Can smartphones cut your heating bill?

Apps that allow you to control your heating are becoming more and more popular, and with claims that they can reduce your heating bill my as much as much as 20% or even 30%, we looked at the facts.

There are a number of key players in this up and coming new market, with the most formidable being British Gas and their Hive app. The app, like many others, allows the user to control their domestic or commercial heating system from and smart phone such as the iPhone, from anywhere at any time (given there is an internet connection of course).  But it doesn’t stop there, some systems can control the temperature of individual rooms, set timers, remotely shut down or fire up the heating system and much more.

Some of the more sophisticated systems use GPS technology to analyse your location, and calculate how far away you are from you home or business and adjust the heating settings and temperature accordingly.  You can turn your hot water off if you don’t need a shower for example, or if your working late you can shut everything down.

The potential savings you could make by having such as system are a very real possibility.  The upfront cost for installing such a system however, may be off-putting to some, but the rewards will be reaped within a year or two depending on usage.