13th March 2020 | IN DESIGN ADVICE | BY SBID ShareTweetPinterestLinkedIn Our smart home assistants must do more than play our favourite playlists and tell us the weather. In many ways they are becoming our life assistants; planning our days, telling us the news and controlling our home appliances. For years, homeowners have been able to customise the temperatures of their home using their smart devices. So what’s next? As homes become smarter, bringing greater benefits, so too will heating systems. By adopting smarter features, heat will be generated only when and where its required to the exact temperature that is optimal for every square foot. Simple upgrades to homes across the country will have a huge impact on comfort, convenience and energy bills. Homes will provide more control and improved thermal comfort of occupants by enabling the personalisation of each room. Smarter choices Smart heating systems are designed so users can easily control their thermostat directly from an app on their phone – whether you’re out, on the sofa or having a lie-in. This is an altogether better and smarter choice for people to keep out the cold this winter. With homes and heating systems becoming increasingly connected, the benefits are continuing to grow. With the Internet of Things (IoT) powering technology, users can control their heating wherever and whenever they want to. They can easily regulate temperatures when they need to, allowing you to schedule the house to warm up as you wake up and for your arrival. Not only this, but it allows you to save on heating when you’re away. These benefits demonstrate why smart heating devices have become so crucial to homes in 2019. For those who would like to do more to reduce their energy consumption and their heating bill, they must take into account reliability and overall performance when choosing the right heating solutions for their home. The good news is that heating products currently on the market are more efficient than ever thanks to innovations resulting from research and development. The right heating system will be one that adapts to your everyday home routine and begins saving you money. By setting your home to certain temperatures as quickly as possible, the app will help you to do just that. Take control of your energy consumption With the explosion of apps, it’s now possible to take control of at home appliances including heating, lighting and entertainment systems. Not only does this make it easier for individuals to control their appliances for heating in particular, it allows individuals to take control of their energy on the go to reduce their long-term energy consumption. With smart home assistants such as Google Assistant and Alexa joining the band wagon, it makes it easier than ever to control your heating. You can ask them to set your heating at a certain temperature, increase/decrease the heating and check what temperature your home is at. Smart heating systems will enable users to personalise their home environment according to their needs by allowing them to control the temperature and schedule in their home completely independently. By starting with a smart room thermostat and building a full multi-room system over time, this simple upgrade to heating appliances will have a huge impact on overall comfort, convenience and energy bills. Wiser Heat, a smart heating system by Schneider Electric, is one such solution. Wiser links radiator thermostats through the Internet of Things (IoT), while a phone app provides users convenient and complete control over home heating. This kind of IoT solution allows users to monitor the temperatures of individual rooms and change them remotely via their smartphone, wherever they are. Home improvers may now be striving for smarter, more connected homes, but they want something that’s plug and play. Smart heating systems fit the bill as they have no wires, no installation and no mess and of course, are better for the environment. Adopting technology like this is necessary if people want to reduce their energy consumption in the future. The most modern heating solutions will be key in facilitating smarter, more energy efficient homes for the benefit of our wallets and our planet. About the Author SBID Accredited Industry Partner, Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management and automation providing energy technologies, software and digital automation solutions for efficiency and sustainability in the home, buildings, data centres and more. This article was written by Nico van der Merwe, Vice President of Home & Distribution at Schneider Electric. If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more.