A Smart Way to Cut Down Your Energy Bill Each Month

Ah, Florida. The fun weekends at the beach and snow-free winters come at a cost: blazing hot summers. If you’ve resigned yourself to paying ridiculously high energy bills each month to keep from breaking out into a sweat in your home, we have some good news for you. Here it is: your smart home automation system can help reduce your energy bill and cool down your home during these summer months. The key to cooler summer months lies in motorized shades. Whether you’re in Palm Harbor, Clearwater, or another Tampa area, you’ll want to keep reading to learn how this smart technology works.

The Cause of Heat in Your Home

Before we can talk about how motorized shades work to cool off your home, we need to lay the groundwork by talking about how the heat gets into your home in the first place. After all, you’re not likely running the heater during the summer months. The scientific term for the process is called solar heat gain. Essentially, the sun’s rays shine down on your home, and they find easy entry through your windows. The average window only reflects a small amount of the heat generated from the sun, while the rest passes through the glass. Especially with older homes, the amount of solar radiation to enter the windows is quite substantial.

Your air conditioning unit may be working overtime to try to cool the space, but it won’t ever fully succeed. It’s like running an air conditioner and heater in the same room.

The Solution to Solar Heat Gain

The way to solve the problem is to cover the windows. Now, that seems simple enough in theory, but who wants to live in a home without any natural light? You have windows for a reason, so why not use them?

Opening and closing the window shades multiple times a day is the best approach, but understandably, very few homeowners are willing to spend the time doing so (assuming you’re even available at the right time and remember in the first place). This is where smart technology can do a world of good.

Motorized shades look just like regular blinds or drapery, but they are far more effective at keeping your home cool. They use smart sensors to track the amount of heat entering the room through the windows and then adjust automatically to balance the beauty of natural sunlight with a reasonable energy bill.

You can also program the shades to open and close at set times throughout the day. So if you know you’re going to be gone from nine to six each business day, set the shades to close as you leave in the morning and open right before you get home.

The type of material you use on your windows can also affect how well solar heat gain is blocked. Certain motorized shade brands such as QMotion provide materials specifically engineered to reduce the amount of solar radiation even further than normal.

If you’d like to see motorized shades in action, give us a call at (727) 441-9292 or fill out this quick questionnaire! We’d be happy to walk you through the different options for upgrading your home’s window coverings.