Technology is evolving every single day, and is spreading into different areas of our lives all the time. Of course, people are familiar with the likes of mobile phones and car entertainment systems, but technology orientated towards your home is relatively new. But, there’s now plenty of unique pieces of technology designed to help with a variety of different tasks.
One of which is aimed at your home heating. Believe it or not, there’s a way to fully control your heating even when you’re not there. They’re known as smart thermostats, and they empower you to use your mobile phone to adjust or turn off your heating via an internet connection.
Since their inception, a plethora of big companies have manufactured their own brand of smart thermostats, but they all operate in similar ways. Alongside allowing you to turn your heating – even your hot water if you have a modern boiler – on and off, the smart thermostats will also display how much energy you’re using and analyse your usage pattern.
The way they work…
The reason they were invented were to provide homeowners with more control over their heating usage, in a bid to cut monthly costs. Why? Because energy bills are among the highest people have to face, especially when the temperatures are lower in the winter months. So, if you’re able to only use the heating when you need it the most, you’ll be able to reduce your costs.
They work through an internet connection, so if you don’t have access to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, you won’t be able to control the smart thermostat. Depending on which brand you’ve opted for, you’ll have a multitude of features to play with. All of them will switch the heating on and off, that’s a given.
But, others will also enable you to turn the heating up or down and program the thermostat to turn on or off at specified times. In addition, after tracking your routine, some smart thermostats can even turn your heating on by itself. Oh, and if you’re away, some will turn your heating on when you’re nearly home by tapping into your phone’s GPS.
Furthermore, smart thermostats will give you a detailed breakdown of information, so you can really spot where you can save money. For instance, it may track your heating history and how much you’ve been using and how much has been wasted. With that being said, a lot of smart thermostats will then suggest ways to bring your energy bills down.
They’ll either advise you to turn your heating down a couple of degrees, or off altogether when it’s not needed. Oh, and with a smart thermostat, you can even control your heating to individual rooms. So, if your family is in the living room, you can set the heating to only heat that room up.