IN our last article we introduced the idea of making your home and business “smart” by automating electrical devices. This time we go deeper by looking at further benefits of home automation.

The premise of energy savings for home automation is seeing that electricity bills go down. Based on recent statistics and current savvy home users who have a moderate to a high number of devices automated, the average smart home experiences an approximate 10 to 12 per cent reduction in the utility bill.

A notable portion of home energy is through lighting. Very often there is spousal shouting or to children, “Who left the light on?”

Save energy by using timers to set your lights to turn on; for example, at 6:00 pm. Leaving the light on is no longer a problem, and you can manage it from anywhere in the world.

It also works for specific appliances such as televisions and electronic devices that may be accidentally left running.

Another area we don’t think about is that all the devices in our homes, be it the TV, kettle, coffee maker, microwave or washing machine, still consume a small amount of energy when turned off. It’s called either vampire or phantom energy, and many people unplug the equipment. But that is just tedious and could lead to possible equipment malfunctions. Home automation can bypass the standby modes to garner more savings.

The bottom line is that home automation reduces electricity expenses, provides safety, and eliminates recurring activities.

Next time we will look at the benefits of solar and micro smart grids.

Brian Yap Sam is CEO of Green Concepts Intl LLC (GCI) and a Certified Automation Programmer with over 19 years of experience in the IT industry in Jamaica and overseas (info@gci-llc.com).