With the developments in modern electronic devices, computer-controlled automatic switches are becoming more accessible and inexpensive. These systems are often a part of smart home systems to enable convenient control of lights without having to actually go to all the switches to control the lights in your home. These computer-controlled switches also add the ability of automation and connectivity with other devices such as smartphones. Besides convenience, this also opens up the possibility to implement more measures to enhance energy efficiency.
Keep the lights on only when needed
The light switches included in many smart home switches are very useful for keeping the lights on only when necessary. The lights can be switched off automatically when not in need. While you can manually do it, it is quite tedious and not always practical. Also, you may often forget to switch off the lights, thus causing wastage of energy. One way that smart home switches can control the lighting is by simple timing control. The lights can be turned on automatically by evening and turned off automatically as you go to bed. This is a very simple system and does not require a sophisticated smart home system. You can get simple timer switches. Some sophisticated smart home systems have motion sensors which determine if the room is occupied or not and light sensors to determine the illumination level. If the room is occupied and the illumination gets low at any time of the day, the lights are automatically turned. Additional timer function can be added to turn off when you go to bed, or you can remotely turn them off via your smartphone or a special smart home remote. This allows the lights to be turned on only when you need them, thus saving a lot of energy.
Cost advantages of switching lighting controls versus switching lights
Another way to save energy is to switch all of your lights to LED lights. However, switching your lights can get more expensive than replacing a few switches. This is especially true if you have lighting system consisting of several lamps. So, adding smart home automatic switches can be a cheaper solution rather than changing all of your lighting lamps, though ideally you would want to have both smart home switches and LED lights for maximum energy efficiency.