Smart Home 2026: Cut Heating and Power Costs at Home

Anyone who wants to cut energy costs at home should start where the most is consumed - and that is clearly heat. In private households, around two thirds (German Environment Agency) of total energy consumption goes to heating the rooms alone, and together with hot water it is even 82.7 percent (German Environment Agency) of consumption. By comparison, the electricity for lights, the television and the fridge makes up only a small part. That is precisely why it pays to look at the heating first: even small improvements act on a very large item here.

The problem with a conventional heating system is that it is usually controlled by feel or not at all. The thermostat on the radiator often stays at the same level all day, even when no one is home or the sun is already warming the room. This is exactly where a smart thermostat comes in: it regulates the temperature automatically according to the daily routine, presence and even the weather - and thus avoids unnecessary heating that you simply do not keep in mind in everyday life.

Smart radiator thermostats replace the old dial on the radiator and control the temperature via a schedule or app. The decisive difference from a manual thermostat is that the heating adapts to everyday life on its own: the bathroom becomes warm in time in the morning, the living room in the evening, the bedroom stays cool during the day. According to the German Federal Office for Information Security, smart thermostats can reduce energy consumption by up to 30 percent (BSI). An independent study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics arrived at savings of up to 28 percent (Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics).

These savings do not come from a single trick, but from the interplay of several functions. Absence detection throttles the heating when no one is there and, in the Fraunhofer study, brought up to 23 percent (Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics) savings. Open-window detection stops the heating during airing and saved up to 12 percent (Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics). Adapting to the weather forecast contributed up to 6 percent (Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics). Each function sounds modest on its own, but in total there is a clear effect.

An honest classification is important: the figures cited are maximum values under favourable conditions. How much adds up in a specific household depends on the building, on heating behaviour and on whether the devices are set up sensibly. A smart thermostat that runs in continuous operation because it is wrongly programmed saves little. That is precisely why correct setup is so important - and that is exactly the part we take on for you on site.

The second big lever is electricity - more precisely, the time at which you consume it. With a dynamic electricity tariff, the price follows the current exchange price and fluctuates over the course of the day. Since 2025, all electricity providers in Germany have had to offer such dynamic tariffs (Federal Network Agency), and since mid-2025 billing has even been in a 15-minute interval. That means 96 price points (priwatt) per day, showing when electricity is expensive and when it is especially cheap.

Electricity is often cheap at night, at midday with plenty of sun and whenever there is a lot of wind or solar power in the grid. In such phases the price can drop sharply - in 2025 there were already over 300 hours (priwatt) with negative electricity prices, when electricity effectively cost nothing or was even credited. It tends to be expensive in the morning and early evening, when everyone cooks, washes and heats at the same time. With fixed tariffs the price for new customers is currently around 32 to 38 cents per kilowatt-hour (priwatt), while with dynamic tariffs it fluctuates between about 25 and 42 cents (priwatt) depending on the time of day.

The trick is to shift flexible loads into the cheap times: the dishwasher, the washing machine, charging the electric car or a battery storage. Doing this by hand means constantly keeping an eye on the app - in the long run that is more stress than saving. That is why automation is the actual key, and this is exactly where smart sockets come in. Incidentally, without flexibility a dynamic tariff can also become more expensive than a fixed price (ADAC) - so the technology should do the thinking, not the person.

Smart sockets are small plug adapters that go between the wall socket and the device and can be switched by schedule or rule. Combined with a dynamic tariff, they become a small energy manager: they switch connected devices on precisely when electricity is cheap and pause them during the expensive hours. This way the dishwasher runs at night, the fan heater in the bathroom only briefly before getting up, and the standby consumption of the entertainment electronics is cut off entirely overnight.

An often underestimated point is standby consumption: televisions, game consoles, router accessories and chargers draw power around the clock, even when no one uses them. A smart socket that takes these devices completely off the grid at night saves unnoticed all year round. Anyone who wants to know exactly can use sockets with a measuring function to see which device consumes how much - a good basis for finding the biggest power guzzlers.

For this to run smoothly in everyday life, a stable home network is needed - otherwise sockets and thermostats lose the connection and stop responding. That is why, before every setup, we check the wireless coverage throughout the house and fix dead spots; how this succeeds is described in our article on stable Wi-Fi throughout the house. On this basis we link thermostats and sockets into sensible sequences that work in the background.

The honest answer is: it depends on the consumption profile. Those who can shift only a little consumption save less through a dynamic tariff; those with a heat pump, an electric car or a battery storage benefit considerably more. For a four-person household with typical consumption, a market overview cites savings of around 200 to 300 euros per year (priwatt) through the dynamic tariff alone, and with good optimization using controllable devices 300 to 600 euros (priwatt). Shifting EV charging to the night alone can amount to 125 to 250 euros (priwatt) per year.

On top of that come the savings on heating. If smart thermostats save 20 to 30 percent of heating consumption, that is around 200 to 360 euros per year (German Federal Office for Information Security) depending on the household. Both levers together add up for many households to a three-digit to low four-digit amount per year - enough that the manageable investment in thermostats and sockets pays for itself after a few years and provides lasting relief thereafter.

As large as the savings potential is, it just as easily fails in practice: thermostats that are wrongly programmed, apps that no one understands, dynamic tariffs that bring more effort than benefit without automation. This is exactly where our on-site service comes in. We come to your home, look at the radiators, the home network and your daily routine and set up the technology so that it really saves - rather than disappearing into a drawer.

In doing so, we attach importance to a solution that stays beginner- and senior-friendly. No one has to become a tech expert. We patiently explain how to briefly change a temperature by hand, how to tell that everything is running and what to do in case of doubt. Anyone who generally feels unsure with technology will find additional thoughts in our article on smart home for seniors, because simple operation helps every generation.

We stay reachable for later questions - as a fixed contact person, not an anonymous call center. If your everyday life changes or you would like to expand the system, we adjust the settings. You can learn more about our approach and the setup of smart heating and sockets on the services page. This turns individual devices into a coherent system that saves energy and money year after year.