Saving at Home During the Pandemic: IoT Technology for Energy, Water, and Light

Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown, our homes have taken on much more responsibility. They are no longer places to sleep or start and end our days with family, but they are now our offices, fitness centers, entertainment hubs, and schools.

All of this is putting a strain on resources. Recent research is already showing the side effects of individuals staying home for extended periods of time. Households are experiencing an increase in monthly utility bills. With no immediate end in sight to the work from home trend, consumers are turning to smart solutions to reduce their level of energy consumption. In turn, this will increase efficiencies and cost savings during these unprecedented times.

Smart Home Technology

According to Berg Insight, by 2022, the market for smart homes and buildings will reach yearly revenues of up to $36 billion in the U.S. alone. With the deployment of sensors and hardware, 22.3 million smart home systems were installed in North America by the end of 2017. By 2022, the number of households adopting smart home systems will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 23.1 percent, resulting in 63 million smart homes.

As smart home technology adoption accelerates, it requires a solution where appliances and devices can be universally connected and easily controlled by homeowners. Sensor-based solutions offer the capability to connect smart home devices to the same platform, where the range of legacy systems may fall short.

Generally, these are battery operated devices which are well beyond the range of legacy connectivity technologies without installing additional repeater or mesh points. These applications include those for garages, door locks, outdoor lighting, pet geo-fencing, smart metering, leak detection, connected pest traps, swimming pools, and more.

As consumers look to decrease costs as home energy consumption increases during the pandemic, what are the top Applications for sensors in the smart home?

Water

With easy to deploy sensor-based solutions, property owners can have immediate access to humidity and temperature sensors that can identify water leaks and prevent future damages. This type of water management solution is scalable by the number of sensors, so any home can be covered, no matter its size. The sensors connect to a public or private residential network that can regularly report data usage and send real-time alerts to homeowners should a leak occur.

Energy

As energy costs are rapidly increasing, and environmental issues continue to be a major concern, there is increasing pressure on IoT providers to create more energy-saving solutions. By deploying wireless sensors, real-time data with insights on temperature and energy usage can enable homeowners to effectively optimize energy use and drive down costs.

This data can be used to intelligently reduce waste in smart homes and help ensure compliance with green initiatives. These smart solutions can be scalable by the number of sensors to provide coverage for even the largest real estate properties.

Light

Lighting is an integral part of the home. With smart lighting, homeowners can add intelligence and control to help reduce one of the larger energy expenses. This type of technology allows for users to remotely control lights and automatically adjust the amount of time lights are active. Data from smart sensors can provide insight to maintenance efficiency and effectiveness of the smart lights, which means lamps can stay on longer, or brighter without wasting energy.

As we spend an increased amount of time at home, it is inevitable that energy costs for homeowners will increase. This trend can be curbed with the adoption of smart technology.