With so many innovative electrical products on the market, many homeowners are creating automated homes. Smart home product sales are consistently rising, and experts predict 98.8% of homes in the UK will have at least one smart appliance. 

If you’re new to home automation, here are some smart electrical products that will help you save on your energy bills. 

What Is A Smart Home?

Before we discuss all the great products you can use, let’s look at what smart home automation is and how it works. 

A smart home is an efficient home setup where electrical appliances are automatically controlled from anywhere using a wi-fi connection. You can use a smartphone or a networked device to control your appliances remotely. 

You can grant security access to your home, adjust the lighting or temperature of a room, and create a home theatre experience with the help of smart home technology. 

Smart home systems can be set up through a hardwired or wireless connection. In most cases, you can control them through your smartphone, tablet, etc. 

Since smart home systems rely less on energy, you save more on your utility bills. Therefore, smart home technology is excellent for conserving power.

How Does This System Work?

Every device in a smart home system can be accessed through one central point. As we’ve mentioned, this point can be a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or even a game console. 

You can use a specialised home automation system for appliances such as televisions, thermostats, door locks, home monitors, lights, and other appliances such as refrigerators. 

Smart homes that enable lighting control allow homeowners to reduce energy use and benefit from electricity-related savings. 

Another great thing about smart products is that they can self-learn skills. This means that the smart home device can learn the homeowner’s preferences and schedules to adjust accordingly. 

Many homeowners also use smart home systems for security purposes. Some home automation devices come with motion sensor features. This feature notifies the homeowners in the event of motion detection when the homeowners are away. 

Other home automation devices can notify the authorities, such as the fire or police departments, in case of dangerous situations. 

Hardwired Or Wireless

Smart home technology can be either wireless or hardwired. Sometimes it can be both. Wireless smart home systems are easier to install and work well with smart climate control, lighting, and security. Wireless systems are also cost-friendly and can save high installation costs. 

Hardwired smart home systems can increase the resale value of any household property. However, these systems are very expensive to install and may not be cost-effective for many consumers. 

The best way to build a smart home is by gradually introducing smart appliances. You can easily do so through smart lighting and heating which will help you start building a connected home.  

What Are The Benefits Of Building A Smart Home?

If you’re still not sure about creating a smart home, here are five significant benefits to help you change your mind. 

Save Energy And Money

At the end of the day, homeowners want products that use energy efficiently. One of the most significant benefits of smart products is that they help you save on your energy bills. 

Whether it's smart lighting, heating or sockets, all these products maximise their functionality to reduce energy consumption. 

A Lifestyle Of Comfort And Convenience

Modern technology is designed to make our lives easier, and smart home products are no different. 

Smart home systems allow ease and simplicity with everyday household appliances. 

Many such devices will enable you to operate with a few simple clicks on an app or through voice control. But you can take things further than just having better control over your appliances. 

These devices can trigger based on location, time of day, or sensors. Due to these comforts, many people are switching to smart home lighting and heating. 

Simplify Household Tasks

Another great benefit of smart home technology is how it simplifies simple household tasks. 

Some homeowners don’t have enough time to dedicate to household chores, so smart home appliances do the job for them. 

There are several smart robot vacuums that help you clean up your home. Some stationery appliances, such as ovens, are also being manufactured with smart features.

Better Safety And Security

Even though conventional alarm systems are good at providing security to your home, smart security systems give you access to a broader range of features. These help you prepare for any kind of emergency. 

Smart home security systems contain interlinked locks, lights, cameras, sensors, and doorbells, enabling higher control and surveillance. This type of home security is important if you are away from your home as it allows you to keep surveilling your premises. 

Important Energy Insights

If energy efficiency is your main concern, you will benefit from installing a smart home system will benefit you. 

Many smart home systems provide helpful insights and data based on your energy consumption. 

You can browse through this information to find areas for efficiency, or you can cut your energy consumption in these areas to save money on utility bills.

Now that you know the basic of smart homes, it is time to take a closer look at some of the most important aspects of this system: smart home lighting and heating. 

While there are several products to choose from, we’ll focus on the top three appliances that will help you save on your energy bills. These include:

• Smart Lighting
• Smart Heating
• Smart Plugs

Smart Light Bulbs

Lighting is an important part of any building; therefore, investing in the right technology will elevate your home’s design and prove cost-effective in the long run is important. 

At its most basic form, smart lighting allows handheld remote controllability. In most models, smart lights are also compatible via an app, which means you can use your smartphone or computer to operate your lighting. 

For this control to work, smart lighting typically relies on different wireless transmission signals sent to the lighting and back. 

Generally, most people connect their smart luminaries to a smart home hub through Wi-Fi. This type of connectivity sometimes involves your router or Bluetooth. 

However, there are several smart lights on the market that don’t need a smart home hub to operate.

Other smart lighting alternatives use motion and lighting sensors, which automatically turn on/off based on the amount of detected light or the presence of movement or people in a given space. 

With these innovative yet simple features, you can greatly reduce the energy consumption that comes from leaving lights turned on in an unoccupied home. 

Some of the most innovative and advanced smart luminaries use machine learning techniques for more efficient energy use. 

With this feature, the light monitors and learns your illumination patterns and changes accordingly.  

By learning the patterns, the light automatically turns on/off during specific times of the day based on your everyday habits. Sometimes these lights will turn on when you are away from home to keep intruders away while the home is unoccupied. 

What Are The Different Types Of Smart Light Fixtures? 

There are a wide variety of smart lights on the market, and you should look at all the options to deice which type of lighting suits your household’s needs. 

The three most popular types of smart lights are:

• Smart light bulbs: similar to regular light bulbs. They come in various shapes and sizes, including bayonets and screw fittings. You can add these bulbs to regular bulb fixtures. 
• Smart light strips: This is a strip of LED lights that can be attached to any surface. These lights are controlled by your smartphone via an app. 
• Smart enclosed lights: These are enclosed lamp lights that come in various shapes and sizes. An enclosed light is much more ideal for lamp lighting than a smart light bulb.

How Do Smart Light Bulbs Save Energy?

One of the most crucial benefits of smart lighting products is that you can significantly reduce your energy consumption with increased control. 

If you leave your light turned on, a smart bulb connected to an app will send you an alert. Once you receive the alert, you can simply turn the light off from the app instead of going back home. 

Almost all smart lighting products are made from LED bulbs to ensure efficient energy use. LED bulbs are 75% more efficient than conventional light bulbs, which means you will see major savings on your energy bills in the long run. 

LEDs also have a longer lifespan than incandescent light bulbs; therefore, you will also save money on maintenance and replacement costs. 

The exact amount you would save from smart lights depends on the manual light bulbs you need and how long they remain operational. Despite these factors, every homeowner will see some savings by installing smart lights. 

What Are Smart Heating Systems? 

Once you have planned your smart lighting design, it is time to consider smart heating. Nowadays, you can find smart heating as energy efficient smart radiators. Just like smart lighting, these radiators use a network connection to operate. 

Almost all smart radiators have a corresponding app you can download to control your appliance remotely. With the app, you can access various advanced features, including accurate temperature control, timers, scheduling, etc. 

High heating costs often relate to energy wastage, so investing in systems with more control is essential. Some smart radiators are also compatible with home assistant devices such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. With this feature, you can use your heating completely hands-free. 

As we’ve mentioned before, you can use scheduling and timers to only use your heating when it’s needed. Smart thermostats are designed to adjust their settings automatically, giving you the most efficient heating. 

You can also set up multi-zone heating with smart radiators. You can input various settings depending on each room’s needs. If you have radiators in multiple rooms, you can control all the radiators from one central hub without having to set up the radiators manually. 

For example, you might want to keep your bedroom warm but want the kitchen to remain cool due to cooking heat emissions. You can input these settings into the smart radiator to enjoy a comfortable temperature throughout your home. 

With these features, it’s easy to see how smart heaters will make a great addition to your household. 

How Do Smart Heaters Help You Save On Energy?

An average household in the UK uses 242 kWh of electricity per month, and heating takes up a significant portion of these costs. 

By simply switching to energy-efficient boilers, you save £260 to £580 per year. With these figures, you can see that heating energy takes up a major portion of household costs. 

Many experts estimate that efficient heating systems, including smart radiators, can help you save between 10 to 20% on energy costs. 

The actual amount of savings depends on various factors, including the duration of heating and the size of your household. Therefore, the more you use smart radiators, the more energy savings you will enjoy. 

We’ve mentioned before that smart radiators help you save on energy, but how exactly do they achieve this? 

Most smart heating systems use thermal oil to create warmth, which is where its energy saving properties come into play. 

This oil is designed to retain heat energy so your room stays warm even if you turn the radiators off. Since these heaters have good thermal retention, you can reduce the appliance’s operation time to save energy. 

Smart Plugs

Instead of purchasing smart appliances, you can use your existing devices efficiently with the help of a smart plug. A smart plug is a power receptacle installed directly into an electrical socket. 

You can control any device you plug in from an app on your smartphone or tablet. You can also control the device through a virtual home assistant hub. 

Here’s a closer look at some energy-saving features in a smart plug.

Energy Consumption Information: Since these devices are called smart plugs, they are designed to help you conserve energy in every way possible. 

One of the best ways these plugs exercise this quality is by giving you energy consumption information. 

With most smart plugs, you can check the app for information regarding how much energy your device consumes. You can also use this information to use your appliances more strategically. 

Schedule And Timer Setting: To add even more functionality to your smart plugs, look for one with a schedule and timer setting. This will allow you to create specialised settings where the appliances turn on/off automatically. 

For example, you can control a coffee machine with a smart plug timer setting. With this feature, you have a fresh pot of coffee before you wake up. This feature allows you to add more comfort and convenience to your lifestyle.

Voltage Surge Protection: Many smart plugs are manufacturers to ensure the longevity of your appliance and electrical socket. Therefore, you must look for plugs that contain several safety features. 

One of the smart plugs' most important safety features is voltage surge protection. This quality protects your device from overcurrent, high temperature, and overvoltage. 

In case of such hazards, the smart plug will automatically de-energise to protect the socket. 

Do Smart Plugs Save Energy?

When used correctly, smart plugs can help you save energy and utility costs in the long run. 

Some smart plugs also provide energy consumption data which you can use to make your household more energy efficient. 

These energy statistics also tell you where you spend the most money. You can look at this data and make changes accordingly to save money. 

There are some smart plugs that let you input your energy supplier’s price. This feature allows you to get exact information on how much the plugged-in appliances cost. 

With such features, you can take better household energy consumption decisions. 

Keeping track of your energy consumption is one way smart plugs help you save energy. A large portion of your electricity costs come from appliances on standby mode. 

Many appliances do not shut off completely when they are switched off manually. These devices go into standby mode and keep consuming energy. 

Such standby energy-consuming appliances include the TV, gaming console, and laptop chargers.  These devices continuously use energy even when you are not using them. 

Even though these devices are not fully operational, they still consume a significant portion of energy. The average UK household spends £55 a year on powering electrical devices on standby mode. This figure shows how much money is spent on wasted energy. 

However, since they power home entertainment systems, it is not practical to shut them off completely. You can solve this problem by using smart plugs. 

Smart plugs work well with some of these appliances, and they can turn such appliances off completely instead of sending them into standby mode. 

Forgetting to turn appliances off is another way energy is wasted in a household. If you are prone to leaving your home with appliances still turned on, or if you need to remember, you can greatly benefit from a smart plug. 

Whether it's a clothing iron, coffee maker, or hair straightener, when you plug these devices into a smart plug, you don’t have to worry about leaving them on while you are away from home. 

Start Your Smart Home Journey With Meteor

Want to start building your smart home? Visit Meteor Electrical to find all the best smart products. 

Whether it's smart lighting, heating or plugs, you can find all these high-quality appliances in one place. At Meteor, we only carry products to combine functionality, efficiency and convenience. 

So visit Meteor today to find your next smart product.