Is your smart home too power-hungry?
Every day new always-connected gadgets arrive on the market and invade our homes. Whether we want it or not, our homes are turning into smart homes. But how much do these comforts weigh on your electricity bill?
Are you just embarking on a smart home adventure? If you're new to the sport, I'd like to give you some advice: be careful, creating a smart home is addictive!
Some of the daredevils who have already faced the first hurdles in transforming a normal home into a smart one, will surely have asked themselves a question that recently popped into my mind: how much does a smart home consume?
The question may seem trivial, but there are a lot of variables to take into account. Are we talking about consumption at rest or during use of the equipment? And above all, what smart gadgets are we talking about? Smart speakers? Smart bulbs? There truly are a lot of variables.
So what I want to ask you is: are you interested in the consumption of these smart/IoT devices or do you think they don't affect your monthly bill that much?
Let us know by participating in our poll or commenting below if you have any further specific questions related to the topic!
I pay for my router internet and wifi anyway. Why not get the most convience I can from the service.
Don't have a smart home. Why do I need one?
While I think the energy used by smart home devices is minimal compared to what they may save. My biggest concern is that when a company goes under, so might all of its devices. As a former BSR X-10 user, when they shut down their server, much functionality was lost. People tell me these companies will be around forever, not to worry. Westinghouse, RCA, Columbia Broadcasting etc.... GE and Radio Shack used to support x-10 but not anymore. So far with Smart Home devices there is little new since the 1980's in functionality (no need for color changing bulbs). Any thoughts on reducing obsolescence?
Excellent point! If smart devices were built to be compatible then as long as there was an OS that could run the drivers there would be no problem. But every company wants to lock you into their own individual "ecosystem" so you can only use their devices. I suspect eventually we'll get something equivalent to the google play store but for smart devices, where someone that doesn't make devices manages security etc. and consumers go through them to get trusted stuff that works. Until then, let the buyer beware.
Smart home technologies if used properly will reduce energy bill. You can use control system to monitor energy usage and only turn on your heating or lighting where it is needed. The company I work for AVITHA - AV, IT & Home automation installs these systems. So far we have not heard anyone complaining about energy usage.
The current consumption of the various sensors is extremely small, they can be powered either by a very small solar cell or even by the surrounding electromagnetic field. Consumption is small because the data transfer rate is small, and there is no need for large quantities to be transmitted.