Is Your Smart Home Eco-Friendly?

Eco-friendly is defined as being “not environmentally harmful.” An eco-friendly home is one that lowers impact on the environment while also improving your health and well-being. As more people turn towards smart technology in their homes, it’s important to make sure those appliances and devices also promote your eco-friendly goals.

What Makes a Smart Home Eco-Friendly?

An eco-friendly smart home pairs smart home technology and newer devices and designs that promote sustainability and lower your carbon footprint. The goal is to use technology in ways that reduce waste and lower your consumption of resources like water and electricity.

Energy Efficiency is one of the most important aspects of an eco-friendly home. Here’s what makes your smart home eco-friendly:

• Energy Monitoring Systems: Receive real-time data on your home’s energy consumption. You’ll be able to see when the most energy is consumed and find patterns in usage that help you determine the areas that need improving.
• Induction Cooktop: Induction burners use far less energy. The pots go onto the cooktop and use electromagnetic induction energy to transfer heat through the pot or pan to the food. Because they work faster and don’t heat a burner, the heat transfer to your room is reduced, too.
• Smart Appliances: Many ENERGY STAR appliances connect to apps that allow you to control them remotely and track their usage. It makes it easy to determine when it’s time for maintenance. You can also use the app to set timers for off-peak hours. Smart dryers scan how dry the laundry is so that you’re not using the dryer for longer than necessary.
• Smart Lighting: LED bulbs are better for the environment as they use less electricity. They allow you to adjust your lighting levels, the time when your lights are on and off, and remote access to lights from your app.
• Smart Power Strips and Plugs: The outlets prevent what’s known as vampire power drain, which is the consumption of some power when a device is in sleep mode, such as a TV.
• Smart Thermostats: The thermostats learn your daily routines to lower or increase heat and lower or increase cooling when you’re out and when you’re back. You can also monitor your home’s climate remotely.
• Smart Water Heaters: Smart water heaters are programmable to reduce wasted energy. A heat pump water heater also helps lower energy consumption by drawing heat from the surrounding air and using that to heat the water.
• Smart Window Blinds: These blinds can open and close when light sensors determine the need to close or open them. This helps minimize heat gain on a hot summer day. It also helps with winter heating by making sure the sun comes in at the best hours. That lessens the amount of work your HVAC system does throughout the year.
• Solar and Wind Energy: Instead of consuming electricity, tapping into solar and wind power allows you to power your home without relying on your electricity company. You can also store the excess power generation in batteries for future use.

Homes are full of things like VOCs that impact air quality and the environment. Your home’s HVAC system might already help improve the air quality, but there are other things you can do.

• Smart Air Purifier: With HEPA filters and smart technology that continually monitors the air quality, these appliances use less energy to keep air clean of allergens and sources of air pollution.

Whether you’re on well water or tap into a public water system, lowering your consumption is important. 

• Leak Detection: Smart sensors that notify you if there’s a leak in plumbing are essential for keeping costs down and avoiding damage from leaking pipes and water heaters.
• Smart Irrigation: Using sensors and local weather reports, the systems only water lawns or gardens when necessary and at the best time of day to maximize watering. It prevents overwatering or watering when the water is more likely to evaporate and never sink into the ground.
• Smart Washers: Smart washing machines calculate the size of the wash load and adjust water to match the load. You can also use the settings to adjust water temperature as needed.
• By combining these elements, an eco-friendly smart home not only reduces its environmental footprint but also offers cost savings on utility bills, increased convenience, and a more comfortable and healthier living space.

When you toss out food scraps, it goes to a landfill where it decomposes and releases methane. Composting is one of the best ways to keep food waste out of the landfill, but it’s equally important to stop wasting food. 

• Smart Composting: These space-saving, small appliances change composting. Fill the bin with food waste, and the machine uses a small amount of energy to grind and dehydrate the food into material that resembles coffee grounds. Sprinkle those grounds directly on your gardens.
• Smart Refrigerators: Smart refrigerators track when foods are nearing their expiration to help stop food waste.

As you add smart technology to your home, pair it with smart home platforms that track energy and water consumption from one app or website. You’ll have real-time reports that let you know how much you’ve used and where you have room for improvement.

Responsible Recycling of Smart Home Technology

When you use smart home technology, there’s one thing you must keep in mind. Many devices only last so long. Smart appliances typically support the appliance’s software for five years. Many appliances only have a lifespan of around 10 years. Items like smart assistants generally last three to five years. Smart HVAC equipment might last 20 years if you have it regularly maintained.

This means a lot of your smart home devices will wear out and need replacing sooner than you expected. When they reach their end-of-life, you can’t throw them out. They must be recycled properly.

Recycling electronics isn’t always as easy as you’d expect. You cannot throw them into your trash or curbside recycling. They need to be properly recycled by an expert in electronics recycling.

This creates another issue. Many smart home appliances and devices contain information that you might not want shared with the world. A smart assistant has information about your phone contacts, location, and anything you’ve searched or accessed. Your smart TV has all the apps and log-ins you use to watch streaming services. 

Smart thermostats, water heaters, and other technology track your patterns and movements. This data must be deleted to protect you from fraudulent use or theft. It’s important that you protect yourself. 

When it’s time to recycle smart home technology, work with an expert in data destruction. ERI is happy to destroy data before recycling components. Drop off items at retailers like Best Buy or order a mail-back box from ERI and ship items to your nearly ERI facility.

ERI does more than destroy data and recycle electronics. We ensure our processes minimize any effect on the environment. Contact us today to learn more.