Making Your Home A Smart Home //

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Winter is right around the corner. And fall rolled into town with full force this weekend. It got downright C-O-L-D! We pay close attention to our energy consumption year-round, but we pay extra attention during the winter.

Need help thinking of ways to make your home smarter and more convenient? Here’s a mixture of energy efficient and smart home ideas for you!

1. Install a smart thermostat, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat. Smart thermostats offer you climate control, the convenience of programming away from home, and more.

2. Your living room typically has multiple active light sources available. Make sure your lighting is energy efficient by switching traditional bulbs to CFLs or LEDs. We switched all of the bulbs in our house out for CFLs/LEDs. Sure, they were expensive up front, but are a huge savings in the long run.

3. Replace your old, inefficient appliances with new, efficient, Energy Star® appliances. Old appliances tend to run inefficiently. And sure, it’s not exactly an inexpensive feat, but when you have the opportunity to switch them out, go for HE/Energy Star appliances.

4. Replace the showerhead in your bathroom with low flow showerheads. These showerheads regulate the flow of water, assuring you a more efficient shower. Plus, those rain-like shower heads are incredible.

5. Make sure you have a strong Wi-fi signal from your smart thermostat and smart devices. Because you can remotely control your smart thermostat via the internet, periodically check the signal strength in the network settings on the thermostat’s control screen.

6. Installing light dimmers can save cut your electricity use 40% over time and make your lightbulbs last 20 times longer.

7. Use an automated pet food and water dispensing system so you don’t have to worry about feeding your pets if you happen to be away from home for longer than you had intended.

8. Planting trees in optimal spots on your property will provide shade during the warmer months making your system work less hard to cool your home down.

9. Even when your appliances are turned off, they are still using electricity. Use smart power strips to combat energy vampires.

10. Use a smart sprinkler to control your sprinkler system from your smartphone. They adjust setting based on weather and time of day so you don’t have to.

Want a chance to win one of FIVE Nest Learning Thermostats?? Enter HERE!

 

Thank you Direct Energy for helping me learn how to make my home more energy efficient!