Slash your energy costs with smart radiator thermostats

There was a time when we wouldn’t have hesitated to switch on the heating at this point, turning up the temperature on our radiator units and making sure the underfloor heating was coming on. But that was a few years ago, before our heating costs skyrocketed in the wake of a series of global events. Now, after suddenly being faced with extortionate energy bills, many households are having to consider their energy use more carefully.

What can you do to bring down your heating bill?

There are a number of ways you can reduce your heating costs, both with and without using smart technology. One solution is to make sure all your doors and windows are closed properly. To check this, feel along the door and window frames with your hand to see if you notice a draught. Sealing strips have a limited lifespan, so they lose their elasticity and sealing power over time and need to be replaced when they start letting the cold in. Heating up a room while it’s also being cooled down simply doesn’t make sense in these frugal times.

Something else worth considering is only switching your heating on when you need to. This is where smart radiator thermostats really come into their own: these can be programmed to turn down the temperature or switch off the heating in a room when no one’s at home, which will keep your heating costs down and ensure that heating isn’t being used to warm up a room unnecessarily.

There are lots of ways to use a smart radiator thermostat, and plenty of good reasons for doing so. For one thing, they can sense when a window has been opened and temporarily switch off the heating in that room. And – thanks to their inbuilt temperature monitor – they also know when to cut the heating if a room gets too warm, such as when sunlight is streaming in.

Incorporating connected radiator thermostats into a smart home system means you can programme them to activate in response to other sensors you have around the house. If you have a sun sensor or a temperature sensor, for instance, this can send readings to the thermostat via a smart controller such as the TaHoma switch. If the temperature is too high, it will switch off the radiator unit and then turn it back on again when the room has cooled down to a comfortable level. This has a number of benefits – not least for your household budget and for the environment.

Use smart binds and shutters to harness the power of the sun

If you have motorised blinds or shutters in your home, you can link these up to your radiator thermostats too. Smart sun shades like these are often connected to a sensor that enables them to activate in response to sunlight, high temperatures, wind or rain and controls them based on preselected values.

In the summer, you can use patio awnings to block the sun’s rays and prevent your home from getting too warm. The last thing you want to do when you get home after a day of soaking up the sun is to have to turn on your air conditioning, but luckily these pull-out awnings keep your indoor spaces cool too. And when the sun shines in the winter, your blinds and shutters can be opened up to let in as much warmth as possible – it would be crazy not to take advantage of this free source of heating in the colder months! And as the rooms inside your home warm up, your smart radiator thermostats can turn off the radiators for a while, which will save a bit more on your heating costs.

Roller blinds, curtains, Venetian blinds, Roman blinds and pleated blinds can all be used in the same way and you can link them up to connected radiator thermostats too.

Smart radiator thermostats often come with extra features – such as a child lock, which prevents curious little hands from fiddling with the temperature setting at every opportunity. This is a smart function, but you can also adjust the room temperature manually using the controls on the radiator units themselves, and the temperature will also be shown on the built-in display.

Investing in smart technology may seem like an expensive undertaking to begin with, but you can start small: think about which room in your home is most in need of a better heating solution and where you would like the temperature to adjust automatically. After all, even if you have a lot of radiators in your home, they don’t necessarily all have to be smart ones.

Smarten up your life at home with products from Somfy!