Two reasons many people switch to smart home products, such as lightbulbs and thermostats, are the promise of convenience and savings. I’d argue that, at least on the first point, that’s correct. Unfortunately, my experience is that they don’t necessarily save the average homeowner any money unless key changes are made.
There are several ways smart products can actually waste your hard-earned money. Luckily, you can fix the five biggest money leaks with quick settings or habit changes.
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The Easy Fixes That Slashed My Home Energy Bill
Use these energy-saving strategies to lower energy costs.
Beware the energy vampires
Why “Standby” is costing you more than you think
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
Products like smart TVs, game consoles, chargers, hubs, speakers, and set-top boxes have built-in standby modes. In some respects, this design is intended to save energy while still enabling the device to wake quickly, listen for commands, and run background tasks such as updates and notifications. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. These devices still consume power, and this consumption will increase with the number of products you have.
To fix this, set auto-sleep settings on consoles, TVs, and PCs, or use smart plugs that let you turn attached devices on and off according to a schedule. For example, there’s little reason to leave a PlayStation gaming console on 24/7. In fact, keeping a computer on all the time probably isn’t necessary anymore, since you can schedule updates whenever it’s convenient rather than just at night.
Outsmarting your thermostat
Stop the AI from doubling your monthly bill
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Smart thermostats like the Google Nest Learning Thermostat are among the most popular smart products available. These devices are designed to learn your daily habits and adjust your home’s temperature accordingly. Unfortunately, common issues can lead to higher energy bills.
Faulty sensors, for example, can misread room temperatures, causing the HVAC system to run longer than necessary to reach the set point. Additionally, built-in AI learning can sometimes fail with irregular routines, leading thermostats to preheat unnecessarily or maintain high settings. Frequent manual overrides or mismatched auto-programs can also prevent energy savings and sometimes double monthly bills.
There’s no perfect solution to fully correcting these issues. However, there are things you can do to make this much more likely. When learning thermostats, it’s important to set the smart device’s time so its settings match what’s happening in your home. This means avoiding constant tinkering, even if you think your home is too hot or too cold at a given moment. It’s also important to use built-in Eco/Away modes and verify that the sensors are working properly. When in doubt, contact the manufacturers for best-use cases. Better yet, visit their websites, where you will find how-to documentation, many times in video format.
Shedding light on waste
High-tech bulbs, low-tech habits
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
Smart light bulbs remain among the most popular smart home products thanks to their affordability, simple setup, and versatile features like color customization, voice control, scheduling, and music-synced lighting effects. However, energy bills will quickly rise if multiple smart bulbs are left running for hours in low-use spaces.
Adding motion sensors, occupancy modes, and sunset/sunrise smart home automations is an effective way to address this. Using the most energy-efficient LED bulbs is another important step to reduce your energy bills.
The hidden “digital tax”
Breaking free from subscription fatigue
Credit: Bryan M. Wolfe / MakeUseOf
While the focus here is largely on electricity, it’s also important to note that “digital leaks” are just as real. These could include monthly fees for cloud storage on security cameras, premium thermostat features, or smart hub “pro” plans. These may sound good when you receive a new device and receive the extra feature for free for a limited time. However, in the long-run, they can cost you a lot of money.
Resolve this by auditing your subscriptions. Look for devices that offer local storage, for example, to eliminate monthly cloud fees, or remove the premium features you really don’t use. It could save you a significant amount of money each year.
Escaping the ecosystem trap
Reducing hardware redundancy and energy waste through a hub-first strategy
CSACredit: CSA
Finally, it’s important to review your entire smart home setup and see where it needs to be adjusted to suit your needs today, not how it was before. In other words, when most homeowners start buying smart products, they often do so without regard for the rest of the home. In the long term, this leads to ecosystem fragmentation, which can waste money in several ways.
First, it’s very likely you’re using redundant hardware that doesn’t make much sense. If you buy a Zigbee smart bulb, a thread-enabled plug, and a proprietary security system, you may end up needing three different “hubs” or bridges plugged into your wall. Every one of these hubs is an energy vampire and can add unnecessary costs to your monthly energy bill. You might also be using a smart device from a company that’s no longer in operation due to bankruptcy or consolidation. In this case, you may be using a device that is either no longer necessary or efficient.
To stop the drain of fragmented tech, you should commit to more “future-proofing.” This should start with finding products with the Matter logo on their packaging. Matter is a relatively new industry standard that ensures devices from different brands (such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung) work together. This prevents you from having to replace devices when you switch phone brands or smart assistants.
Moving forward, it’s also important to stay in your lane and take a “hub-first” strategy. Going forward, only buy gear that’s compatible with Apple HomeKit or Amazon Alexa. In the long run, this reduces the need for multiple bridges and extra wiring. This doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning products that aren’t compatible with your chosen path. If the devices are still useful and supported, keep them. Rather, from now on, only buy products that work with your preferred hub.
Finally, look for devices that work over your local Wi-Fi or Zigbee network and don’t require a cloud server. If the company goes out of business, the device still works, saving you from a forced upgrade.
Make the necessary changes
Smart home products often fail to save money due to “energy vampires” in standby mode, inefficient thermostat AI, and the accumulation of redundant hubs and subscription fees. To stop these leaks, homeowners should use auto-sleep settings and motion-sensor automations, and adopt a “hub-first” strategy with Matter-certified devices to reduce hardware clutter. By auditing your digital subscriptions and selecting products with local storage, you can eliminate hidden costs and ensure your home remains both convenient and cost-effective.
