Help save energy within your home with Smart House
18 October 2006
For every £3 we spend on heating our homes, £1 is immediately wasted through poor energy efficiency. Turning the thermostat down one degree could save households around £49 a year. Switching off unused lights could save around £32 a year and turning appliances off at the switch instead of leaving them on standby could save around £38 per year (DEFRA/ Energy Saving Trust 2005 data).
With the dramatic increase in environmental awareness and the advances in cost-effective technologies, energy efficiency is fast becoming a key design element in both homebuilding and property renovation projects.
Smart House has a positive impact on energy usage by providing better control of heating, cooling and lighting within the home. In unoccupied rooms, heating and cooling can be reduced, and lights can be turned off depending on information from motion sensors. Similarly automated window dressings can help maintain ideal room temperature when set to specific schedules. Smart House provides this convenience through its Harmony Home Control software.
“We recognise that home automation is still a relatively new concept in the UK, however people who are familiar with standard programmable thermostats find it's not a big jump to understand the increased energy savings achieved through home automation,“ says Darryl Mattocks, Managing Director of Smart House. “We believe our Harmony Home Control software represents a watershed in environmental control and is a core element of contemporary living. For example, with Harmony room temperature can be automatically set back when the security system is armed. Additionally, lights and small appliances can be scheduled by activity, time of day, or room occupancy. With Harmony the homeowner doesn't even have to think about it, the system automatically knows to turn on the outside lights if the front door is opened, and its after 6pm. Combine the benefits of enhanced comfort, maximum energy savings, and convenience with the fact that the system can pay for itself over time with the money saved, and home automation becomes a cost-effective tool to combat our energy crisis.”
Through a web interface over the Internet, or even through your mobile phone or PDA, Harmony also allows you to directly control and monitor multiple facets of your home when you are away from it: lights, air conditioning, heating, and even automated window dressings. Remote management of the home in turn can lead to cumulative energy savings, as the system responds to climate or seasonal conditions (eg. turning lights on later in the summer), or control functions on a room-by-room basis.
“Home owners are not only beginning to understand and appreciate these benefits available through home automation, but are now likely to expect them,” continues Mattocks. “The biggest growth area will be for affordable, simple and flexible systems that integrate security, heating, cooling and lighting control with telephone and Internet access. The light goes on in your car when you open the door; now it's the house's turn. Systems that are cost effective and reliable will soon be part and parcel of every new home built.”
Smart House is the UK’s leading modular home control solution aimed at making life more comfortable, more secure, more flexible and more efficient. With Smart House you can integrate up to 11 different modules allowing you to tailor the system to the exact requirements of each individual property. For further information visit SmartHouse.co.uk.
