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How to Leverage Your Home’s Data to Live Better

AcuRite Team |

Home weather stations have earned their place in your life by telling you about your personal environment, both outdoors and indoors. As other automated smart home devices become more common, you have an unprecedented opportunity to control your environment as well (the indoor part of it, at least). The sensors give you the data you need to make good decisions, and smart home controls provide a way to make the data actionable. Start with one of these ways to make all your data work together to help you save money and keep your family safe.

Inform Your Home Improvement Plans

Cross-referencing outdoor weather conditions with your indoor temperature sensors provides a surprisingly handy way to gauge which parts of your house need upgrades. Home-improvement decisions are often based on the best “bang for the buck” – how much your resale value improves based on the money you’ll have to spend – but looking at the data from your devices might just alter your priorities in favor of practical upgrades, rather than upscale finishes.

Indoor vs. Outdoor Conditions

Compare your indoor temperatures and heat usage with outdoor temperature and wind data for the same date and time. If some rooms or zones are impacted more heavily by low temperatures or high winds, you may want to upgrade to heavier insulation and better caulking, or more thermally efficient – or better installed – windows and doors. If you live in the Sunbelt, you can apply the same process to your cooling requirements.

Humidity

Monitor humidity levels throughout the house. If your bathrooms and kitchen are too humid, you may need to upgrade your venting capacity. If the data reveals elevated humidity levels in your attic, it’s a sign of poor airflow (and can lead to mold or rot), so you should budget for a ventilation upgrade. Persistently high or low humidity in any part of your home can have a noticeable effect on your comfort levels. If you don’t have whole-home humidity control, place a humidifier or dehumidifier on a smart power outlet, and turn it on and off as needed from wherever you are.

Temperature

Considering an investment in smart window coverings? They’re not only cosmetic; they also can contribute to your home’s energy efficiency. Their cost has dropped in recent years, bringing the purchase price to below $400/blind on some brands, and you’ll probably only need to place them on a couple of south-facing windows. 

Look at the hour-by-hour temperature data to learn when each room feels the sun’s impact. Depending on the season, you can react accordingly. In the summertime, you can tell smart curtains to close or blinds to change their angle to minimize the load on your heating system. In the winter, when you want that heat from the sun, set them to open as the sun tracks past. It’s a non-obvious contributor to your power bill, but it can have a long-term impact.

 

Pamper Your (Non-Human) Babies

Humans are pretty adaptable creatures. We have definite preferences about how much heat and humidity we like, but we can tolerate a relatively wide range. However, that isn’t necessarily the case for a lot of houseplants and exotic pets, which will thrive only in a consistently favorable environment.

Smart thermostats, or humidifiers and dehumidifiers connected to smart outlets, can help you achieve ideal conditions with ease. Smart temperature and humidity sensors like AcuRite’s, with their ability to contact you through the MyAcuRite app or website (which requires AcuRite AccessTM), can highlight issues before something goes wrong.

It’s not only living things that can benefit from this kind of active management. Wine cellars, humidor, and pantries are all places where the combination of sensors and environmental controls can help keep their contents in the best possible condition. That’s a great money-saver, aside from the peace of mind it provides.

Knowing Why Things Happen

One of the most appealing things about smart home devices is that they let you know what’s going on in your home. For example, AcuRite’s sensors let you know about everything from water leaks to a fridge door left open to a risk of your pipes freezing. When you receive one of those alerts, you can turn to your other smart devices to let you know why they’re happening.

Some of your best tools are home security cameras and access-control products, such as smart doorbells, locks, and full-bore security systems. You can pull data from them to learn which members (or non-members) of your household are coming and going at any given time. Then you’ll know who needs a stern lecture about closing the fridge door properly or closing windows when they leave the house.

If you mount cameras in areas of special concern, such as a crawlspace or your mechanical room, you can tap in remotely and make a visual check to learn the cause of the alert you received.

What Is a Smart Home Hub? Do I Need One?

You may be wondering if you need some sort of smart home manager, or “hub,” to receive the full benefit of your home automation system. It’s a valid question: Some devices send data along your power lines; others use Wi-Fi; and still others use low-power wireless communication options like Z-Wave or Zigbee. A central device that can capture your data across multiple platforms that provides unified visibility and control is certainly convenient.

In truth, while a hub is helpful, you don’t really need it. Most smart home devices have some kind of controller of their own, which are usually paired with a matching app and/or web-based interface for monitoring and control. If you don’t mind juggling apps and interfaces, you can do everything manually. You may even be able to export the data you really care about to collate it in a spreadsheet or database of your own.

The Middle Ground

There’s a middle ground as well, which is simply to choose smart home products that all fall within the same “ecosystem,” such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Google Assistant. It takes some time to set up and train each new device, but once you’ve finished, you’ll be able to simply say, “Hey, Alexa” or “Hey, Google” and ask for the information – or give the instructions – you want. For a lot of people, that’s the sweet spot, where savings (from skipping the hub) and convenience meet.

AcuRite sensors and weather stations are compatible with both the Amazon and Google ecosystems, so they’ll fit right in, no matter how you decide to set up your home.