SHEMS | SmartThings

How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint with SmartThings Energy

April 8, 2024 / SmartThings / No Comments

It’s Earth Month, which means now is the best time to activate a sustainability routine with SmartThings Energy.

Did you know? According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average American shells out $2,000 every year on energy bills. But guess what? Some of that money could be going down the drain because of how we use energy at home. With SmartThings Energy, you can save money while creating automated energy-saving routines. Enjoy peace of mind knowing you’re making your home and the planet better for you and your family.

Read on for tips on how to get the most out of SmartThings Energy, your smart appliances, and devices that work with SmartThings.

What is SmartThings Energy?

Ever wish you had a personal energy assistant? That’s SmartThings Energy. Available in the SmartThings app, SmartThings Energy helps you take control of your carbon footprint and cut your energy bills by letting you check your home energy use from anywhere.

Use the service to manage the energy usage of any of your devices that work with SmartThings, create energy-saving routines, get impactful energy-saving tips, and use AI Energy Mode to maximize your energy use.

Besides helping your devices run smarter, SmartThings Energy also supports you in larger energy-saving efforts. In times of high energy demand, energy suppliers may charge you higher rates, known as Demand Response. With SmartThings Energy, you can configure your #smart devices, such as your Nanoleaf lights, TP-Link plugs, and smart thermostat, to run less during these peak times. This not only cuts your energy bills but also helps the environment.

SmartThings Energy can also help you leave more money in your pocket. By simply monitoring and cutting down on your home energy use, you could score cash rewards and lower your utility bills with our energy savings programs! Stay tuned to learn more.

What is AI Energy Mode?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Energy Mode is an innovative feature within SmartThings Energy, which can save you up to 70% of energy consumption on select products and cycles.

AI Energy Mode learns your routines and adjusts your devices to save energy without you lifting a finger. It uses machine learning to recognize when your energy use goes beyond the targets you’ve set in SmartThings Energy. Plus, it gives you insights into why it happened.

Let’s look at some of the ways AI Energy Mode helps with your everyday routines.

Washer & Dryer: From your workout clothes to the kids’ athletic gear, it can feel like you’re constantly doing laundry, which means you’re using a lot of water.

Thankfully, AI Energy Mode optimizes your Samsung Bespoke Washer & Dryer. The Bespoke AI Washer adjusts wash cycles based on load size, potentially reducing energy usage by up to 70%. Meanwhile, the Bespoke AI Dryer monitors temperature and humidity, with AI Dry potentially cutting energy usage by up to 20%.

Refrigerator: Your fridge is a major energy consumer in your home, running constantly even when you’re not there. But what can you do about it? Turn to AI Energy Mode. It ensures you’re using your Samsung Bespoke Refrigerator efficiently by optimizing compressor speed, defrost cycles, and temperature settings, potentially reducing energy usage by 15% during operation and an additional 15% when not in use.

Whether you’re out of town or simply away for a while, rest assured that you’re conserving energy while keeping your groceries at their ideal temperature.

Air Conditioning: Typically, 43% of a home utility bill goes to heating and cooling. Now, with many of us working from home, our AC usage tends to increase, especially as warmer temperatures approach.

With AI Energy Mode, your Works with SmartThings thermostat becomes smarter, adjusting settings based on your usage patterns, room temperature, and humidity. No need to compromise your comfort to save energy.

TV: Whether you’re watching a movie at night or the baseball game during a bright, sunny Sunday with your Samsung Frame TV, AI Energy Mode ensures you always have the perfect brightness for the best viewing experience. Activating AI Energy Mode triggers your TV’s processor and sensors to detect and analyze your room’s environment and adjust the relevant settings, potentially saving up to 20% energy. No more fiddling with brightness settings.

Plus, if you accidentally leave the TV on in another room, it automatically dims its brightness when it detects no viewers for more than two hours.

This is just scratching the surface of what SmartThings Energy can do for you. Any way you use it, SmartThings Energy takes care of the little details so you can focus on what truly matters—living your life to the fullest.

This Earth Month, #DoTheSmartThings and download the SmartThings app in the Google Play or Apple Store to activate SmartThings Energy and start living a more sustainable life.

SmartThings Energy: Empowering Users to Manage Their Energy and Earn Rewards

April 21, 2023 / SmartThings / No Comments

As more of us connect more things to the power grid, from appliances and TVs, to smart blinds and cars, energy demand keeps going up. And when many of us use energy at the same time — like when we all turn our coffee makers on in the morning, plug in cars after work, or run the dishwasher after dinner — that demand can be more than the grid normally supplies.

To deal with this, utility providers may have to generate that additional electricity using older or more carbon-intensive methods. Or they will sometimes charge more for energy during these “peak” demand periods to encourage people to reduce their energy. This is often called “Demand Response”. Most consumers want their utility bills and carbon footprints low, but it can be hard for the average user to keep an eye on their energy use, let alone control it!

This is where SmartThings Energy comes in. As a first-of-its-kind ENERGY STAR-certified Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS), our service allows users like you to reduce demand on the grid during peak and emergency situations, lower your energy costs, and manage and automate the energy use of any compatible smart devices within your home.

How do we do it? SmartThings-enabled Samsung appliances, along with a growing number of Works With SmartThings devices, allow you to measure and manage your energy use through the SmartThings app. To take this to the next level, we’ve partnered with utility providers and grid-service programs to help you manage your energy costs, earn rewards, and help reduce energy demand across the grid.

SmartThings users in eligible areas can now get real-time insights and suggestions on how to manage their consumption during peak demand periods — and earn cash rewards for participating in demand response programs.

Unlock Energy Savings and Improve Grid Reliability

If you’re a New York or California resident, activate SmartThings Energy in the SmartThings app and enter your zip code to see if you’re eligible to participate in our demand response programs with Logical Buildings and Enersponse. By participating, you’ll receive cash payments, save on your utility bills, and reduce the carbon footprint of your connected home devices. And, as a plus, you’ll provide measurable support to your community via demand response services such as load shedding during peak demand, helping to reduce the need for carbon-intensive peak energy generation.

Once registered, you’ll be notified in real-time if you’re using energy during peak hours and can take action to reduce your consumption immediately. Think: delaying the use of your dishwasher or switching to a more efficient mode. While you may not realize it, these actions can significantly offset your overall energy costs— and can lower demand across an entire zip code!

The Future of Energy Management is Here

We’re working hard to enable additional demand response and utility programs to connect our users to, with the goal of empowering you with more visibility and control over your energy use. SmartThings Energy is more than a service – it’s a powerful tool that makes it easy for you to take control of your energy usage, reduce your carbon footprint, and contribute to a more sustainable future.

Ready to take action? Visit https://www.smartthings.com/smartthings-energy to learn more about our energy initiatives.

Samsung “Does the SmartThings” at CES 2023

January 20, 2023 / SmartThings / No Comments

We brought “Calm” to CES 2023, with an up-close look at how SmartThings can seamlessly integrate into your daily lives through our latest innovations. While many of our announcements stood out among exhibitors, the new SmartThings Station received the most buzz and excitement from both the media and industry. Want to know more? Read on for all of our highlights and stand-out announcements.

Bringing Calm to Our Connected World

We believe your smart home should work for you — and create a sustainable, safe, convenient (and even fun) living environment. While we have big dreams for what a calm connected world looks like, we demonstrated it at CES through the onboarding experience. In 2023, when you buy a Samsung device, SmartThings will simply ask you if you want to add it to your connected home. Instead of several steps to onboard the device, you only need to answer yes or no, making it more convenient for you to experience connected, smart living.

Hub Everywhere

Furthering our mission for Hub Everywhere, we introduced two new Matter-capable hubs for 2023: our TVs and the new SmartThings Station, a compact, wireless charger that also doubles as a hub to connect your smart home devices and create routines. Ready for bed? Just program the Station to automatically turn off your lights and TV for a custom night routine.

Sustainability

Saving energy matters now more than ever, which is why we’re placing sustainability at the core of our user experience. At CES, we announced our initiatives for sustainable living and commitment to making Net Zero Homes a reality with SmartThings Energy — a tool that’ll give you real-time data on your energy, water, and natural gas usage to help you reduce your carbon footprint (and your monthly energy bill). Because of our sustainability efforts, our connected home experience is the first mass-market Smart Home Energy Management System (SHEMS) to earn Energy Star certification.

SmartThings in the News

With an emphasis on our innovative technology and smart home solution, we received many awards and accolades during CES 2023. One of the most notable is the “Best of CES” award from Engadget for our ability to control connected devices throughout the home seamlessly. We also earned the “CES Innovations” award from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) for making smart home technology more accessible and user-friendly.

The accolades didn’t stop there. Cementing our status as the most versatile and comprehensive smart home solution on the market, we were featured across top-tier, tech and consumer media outlets including Bloomberg, The Verge, CNET, TechCrunch, Men’s Journal, and USA Today’s Reviewed.

CES 2023 was a success, and we could not have done it without our partners, customers, and employees. Stay tuned for more updates on our latest products and innovations, as we further our commitment to creating one simple home system with a world of possibilities.