Eco-friendly Smart Home Products to be on the Lookout For

It seems like a hardly day goes by without some new “smart” gadget hitting the market, promising to make our lives easier, our homes more comfortable, and our places of residence more in tune with the times. On a statistical level, the amount of people interested in smart home technology only considers to grow year by year. According to one recent poll, over two-thirds of households in the U.S. (69 percent) have at least one smart device, while 12 percent of those households, (about 22 million homes) rely on several smart home gadgets. Furthermore, a study by Oberlo found that in 2018, 29.5 million households were using smart home devices—around half of what there are today. This is forecasted to continue growing in the coming years, reaching 64.1 million by 2025. The study further found that the percentage of households using smart home devices will also increase and is projected to rise to 48.4 percent in 2025.

Though many people equate smart home technology with the increased levels of comfort that come with automation and remote control, smart home products can also help to improve the sustainability of your home. Below, we take a quick look at some of the most eco-friendly smart home products that can help improve the energy efficiency and water-use efficiency of your home.

Smart Thermostats

Let’s start with one of the most widely used and appreciated smart home products: the smart thermostat. Across the United States, almost 33 million homes have installed a smart thermostat to help reduce energy consumption from heating and cooling your home. A smart thermostat ensures that your household will not be heating or cooling your home when nobody is home to enjoy comfortable indoor temperatures.

It is important to mention the difference, however, between a smart thermostat and a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat allows homeowners to program when your home´s HVAC equipment turns on and off on a time clock. When used properly, programmable thermostats allow you to save around 20 percent on your home’s energy bills.

Smart thermostats, on the other hand, offer increased opportunities for reduced energy. A smart thermostat is intuitive when it comes to heating and cooling your home, and can “learn” your daily habits. This means that even if you forget to program your thermostat, the smart thermostat will be able to set the temperature exactly how you need it based off previous learned habits, maximizing for both comfort levels and energy savings. For whole smart house systems, a smart thermostat can also be connected to other energy saving devices such as smart blinds, smart mechanical ventilations systems, and more.

Smart Sprinkler and Irrigation Systems

Across the United States, between 30 and 60 percent of urban fresh water is used to irrigate our lawns and the landscapes around our homes. With global climate change, extended droughts are becoming increasingly common, and many places around the country are enacting stricter controls for how much water can be used for lawn irrigation. Last November, for example, the City of San Francisco declared a water shortage emergency in response to the statewide drought.

Given this reality, homeowners in the wider San Francisco Bay area should certainly be on the lookout for eco-friendly watering and irrigation systems for the landscapes around their home. Fortunately, smart home products now rely on the best technologies to drastically reduce your irrigation needs.

Smart irrigation products on the market to help homeowners drastically reduce the amount of water used for their yard by taking into consideration the weather patterns, total shade and sun exposure of different areas of your yard, the types of plants around your home and their watering need, and even the existent humidity of the soil to deliver water to your yard only when it needs it.

Smart Water Leak Detectors

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “the average family can waste 180 gallons per week, or 9,400 gallons of water annually, from household leaks. That’s equivalent to the amount of water needed to wash more than 300 loads of laundry. Household leaks can waste approximately 900 billion gallons of water nationwide annually.”

Homeowners who want to avoid unintentional water wasted from leaks can today rely on smart home devices, like leak-detecting sensors. These smart home gadgets are placed strategically throughout your home´s plumbing system to monitor water flow or sense moisture and changes in humidity. These detectors will subsequently alert the homeowner when even the most minuscule leak is detected. Some of the water leak detectors will also be able to cut off the water supply if it detects a significant leak, thus helping avoid damage to your home and a costly water bill.

How Conrado Home Builders Can Help You Find the Best Ways to Implement Eco-Friendly Smart Home Technologies

Hiring Conrado Home Builders for your custom home build or luxury remodel means that you will benefit from our building teams’ accumulated experience and expertise. We will help you analyze all of the best smart home products and new technologies that can be implemented into your custom home estate. We pride ourselves on building high-quality homes, and smart home technologies are integral to that mission.

Furthermore, our building teams have direct experience implementing the absolute best green building techniques, technologies, and practices. We can help you determine how smart home technologies can reduce your home´s ecological footprint while increasing your comfort levels. We have decades of experience helping homeowners in Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, Woodside, and Atherton create zero carbon and even carbon-positive homes. We are also continually educating ourselves about the latest technologies on the market.

When you hire Conrado Home Builders, you can rest assured that we will go through all of the different smart products and technologies on the market to help you design the most energy efficient home possible. Contact us today to find out how we can help you design and build the best home for you and your family.