Debbie says Smarthome tech rarely saves on utilities

[rcjordan]

Many, maybe most, of the devices fall under the Convenience, Comfort, Security, or Decor categories.  These tend to increase the utility bills.  Daily driveway lighting or automated garden watering would be good examples. 

For the devices that could be utility savers -say, thermostats- the user will opt for comfort & convenience over energy savings every time. 

[Rupert]

I would agree.  Possible exceptions is PIR lighting, that turns off when the user leaves.  I have a couple that work well, but there is a lot of resistance to them in this house.  Especially in the loo!

Light energy is minimal now with good LEDS in my house. (certainly compared to 1400W of halogen kitchen light we had a few years ago!)

[Brad]

I have a 20 year old programmable thermostat that I have only ever used manually because it's just me here and I'm home most of the time.

[ergophobe]

Even though we are here all the time, we have fairly regular waking and bed time. So we have the programmable thermostat set to

- turn on the heat about 30 mins before it's time to get out of bed. WE used to live in a house with a pellet stove... it was my job to get up and light it with ambient temps in the house often in the 40s by morning. I have grown soft since then, so having it warm by the time I want to leave the bed makes it easier.

- then it turns off after about two hours. If I'm home and I got cold, I turn the heat on. But if I leave the house, I don't need to think about it.

- then the program takes over a couple hours before bedtime. If I have bumped the temp up during the day, this brings it back down for sleeping.

So I find that even if I'm home, the programmable thermostat adds a lot of convenience and probably saves some energy. I'm skeptical that a "learning" thermostat would do as well though. It might, but the savings would be minimal.

Motion sensors for lights would make a huge difference if we still had incandescent bulbs, but as you say, our lighting is probably not a major component of our energy use.

We also have a smart switch on the TV. The main purpose of this is to time box our TV watching. So many modern shows are designed with cliffhangers that make you want to watch the next episode. So we used to sit down to watch an episode and as we got to the end of a series, would find ourselves watching two. So we have a switch - TV goes on at 8, goes off at 9. We can override it, obviously, but when we do, we still set an end time.

However, it does have a small energy savings in that the smart switch in standby mode uses less juice than the TV and other rigamarole in standby.

[rcjordan]

^{from other thread:}
>I think sensor arrays that observe the actual physical world in real time (how dirty are those sock) do have that potential.

With all the drought and water supply issues around the world. I'm surprised that very granular water management hasn't been a huge topic at Hubitat.

I put in a large-ish hummingbird garden this year without ever having any gardening experience. I had figured --rightfully, as it turned out-- that HE, an Orbit zigbee valve, & a program would handle the regular watering chore. Using a virtual button to manually skip a day or two worked for most of the summer but it was ripe (pun) for automation. Enter EcoWitt and AcuRite Blog - Soil Moisture Guide
https://www.acurite.com/blog/soil-moisture-guide-for-plants-and-vegetables.html

So now I set a program to run daily for 30 minutes just before dawn. It checks (1) that it is not winter and (2) if-not-then if the moisture sensor is <38%. If conditons are met, it opens the valve. I'm currently fine-tuning the moisture range by logging the sensor data every 3 hours. Garden looks great. Hummingbirds are happy. WAF is off the charts.

But it turned out I was under-watering while thinking I was over-watering --so water bill goes up.  However, *if* we get regular rainfall, I'm expecting it to eventually save some water.

[ergophobe]

That's the sort of thing I was thinking of. Perfect example. Think of all the times you've seen automatic sprinklers running during a downpour.

[rcjordan]

> moisture sensor is <38%

We had 3 inches of rain over 3 days (Aug 20-22). Using a schedule with manual intervention, I would have allowed the sprinklers to run after a couple of hot days.  But the sensors showed that the ground was saturated and has retained moisture longer than I would have guessed. Sprinklers will probably run tomorrow, last time was on the 19th.

[rcjordan]

A self-learning algorithm that helps save heating energy
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-09-self-learning-algorithm-energy.html

[ergophobe]

Ah, that makes sense. Very cool. I can see where a larger commercial building would have huge benefits.

I'm still unconvinced for a modest residential home, but commercial buildings are a huge portion of energy usage.

[rcjordan]

>unconvinced for a modest residential home

Me, too. Anecdotal accounts of Nest and Ecobee installations haven't told of any significant savings.

[DrCool]

>>Nest

We have a Nest and there have been a couple times where we have been away from the house for a few days where the AC got turned to 80 or 85 instead of the normal 75 or so we have it at. Guessing that saves a bit but when get home it is roasting in the house. Of course I could adjust when we are heading home but of course I always forget that.

But that savings is probably counteracted by the times where I am lying in bed and realize it is too hot and I just grab my phone and turn the AC down a couple degrees. No way I would get out of bed to do that but since I have the convenience of doing it from my phone...