Do Smart Lights Save Money

On the surface, smart technology can seem like just another gadget to upgrade for the sake of an upgrade. At first glance, maybe the mood lighting options caught your attention, or the fact that you can turn off the lights from another room entirely, but under the surface, these “superficial” upgrades can actually lead to meaningful changes. One meaningful change we’re talking about, is the energy and money you will save. So, do smart lights save money ?

We have written about smart lights here if you have yet to read about their many benefits, as today we will focus on one, how they can save you money. Saving money with smart lights is not apparent overnight, which is why it’s a question worth breaking down.

An LED light can cost around 40 dollars and last around 50,000 hours. While, incandescent lights can cost around 5 dollars or less, but last about 2,000 hours. Already, we can deduct that the 40 dollars over time will stretch itself out for longer, but that’s not the only thing we can factor in. 

How do smart lights save money:

Mood lighting – This superficial innovation has more benefits than you might think. Using the dimmer switch when bright lights aren’t necessary is a small way you can save energy and in time reduce your energy bill. 

Remote Lighting – Creating a smart product essentially means it can operate automatically and be controlled remotely, thus creating an easier life. You can program your lights to turn off when its dark if you left the house in the day, program your lights to be on only in the rooms you occupy, alert your phone when a light is on, but you are out of the house. There are so many options that make it impossible to accidentally leave all the lights on while on vacation. This benefit doesn’t just make life easier, but also means on average the lights are turned off far more often and with more certainty for fewer hours a day than an incandescent or fluorescent light. 

You might have heard of something called “vampire devices” when referring to smart lights, but this is also known as standby lighting which essentially means that the device still consumes energy even when it’s not on. It’s important to note this because when turned off it only consumes around 1 watt or less of power. If you have any chords plugged in to outlets that aren’t in use, this is another version of Standby power. You can take this away as a negative, but overall we believe that counting pennies when you could be counting dollars is not the strategy. 

As Smart lights last around 25 times longer, it’s not until time has passed that we will be able to see the savings. However, with the information, and estimate calculator, we have gathered that at the price of an average LED light and its lifespan, you save around 180 dollars a year. Switching to smart lighting doesn’t have to break the bank by changing all your lights at once, but little by little you can start saving 40 dollars a month and eventually see the big difference that all those little changes over time have made. Not only do smart lights save money, but they create a safer and easier home too.