How Smart Home Technology Can Save You Money

The global financial situation has resulted in organisations investing time and effort in developing new home technologies that will save homeowners money in the long run. Products such as geothermal-heating and cooling systems, including improved hot-water systems, hydro floors and radiant wall panels can save you up to 75 percent on your energy bills. These energy-efficient systems reduce your carbon footprint and can increase the value of your home. While this technology generally has no effect on the cost of home and contents insurance, check with your insurance company.

There are many other technologies that you can employ within your home to help you save money:

Twine

For those interested in the latest in information technology and who are apt in Arduino, you will be interested in Twine. For those who are working on Arduino projects, a simple investment of $150 for a Twine plus Cloud Shield (this is $35 as a stand alone product), will instantly connect your Arduino to every Internet feature available in just three lines of code. While for the amateur this might seem like a big investment, it will save you time and effort trying to work out the basics and help you finish that Arduino project faster, according to engadget.com.

Remote Keyless Locks

Constantly searching at the bottom of your bag for that house key? Well the days of keys may be over and soon everyone will be unlocking their homes with a simple touch of a button on their mobile phones. Gizmag.com states that technology has been developed by companies such as Schlage LiNK that provide you with keyless locking on your doors and windows and 24 hour surveillance of your home. For a US$300 starter kit plus US$200 per lock, you can secure your home with an electronic system that allows you to monitor who has entered your home and when. This gives you the freedom to provide unique codes to handymen or visitors and you don’t have to be home to open the door. You can receive text messages whenever specific numbers are entered.

Domestic Robots

From electronic-vacuum cleaners to machines that will make you a hamburger, there’s a domestic robot for all your least favorite chores. For those living in modern homes with large windows, why not buy a window-cleaning robot? Averaging around US$350, huffingtonpost.com notes that you can buy an Ecovac Winbot to save you time and stop you from standing on top of dangerous ladders.

Garage Door Opener

You can open your garage door with your mobile phone — Liftmaster has configured a system that connects your garage door opener to your home router via a radio signal. You can then download an app on your phone that will connect to your garage door so you can open it with a push of a button. This form of connection means you can open and close your garage door from anywhere.