Tips From The Top

The future of intelligent home automation is offering some exciting solutions to lowering energy consumption.

According to the recent article “Energy Management Solutions for Smarter Living,” smart home integrators like Jackson Hole AV are on the verge of providing innovative solutions for their customers to take advantage of intelligent home automation, lower their energy consumption costs, and reduce their home’s carbon footprint. Now more than ever before, smart home technology and automation will offer opportunities for smart homes to best anticipate and manage their energy use.

We use the home automation platform Savant to give our clients more ease and comfort managing their home’s audio/video, environmental, security, and lighting systems. An integrated home leads to better daily living when clients can manage all the systems with intuitive touchscreen control. But now, integrated home systems are on the verge of intelligently monitoring and adjusting systems to lower energy costs throughout the day. 

Take a look at these two examples provided by Gordon Van Zuidan. For total home energy management systems, it’s all about maximizing energy efficiency while minimizing peak load demand.

The first example involves an automated smart home integrating an intelligent thermostat, motorized shades, intelligent skylights and ceiling fan, and centralized lighting. With this integrated system, clients can use the total home control automation system to program a scene that will intelligently observe conditions and then adapt accordingly to lower energy costs. The system, programmed for a preset temperature, will make a series of adjustments before turning on the air conditioner, including opening up the skylights to release hot air, turning on ceiling fans to start convection cooling, and closing window shades to limit incoming solar heat. By postponing the air conditioner, the system effectively reduces overall energy consumption. 

This scenario is taken to an even better level of energy management by adding a solar panel array and a storage system, thus reducing electrical utility loads during peak times. 

Here’s how it works: let’s say the home automation system predicts an upcoming need for increased AC, coupled with a lower solar energy generation. The night before this combination is anticipated, the home automation system uses the grid to charge the solar battery to 50% during off-peak, lower-cost hours. During the day, the battery can be charged with sunlight to complete capacity. At the highest temperature hours, the system will turn on the AC management scene and turn off unneeded household loads until the lower-priced evening electrical rates are again accessible. 

Basically, an intelligent, integrated home automation system will be able to monitor and anticipate conditions, and deploy energy management systems to store and utilize energy in the most cost-efficient manner possible.

As smart home integrators, we at Jackson Hole AV understand and can install an automated home platform that will help you manage and reduce your overall carbon footprint for years to come.

To learn more about how an integrated home automation platform like Savant can reduce your overall energy costs, call us at Jackson Hole AV. We’d love to show you what’s possible.