Peppered among the latest trends in home design and construction – somewhere between using the outdoors to influence your interior décor and incorporating eye-catching, bold accent walls – the use of Smart Home technology is gaining steam for more reasons than one. While it can be a state-of-the-art answer to your home’s security and a wonderful option for streaming the soundtrack of your life through multiple rooms of the home, employing smart home technology can also prove an energy efficient solution. That’s not only good for your wallet… it’s good for the environment! Need a little more convincing?  Here are three reasons why having a smart home of smart for the environment…

Environmental Hazard Monitoring

Low temperature sensors and water leak sensors in key areas of your home – such as your basement, can warn you when the weather might prove a threat to the integrity of your water pipes and can alert you when a leak has been detected. By receiving these up to the minute warnings, you can mitigate a solution quickly – minimizing both the loss of water to flooding and potentially costly damage to your home. There are even Wi-Fi-enabled automatic water shutoff devices that you can incorporate to your smart home technology design.

Did you know…?

According to insurance industry research:

• 14,000 people in the U.S. experience a water damage emergency at home or work each day – they could fill all the seats at Infinite Energy Arena – with 1,000 more waiting outside
• 98% of basements in the U.S. will experience water damage during their lifespan
• $6,965 is the average cost of a home water damage insurance claim, with $2.5B in costs to insurance companies for water damage and mold in the U.S. each year

Perhaps the most important feature of most Environmental Hazard Monitoring systems is the carbon monoxide detection component – which can warn you of toxic levels of CO so you can get your family members to safety. In addition to being a threat to your well-being, carbon monoxide is a major factor in contaminating the Earth’s atmosphere.

Did you know…?

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), approximately 50,000 people visit the emergency room, and 430 people die due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

Home Automation

Perhaps one of the most alluring aspects of smart home technology is the ability to control many of the systems of your home through a mobile phone or tablet. Not only does this capability offer the convenience we crave, but it also provides the peace of mind we all need. Did you leave on vacation and forget to turn down the temperature on your HVAC system so its wasting energy to heat an empty home?  No worries! Simply log in to your smart home technology provider and dial that heat down. Did you leave a few lights on when you left your home for a dinner date? Thanks to home automation features of smart home technology, you can turn them off with a click of your mobile phone. If you haven’t made the switch to LED bulbs, it’s particularly important that you turn off the lights when you leave your home – or even a room for more than 15 minutes. According to the Department of Energy, 90% of the energy used by incandescent bulbs is given off as heat, and only about 10% results in light.

Energy Management

In addition to cost savings for you, the energy management feature of smart home technology helps minimize your home’s carbon footprint on the environment. In addition to controlling your thermostat remotely, you can also create a customized schedule. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, you can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 7°-10°F for 8 hours a day from its normal setting. For example, during the winter, you may set the thermostat at 68° while the members of your household are awake and then scheduling it to drop to 60° overnight while everyone is sleeping. The DOE also recommends setting your thermostat at 78° during the summer months when you’re away, and then dial it up while you’re away from home or sleeping.

Additional benefits of smart home technology include a wellness solution for elderly parents who may benefit from remote video monitoring and the ability to call for help with voice control or the click of a button, security camera and burglary alarm system, fire and smoke detection, entertainment control and increased home values. For even more environmental tips and suggestions, be sure to check www.GwinnettCB.org often for new eco-friendly blogs from your friends at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful!

Sources: https://www.waterdamagedefense.com/pages/water-damage-by-the-numbers
https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/carbonmonoxide/index.html
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/save-electricity-and-fuel/lighting-choices-save-you-money/when-turn-your-lights
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/thermostats