It’s no secret that smart home devices can make your home more sustainable and energy efficient. Smart thermostats can reduce energy wastage by learning your routines, smart lights can turn off automatically when someone leaves the room, and leak-detection systems can stop you from wasting water. However, all these devices cost money, and upgrading every element of your home to be eco-friendly can prevent you from making more significant eco-friendly choices elsewhere (e.g., investing in solar panels or buying a bike to use instead of a car).
Making eco-friendly choices shouldn’t have to cost the earth, so we’ve gathered together some tips to help you make your smart home more sustainable. We’ll cover ways to make your home more eco-friendly by working with common smart home devices you may already own. We’ll also suggest an optional step you can take if you’re willing to spend money.
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5 Change your smart light’s colors and brightness
Smart lights can have a massive impact on a sustainable household
Smart lights are one of the most ubiquitous smart home devices as they’re easy to install and use. They’re also relatively cheap and are sold by reputable companies like Philips and IKEA. Depending on your smart light type, you may have access to multiple eco-friendly features. Some of these features rely on other smart home devices, but changing your smart lights’ colors and brightness is an easy way to improve their energy efficiency.
Changing the color of your smart lights isn’t just a fun gimmick, it can drastically reduce their energy usage. According to Phillips, your smart lights can use up to 79% less energy by using a color other than white (Blue, red, and green are the most efficient colors). Note that this doesn’t mean you have to live in a kaleidoscope at night; you just have to change your smart light settings to reduce the white point. This has other benefits too, for example, changing your smart lights to show more red can result in better sleep.
Adjusting your smart lights’ brightness is a more obvious step you can take to reduce their energy use. Companion apps for smart lights come with brightness settings; even reducing your smart lights’ brightness to 90% can result in 10% or more energy savings. Exact energy savings vary depending on the make and model of your smart lights, but you’ll always save energy. When you pair these smart light tips with routines, you can see even more energy savings.
4 Routines can make all your smart home devices more energy-efficient
Don’t use energy when you don’t need to
Routines are baked into smart home management apps like Google Home or SmartThings. They let you automate your smart home devices to trigger specific tasks at set moments. The range of options available to you lets you make your smart home more energy-efficient by only turning on smart home devices when you need them.
For example, a routine can turn off or lower your thermostat settings when you leave the house. While time settings on thermostats are nothing new, these are locked to specific times. Triggering a routine for leaving the house can lower the target temperature for your home, no matter what time you leave. You can then trigger a routine for returning home that can raise your home’s temperature to comfortable levels before you get back. This is significantly more efficient than leaving the heating on all day. You can apply the same routines to your smart lights, so you never need to worry about leaving the lights on.
You can set up routines with Google Home, Samsung’s Bixby, and Amazon Alexa. Google Home is the most straightforward platform for creating routines for your household, but most smart home platforms offer similar capabilities for routines.
3 Monitor energy usage and turn off devices remotely
Identify your devices that use the most energy
Some smart plugs and power strips can track the energy your devices use. This is a great way to identify devices that drain energy while on standby, like TVs and video game consoles. You can then turn these devices off from the smart plug or power strip, ensuring that they are not left on standby.
If you don’t have smart plugs or power strips with energy-tracking features, you still might be able to monitor your smart devices’ energy use. The smart home standard Matter was updated last year to let you track real-time energy consumption and energy usage over time. If you’re not familiar with Matter, it’s a standard that lets smart home devices from different manufacturers talk to each other. Check with your smart home devices’ manufacturers to see if your device supports Matter 1.3, which is the version that includes these energy tracking features.
2 Use every feature of your smart thermostat
Your smart thermostat packs a ton of energy-saving features
If you own a smart thermostat, you’re probably already using some of its energy-saving features. The simplest one is setting a schedule for your heating system, but it’s capable of much more than that, like taking advantage of smart routines as we discussed earlier in this article. On top of routines, which are available for most smart home devices, you can take advantage of these smart features. We’ve used Google’s basic Nest Thermostats as an example, but you can find most of these features across other brands of smart thermostats. More expensive devices, like Google’s Nest Learning Thermostat, have even more features.
- Adjust heating schedules wherever you are.
- Get suggestions for reducing energy use even more (for example, if it detects a change in your sleep pattern).
- See detailed breakdowns of your energy use.
- Dynamically adjust to seasonal changes.
A smart thermostat can only help you create a more eco-friendly house if you use all of its features. Taking a few minutes to explore these can drastically improve your home’s energy efficiency.
1 Check for updates regularly
Don’t rely on automatic updates
Smart home devices regularly receive updates for bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features. Installing new updates opens the door to potential new energy-saving features that can make your home more eco-friendly. The Matter 1.3 update we discussed earlier is a clear example of why you want to regularly update your smart home. The later Matter 1.4 update also made battery-powered devices more efficient. Updates to other smart home features, like routines, can also help you design a more efficient smart home.
Smart home devices can update automatically, but it’s always good to perform a manual check. Do this once a month for all your devices to ensure you’re abreast of all the latest features for your devices.
You don’t have to spend money to make your home more eco-friendly, but it helps
As you can see, you can take many simple steps to make your home more eco-friendly without spending a dollar. However, if you don’t already own one, buying a smart thermostat can have the biggest impact on your home’s energy usage. This purchase can reduce the cost of your heating bill, saving you money and making your home more sustainable.
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Best smart thermostats in 2025
Control your home temperature with ease
