3 Ways Your Home's Using Energy That You Don't Know About

If you’re like most people, you’re probably looking for any way you can to save money on your monthly expenses, especially in light of today’s uncertain economic climate. This means that you’ll have to put on your detective hat and begin looking for clues as to where you might be experiencing financial leakage on a regular basis. One of the first areas to examine in this regard is your energy bill, which is heavily influenced by how efficient (or possibly inefficient) the various energy-consuming devices in your home may be. Many homeowners are not fully aware of how much energy their home is actually using every month, because oftentimes it can come from some of the most subtle places. Below are three surprising ways that your home is using energy that you might not be aware of.

1. Small appliances – Sometimes small appliances can make a fairly big impact on your monthly energy bill, especially when they’re accidentally left on throughout the day. If you’ve ever left the house without turning off the coffee maker, iron, space heater or other similar household appliances, you’re probably using up more kilowatt hours than you have to, and sometimes by a significant amount. Connecting your small household appliances to a home automation system such as BeHome247 will allow you to control your appliances remotely by way of your smartphone, laptop or tablet. This will keep you from paying for the kilowatt hours that those appliances may be using while you’re not at home, plus it can help set your mind at ease in terms of preventing any electrical fires.
2. Lighting – An all-too-common habit in many households is keeping the lights on in unoccupied rooms all over the house. This can be especially aggravating when you’re about to head out for the day; you have to run through the house, cutting off lights everywhere in order to keep from paying money for wasted electricity. The BeHome247 Energy Management package enables you to integrate fading light controllers that can be adjusted to match your family’s daily and weekly routines. For example, you can establish a scenario called “away” that will automatically dim (or cut off) the lights while you’re at work and the kids are at school, and then bring the lighting back up when everyone gets home. You can also choose for your lights to be activated by motion sensors. These helpful features can keep you from staying in a switch-flipping frenzy, and they can also keep more money in your pocket as well.
3. Windows – While there’s nothing wrong with letting a little daylight into the house during the day, this can be a prime source of wasted energy if your windows lack good insulation. Letting the sun into your house for extended periods of time will force your air conditioning unit to work that much harder to keep the house cool, which means more money added to your monthly power bill. You can connect a set of drape and curtain controllers to your home automation system, which will enable you to keep the house cooler by keeping your windows covered during the times when you’re not at home, or whenever the heat of the day is the most intense. You can set up scenarios that will do this for you automatically, saving you both time and money.

The pennies spent on wasted energy can definitely add up over days and weeks, which can often produce sticker shock when your monthly bill rolls around. By employing home automation to help govern your monthly utilities, you’ll be able to pocket the difference in your energy bill.

BeHome247 Energy Management Package