How can Smart HVAC reduce my energy bills?
With the ever-rising costs of energy bills in the UK, if you want to save money – you need to be integrating the latest tech in your HVAC setup.
SMART Controls
The first port of call would be utilising smart HVAC controls. These devices can learn your habits and adjust to your heating needs.
Some of the more advanced HVAC systems can even adapt to the environment, and factor in the weather conditions outside such as how much sun is hitting your house and the level of humidity outside. Then your indoor temperature is changed accordingly.
They may learn that certain rooms are prone to overheating so start cooling at an earlier time. Obviously, the HVAC system will need to be running for at least a couple of days but thereafter, it can learn to programme itself very well.
The art of Geofencing
This handy little feature recognises your smartphone GPS when it’s in the perimeter of your home, picking up on entrance and exits from the virtual perimeter. This way the system only runs when you it needs to be. If you leave, the heating or the air conditioning will turn down, thereby saving you energy. To sum it up, this automatic sensor means you’re not heating an empty home!
HVAC Services
In order to keep your system operating at its full efficiency, maintenance should be carried out. This should be performed by a HVAC contractor. You will find that most HVAC contractors may generally do both residential and commercial HVAC services, though not all of them will.
This maintenance will involve work such as filter cleaning for optimal airflow so less energy consumption is occurring due to any blockages. Another common fix is leaky ducts which will be allowing conditioned air to escape. This means your HVAC system ends up operating longer to make up for this – so it’s important the professional HVAC contractor can check and fix this for you.
They will also calibrate thermostats because if it’s faulty, your system may not run accurately, thereby increasing your energy bills. By calibrating it, over cooling or over heating can be prevented.
Predicting Maintenance
Another advantage of smart HVAC Systems is its ability to let you know any issues that may arise. This predictive technology can alert you for air filter changes for example, so you ensure your system is running as it should.
Due to the rise of UK energy bills, switching to smart HVAC services is a must if you want energy consumption to be lower and more optimal for your household usage. Of course, you benefit from having to carry out less of the manual work in terms of temperature adjustments too.
HVAC in Schools, Offices and more
Away from residential, smart HVAC is also great in the commercial settings. The occupancy sensors can detect when rooms are empty, (meetings rooms for example may sit vacant for long periods of time). They can then switch to economy mode so you’re not wasting energy consumption in places that don’t need it.
This replacement of the old traditional “on and off” system is a big contributor to reducing annual energy bills, but it doesn’t stop there.
Your maintenance improves and becomes less costly too. Commercial HVAC services like repairing breakdowns in an emergency can be costly so if you have a system that can alert you to potential issues, it means system failures are less likely to occur. Prevention is always better than cure!
Your HVAC equipment last for longer as the maintenance requirements get detected by the IoT sensors. Think of these as the look out for the unit, as it stores data to be analysed. For example, one of the sensors may be for air quality (IAQ sensor) which identify ventilation failures. In your office, if the sensor detected low CO2 (room is half-empty), then the unit would then go and go decrease the speed of the fans.
Smart HVAC for long-term savings
To conclude, it’s worth noting that despite the upfront cost of switching to smart HVAC from traditional systems, the long-term gain for your business or bills at home, is simply invaluable. Less calls out to HVAC contractors and annuals savings in bills really do pay-off and over the years, you’ll find the investment worthwhile. Technology and AI within the HVAC world is allowing the systems to be optimised in real time, making sure you run at maximum efficiency and avoid overspending.