Do smart home devices save you money? I presently rely on good habits and vigilance to turn off lights and unplug chargers or devices on standby. But I had a tado˚ system installed in my previous house that automatically did clever things like turn off the heating when no one was in the house and warm it to a specified temperature when they came home. I could have gone the whole hog and set up smart thermostats for each room or lights that turned off themselves. Here in Devon, I don’t even have a smart meter.
My interest is in success and disappointment. The tado˚ system disappointed me because although I could manage things on my smartphone, my wife resolutely would not and tended to use its manual thermostat to adjust settings.
My smart meter there did show when appliances were using lots of energy, which was helpful. But it might have led to some stress or strife during the present cost of living crisis! Is it better not to know sometimes?
I could also think about solar panels or a heat pump. But that is another subject. Here I am interested in smart home devices and systems to manage and monitor energy use within the house. I am a tech guy and I want to understand what works so that I can help others. Would anyone who has installed such home energy management tech say whether they have indeed seen a reduction in their bills? Or, given that the tide of energy expense is mostly rising, can anyone quantify their reduction in energy use? I asked ChatGPT but mostly got leads to upbeat reviews trying to sell me something. Thanks for any thoughts or comments.