5 Best Smart Home Devices To Help You Save on Energy Costs

There are so many good reasons to cut your energy usage and make your home more energy efficient—and luckily, these days, there's a plethora of smart solutions to help you succeed with only minimal effort. As a bonus, not only can smart home tech save you serious money, but it's seriously convenient, too. From floor to ceiling and everywhere in between, here are some solutions to consider installing in your home.

1. Smart Thermostats

More than half of the average American's home energy use goes toward heating and cooling, meaning this is a huge opportunity to be more efficient. One step? Installing a smart thermostat. Not only can you program it to heat and cool to fit your daily routine, but you can also adjust it via smartphone app (useful if you forget to turn the heat down en route to vacation). Plus, it learns your routines and adjust temperatures to match, maximizing efficiency.

A smart thermostat is ideal if you're out of the house a lot—you can make sure the temperature is comfortable when you're ready to return. As a bonus, these tools offer energy usage reports, so you can figure out where your peak energy usage is and how to tweak it even more.

2. Smart Lighting Systems

Forget the overactive motion lights of yore or having to adjust your outdoor light schedule as the seasons come and go. Modern smart lighting systems come packed with motion sensors, scheduling and dimming features—giving you full control to customize your lighting, cut down on electricity use, and still keep your space perfectly lit.

For example, you might have a light above your front door set to turn on right at sunset—no matter what time that actually is—and turn off at 9 p.m., or a motion sensor at the bottom of your walkway that triggers a series of lights all the way up. Naturally, you can also control these with voice assistants and mobile apps for ultimate convenience.

3. Smart HVAC and Ventilation Add-Ons

A smart thermostat can help you save energy no matter your home setup. But for serious efficiency gains, pair it with zoning systems, smart vents and connected sensors to heat and cool only the spaces you need, when you need them.

This setup can be especially worthwhile in larger, multistory homes with higher energy use or uneven temperatures. If you're building a new home, it's the perfect time to incorporate these efficiency systems from day one.

4. Smart Water Heaters and Leak Detection

We often think of energy as the heat and AC and the plugs in the wall—it's easy to forget that those long showers and extra loads of laundry hit your energy bills, too. In fact, water heating makes up between 17% and 32% of your home's overall energy usage. Leaks can be a problem, too—not just for energy use, but for overall home safety.

Smart water heaters help solve these problems by maximizing energy efficiency while also detecting any leaks right away, before they become a major hassle. For the best impact on your bill, pick a heater that pairs smart features such as notifications and remote controls with ultra-efficient technology like a heat pump or on-demand water heating system.

5. Energy Monitoring Systems

To really maximize efficiency, it would be nice to have a detailed understanding of where all that energy is actually going. This is where monitoring systems come in. From whole-home monitors to outlet-level devices, they can give you a clear picture of your home's energy use and where you can make changes for the best possible savings. For instance, you might install one on your electrical panel so it can detect which circuits are using power when.

The advantage of these is knowledge. In fact, homeowners tend to lower their energy usage by nearly 10% in the year after installing a whole-home system, with active users even reaching 20% savings. The catch is they might not be telling you anything you don't already know—and they only help you save energy if you follow up with behavioral changes. So they're best for people who love crunching numbers, or who have a hard time understanding where all that energy disappears to.

Lower Energy Bills Can Be Yours

By installing the right smart home technology, you can gain insight into your home's energy usage—and tools to help you lower it with minimal effort. Getting these devices set up is an investment of time and money in the short term, but one with big benefits as time goes on. Smart tech is a smart strategy that leads to smarter energy use.

Ready to upgrade your home's efficiency? Use Synchrony's Home Improvement Locator at SYFPROS.com to find trusted contractors who specialize in smart home systems—and take advantage of special financing options* to make the investment easier. Smart comfort starts here!