Automating your lights, shades, and other systems can greatly increase your energy efficiency while reducing your utility costs

There are many reasons to make your home more environmentally friendly. Using less energy benefits the planet, conserves resources, and can also save you money by lowering your electric bills. Regardless of your motive, smart home automation is an excellent way to go green with your technology. Today we’ll look at the kinds of green home technology you can bring to your Palm Beach, FL home.

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LIGHTING CONTROL

Lighting control systems use dimmers with LED bulbs to give you a greater range of intensity and color options for your fixtures. But even before you install a single dimmer, getting rid of your incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs and switching to LEDs will result in a significant improvement in your efficiency.

Every 60-watt incandescent light bulb produces between 650 and 850 lumens, which is how brightness is measured. To get that same level of brightness with a CFL bulb, you need between 13 and 18 watts. LEDs are even more efficient, though, requiring just 7 to 10 watts to match the level of an incandescent bulb. If you need less energy to reach the same brightness level, you’ve increased your energy efficiency.

It’s the dimmer switches in lighting control that make the biggest difference in efficiency, though. Every percentage point decrease in brightness when using a dimmer results in an equivalent reduction in energy use. Another way to think about this is that dimming your lights 10 percent means a 10 percent reduction in energy usage, dimming them 20 percent equals 20 percent in energy savings, and so on. You multiply those savings by the number of fixtures in your home, and over time you’ll see a dramatic drop in your energy usage.

MOTORIZED SHADES

Motorized shades work well with lighting control to lower your energy costs. Research from the Department of Energy shows that almost half of the average homeowner’s utility costs come from heating and insulating the space. Motorized shades can adjust themselves throughout the day to help you reduce your energy usage.

These shades use heat, light and occupancy sensors to raise and lower themselves without any input from you. They can even change the angle of the blinds automatically. This technology helps you make the most efficient use of the light that hits your home and the accompanying solar heat gain. Harnessing natural light and heat means you’ll be running your air conditioning or heating system less often, which makes your home more efficient.

CLIMATE CONTROL

Lastly, having a smart climate control system that works in tandem with your light and shades can lower your energy usage. Thermostats placed throughout your home, combined with occupancy or motion sensors, help your system learn your daily routines and give you more precise control over the temperature. Running the heat or air conditioning in an empty room is a massive waste of energy, so you want to avoid doing so at all costs. Smart climate control helps you use energy only when you want it and where you need it. Your motorized shades will also impact your climate control system, as you’ll run the heat less if you can harness sunlight to heat the room for you.

 

If you’re ready to enjoy the benefits of green home technology for yourself, now’s the time to get started. Call us today at (305) 910-2890, use the chat window below, or visit our contact page. We look forward to hearing from you.