If you’re looking for a new way to help reduce the carbon footprint of your Morris County, NJ area home, you may not be thinking about what’s on your windows. However, how you manage the sun’s influence on your home can significantly impact the amount of energy you use. Motorized shades allow homeowners to easily control when the shades are open or closed. The effect can be a more efficient home that not only benefits the environment but helps your family save on monthly electricity bills. To learn more about these benefits, continue reading.

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Block the Heat

During the summer time, your AC is probably one of the biggest energy drains on your home. Part of the reason that your home gains so much heat throughout the day are your windows--where the sun’s rays access your home more easily through the transparent material. Closing the shades throughout the hottest parts of the day can help reduce the amount of heat entering your home and thus how hard your air conditioning has to work.

But who has time to close every shade, blind and drape throughout his or her home before leaving for work? That’s where motorized shades come into play. Using a “summertime” scene, you can have every shade close at the touch of one button. These energy saving benefits are further enhanced by a second level of control. When you leave home and secure your smart door lock, your system automatically goes into your typical away settings—which means automatically closed shades in the summer.

During the summer, we would recommend using solar shades that repel UV rays and therefore further reduce your energy use. Double rollers mean that you can have several shades on your windows at once, so you can use whatever is most appropriate for the time and the season.

Better Insulate Your Home

In the wintertime, your AC is replaced by the heat in terms of energy use. In this case, the sun’s natural heat can help you stop jacking up the heater. When you’re working, your home can be collecting heat by leaving the shades open. A “wintertime” scene programmed into your smart home system will make sure that all shades are open at the appropriate time.

When the sun starts to set, you’ll want those shades to be closed to help keep the heat from escaping through the window. By utilizing heat sensors, your shades can close when the temperature inside your house begins to drop. That way, your home will collect as much heat as possible before insulating your house.

Better Use the Light

All throughout the year, the sun’s light can be a natural and free way to light your home. By pairing your shades with home lighting control, you can make sure that you are not over lighting your home and therefore wasting electricity.

A solar sensor can track how much natural light is entering your home spaces. If it’s very bright, your lighting fixtures will dim down to reduce your overall energy consumption. When the sun starts to set or clouds obscure the sun, your lights will automatically brighten to help maintain a comfortable illumination level.

While lighting control is optimizing your energy use, it is also remembering and maintaining your preferred light settings. Let’s say you go into the kitchen and turn on the audio. Your system will recognize that this means you’re cooking or baking and therefore brighten the lights so it’s easier to focus on the tasks at hand.

Motorized shades help you use the sun to your advantage with minimal effort. To learn more, contact Total Home Technologies today.