Checking the cost: Do smart homes really save energy?

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Smart Home

Do smart homes save energy? Are all our cool, connected gadgets really going to rescue the planet, one iconic design at a time? It’s an often-touted benefit of ditching your old, plastic white gadgets in favour of shiny new black ones. But is it accurate? Yes and no.

The sustainable living movement and the smart home have come of age together over the last few decades, enjoying a beneficial but sometimes uneasy partnership. Yes, smart home devices can save resources. No, not all of them will. Some, such as always-on smart speakers and connected cameras actually use more, because they’re not replacing an energy load, they’re adding one (although not a significant one). Others, including smart thermostats and AI-powered water and energy monitoring systems, are forging a path to a brighter, greener future – and saving us some cash along the way.

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INSPIRATION Smart home tours: Lennar's ready-to-go South Carolina smart home - The Ambient

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Smart Home

Do most people really want a smart home, they just don’t know it yet? That’s what Lennar, one of America’s largest homebuilders believes, and that is why the 65-year-old company announced last year that it would outfit all its new homes with home automation tech as standard.

Those new homes – equipped with Wi-Fi Certified home design, Alexa voice control, and a starter kit of smart home tech – have now started to roll on to the market. We went to check one out in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

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How to Redecorate Your Apartment with Your Phone - Rent.com

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Whether you’re looking to completely revamp your apartment’s living space or simply want to freshen up a few pieces of your home décor, your phone can offer the insight and inspiration you need to nail the look you’re going for – all for much less than what an interior designer might cost.

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How to Use Your Phone to Search for Homes and House Plans - The House Designers

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House Hunting

Whether you’re looking to buy or build a new home, just starting your home search, or deep in the process of finding your forever home, your phone can be a portal to all the information you need. From honing in on the perfect location to getting alerts when new listings hit the market, these tips for digital home searching can help you find your perfect home from the palm of your hand.


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Why Won't My Phone Connect to WiFi? How to Troubleshoot | Xfinity

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As WiFi becomes more a part of our everyday lives, figuring out how to fix it when it’s “broken” is crucial. Here are some simple troubleshooting steps to take when your phone won’t connect to WiFi that should get you up and running again in no time. Enjoy WiFi access on the go with millions of free Xfinity WiFi hotspots nationwide.

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How I Prepare My Smart Home for a Hurricane - Mother Earth News

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Smart Home

As a resident of South Carolina, my fall pastime these last few years has become evacuating for hurricanes. In 2016, it was Matthew, then came Irma, and this year, as the wrath of Hurricane Florence barreled towards the Carolinas, I packed up my family once again and headed for safety.


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6 Ways to Keep Tabs on Your Family Using Smart Home Technology - Digitized House

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One of the many benefits of smart home technology is the ability to keep tabs on your home when you can’t be there. Forgot to turn off the lights? Do it remotely. Not sure if you shut the garage door? Check on your smartphone and close it. But did you realize you can also use smart home devices to monitor the people in your home? More specifically and most importantly, you can use smart home devices to keep tabs on your children.

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August Doorbell Cam Pro Review - The Ambient

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August Doorbell

Smart doorbells are fast becoming the gateway drug to the smart home. Easy to install, insanely useful, and conveniently bypassing the privacy and security concerns of many smart home devices (because they’re outside the house), there really isn’t a good reason not to get one. So, the question is, which one?

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Extreme weather is taking us by storm - eSurance

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And people are shockingly unprepared, despite high-tech solutions

Extreme weather events are on the rise. Last year, the U.S. suffered 16 major natural disasters — up 33 percent from the year before — with collective recovery costs of over $300 billion. The seemingly relentless mix of hurricanes, wildfires, blizzards, floods, tornadoes, and droughts racked up the highest bill in history. And it's predicted that this upward trend will continue.

A recent study by Esurance revealed that the vast majority of U.S. residents have experienced at least 1 major weather catastrophe in the past 5 years. And although 80 percent of respondents expressed concern about the increasing pace of these events, less than half believe that their communities are getting better at handling them. Furthermore, only 17 percent felt they were personally prepared for an unexpected natural disaster.

In our analysis, we discovered that people continue to leave themselves and their homes vulnerable to Mother Nature's wrath, despite all the powerful tools that are now available to help. But if we can start to take advantage of what tech has to offer, we could better weather the storms.

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​Smart home wiring 101: A beginner's guide - The Ambient

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Smart Home Wiring

The beauty of today’s smart home is that it’s mostly wire-free. Wireless protocols such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE have done away with the need to install complex and expensive whole-home electrical systems just to control your smart lights remotely.

In the modern smart home, all you need is a smartphone and a Wi-Fi router to unlock the power of connected devices. Most of the time. 

There are still some key devices you are going to have to hardwire though. This is not so they can work with wireless smart home systems, but because they need to communicate with your “dumb” appliances, such as heating and air conditioning systems, irrigation pumps and the electrical wires running through your ceilings and walls.


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A Cinder Block Duplex in Charleston Is Recast as a New York–Style Loft - Dwell

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Charleston Home

The industrial-modern Metamorphosis House is now a showcase for art.

When architect Kevan Hoertdoerfer was asked to turn "probably the ugliest house in Charleston" into the proverbial swan, he was both thrilled and apprehensive. "It’s a dream to have a client who gives you an open book," he says of the instruction to do anything he wanted. "On the other hand, you’re compelled to do something really powerful." The resulting metamorphosis of a squat 1950s cinder block duplex into a concrete and glass neighborhood standout leaves no trace of its ugly duckling origins.

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3 Smart Home Devices to Sell Your House Faster - Dwell (VIDEO)

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Smart Home

Offering new conveniences, energy savings, safety, and security, pre-installed home automation devices are quite appealing to buyers.

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5 Smart Home Upgrades That Are Good for Your Pocket and the Planet - Green Homes - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

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The synergy between the smart home and the sustainable home is a beautiful thing. Technology brings conveniences, and by reducing our consumption of water and energy, sustainability brings savings. Put these two powerful features together, and you have the sustainable smart home. This is a home that saves its owner money and the planet precious resources—by automating many of the things we forget to do, don’t know how to do, or don’t realize we need to do.

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How to Make Your Home-Based Business Greener - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

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Green Business

Taking steps to make your business “greener” is a win/win. It can help your bottom line, improve your company’s image and promote a healthier planet. As the owner of a home-based business, you have an advantage over most companies: Your carbon footprint is already smaller thanks to cutting out a daily commute and the expense of heating, cooling and lighting an extra space. Use this head-start wisely and be sure to implement a “Green Policy,” even if you’re your only employee.

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XFINITY | Tethering & Hotspots: How to Stay Connected Wherever You Go

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Thanks to our smartphones, we’re always connected: We can keep in touch with the office from the beach, check our email in the school pick-up line, or post a picture of our lunch to social media just for fun. But what about the rest of our devices? When we’re not connected to our office or home Internet, how do we get our laptops and tablets online? Here we’ll look at how to use WiFi hotspots and smartphone tethering to make sure that wherever you go, whichever device you want to use, you can always stay connected.

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