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Do the Smart Thing and Add Smart Home Features

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With the technology we have today, we are practically living in the sci-fis of the mid to late 1900s. True, we don’t have the hoverboards Back to the Future II predicted for 2015, but our pocket-sized computers and many other advancements would still be mind-blowing to Marty McFly.

Technology is getting better, faster, and smarter. Chances are you have a smartphone, but do you have a smart home? Smart home technology has been gaining popularity in recent years, but if you’re still uncertain if it’s the right thing for you, here’s why you should do the smart thing and add smart home features today.

Smart for Your Wallet

There are many money-saving smart home features, with smart thermostats and smart lights being among the biggest money savers.

Consistently among the top-recommended smart thermostats, the Nest Learning Thermostat is designed to help you use less energy. When you first install your Nest Learning Thermostat, you will need to adjust it like a regular thermostat. Through this, it will learn your schedule to know when you have it on and how you like the temperature throughout the day. This way, you can more easily only use heating and cooling when you need it. It even offers eco settings for additional savings. If your schedule or temperature preferences change, you can easily adjust your thermostat from your phone wherever you may be at the time. 

Nest did a study to show how effective their thermostat is by looking at real energy bills from customers. On average, people saved 10% to 12% on heating and 15% on cooling. That means if your power bill is $81.65 and your gas bill is $47.99, the Utah averages for 2020, you’ll save around $17 per month, which may not sound like much, but it adds up. Just in one year, you could save $204, and in five years, you could save $1,020.00.

To maximize savings even further, you can install smart lights. At WISE Home Solutions, we offer a smart light bulb that only uses 9 watts to achieve a 60-watt brightness, and they last for up to 25,000 hours, which means that if you have your lights on for three hours a day, you’ll only need to buy new light bulbs approximately once every twenty-two years, putting all the money you would have spent on light bulbs back in your wallet.

Smart for Your Safety

Video doorbells are a great way of adding protection to your home. If a potential package thief saw a video doorbell on your home, they would be less inclined to act on their intentions than if they knew they could get away with it without being seen and recorded. More important than protecting your packages, a video doorbell can protect you and your family. You can know who’s at the door before answering, and if your kids are old enough to stay home alone and they open the door for a stranger while you’re gone even though you tell them not to, you can use the two-way talk feature from your phone to make the visitor think you’re home.

Speaking of being away from home, have you ever made it down the street or partway to your destination when you realize you can’t remember if you closed the garage? With a smart garage door controller, you can check an app to see if the garage is closed after reaching your destination or after pulling over—smart for your safety, remember? If you find the garage is still up, you can remotely close it from your phone. 

These are just a few of the many ways a smart home can benefit you. If you are interested in learning more, contact us at 844-904-9473 or request info online.

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How Can a Smart Home Save the Family Budget?

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When people hear the phrase “smart home” they think it must be a massive expense. The truth is, though, it actually saves money in the long run. Families who’ve recently implemented smart devices into their lives love how much money they save every month. The return on investment for smart home products is the reason more and more families are automating their lives.

Improve Energy Efficiency

According to the Department of Energy, the average home can save as much as 10% on heating and cooling by adjusting the temperature by 7-10 degrees for 8 hours a day. While you’re away at work or asleep at night, you won’t even notice this adjustment. Adjusting the temperature with a traditional thermostat can lead to many frustrations, though.

If you adjust the temperature when you leave in the morning, the temperature when you return home could be boiling hot in the Summer or uncomfortably cold in the Winter. It could take an hour or more for your home to reach a comfortable temperature. Similarly, many people struggle to sleep when the temperature is adjusted at night unless the adjustment occurs after they are already fast asleep.

Smart thermostats, such as the Nest thermostat, allow you to control the temperature in your home from afar. When you leave work in the evening, set the thermostat to start heating or cooling your house to a comfortable level. It’s also possible to set a schedule so the temperature can be adjusted during sleep. You’ll be able to save significant amounts of energy without sacrificing any comfort. You’ll realize one day that you have more money, and you hardly had to change a thing.

Keep Utility Bills Low

Sadly, too many of us know the pain of getting an electric bill that nearly gives you a heartache. Parents especially know the struggle of trying to get kids to remember to turn out the lights when leaving a room. Smart lights can save you from that endless battle, though, because you can turn out the lights even after you’ve left home. You can set all your lights to turn out at night, so you never have to walk the house checking each room when you really just want to go to bed.

Not only can smart lights turn out the lights when they aren’t needed, but you can also dim the lighting when full brightness is unnecessary. When lights only have an “on” or an “off” feature, most people use more electricity than is really needed. When you install smart lights, you have so much more control, which can bring your electric bill down tremendously.

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Can Smart Lights Cure Your Insomnia?

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If you’re feeling exhausted from multiple bad nights of sleep in a row, you’re not alone. Around 60 million people in American suffer from insomnia. Artificial lighting is one of the most common causes of sleep trouble because it messes with the sleep patterns that humans are naturally accustomed to. You can decrease the amount of artificial light you are exposed to by installing smart lights. You’ll start quickly start getting better sleep.

Dim Your Smart Lights

Smart lighting systems allow you to dim the lights in your home using just an app. To help with your insomnia, you should take advantage of this feature, especially in the evening. Hundreds of years ago, humans knew it was time to go to sleep when the sun went down. In our modern society, we see just as much light at night as we do in the day. This confuses our bodies and keeps us from falling asleep when we want to.

The less artificial light we expose our bodies to, the better for our sleep schedule. By dimming your lights, you are minimizing the harm done by that electric light exposure. Dimming your lights throughout the day is good for your body, but it’s most important in the few hours before you go to sleep.

Set a Schedule

Our bodies function on a schedule, and now the lighting in your house can too. Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep, but even when you get that, it’s hard to feel rested when you wake up in the pitch black. With a smart light system, you can schedule your lights to slowly turn on in the morning. This simulates the experience of waking up to then natural sunlight.

You can also set a timer in the evening when you’re ready to dim the lights. This way, if you forget to decrease the artificial light at night, your lights can do it for you. Although the invention of modern lighting messed with our sleep schedules, the invention of smart lighting just might save them.

 

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