and manage their power consumption, they rely on smart home technology to run their homes efficiently. Monitoring and managing the power consumption from our smartphone has become a natural phenomenon. We’re always connected to our green smart home, making our lives comfortable and cost efficient.