The smart home industry loves to paint a picture of fully automated homes where everything talks to everything and your house anticipates your every need. In reality, most smart home setups are half-configured, running three different apps, and that one bulb in the hallway still won’t connect to the hub.

But for energy management specifically, there are a handful of automations that genuinely save money without requiring a computer science degree. Here they are, ranked from easiest to hardest.

Tier 1: Set and forget (30 minutes or less)

Hot water timer. If you’ve got an electric hot water system (tank type), put it on a timer switch so it only heats between 10am and 2pm. This costs about $50 for the timer switch and an electrician’s visit. If you’ve got solar, you’re now heating water with free energy instead of overnight grid power. Savings: $200-400/year.

Pool pump timer aligned to solar. If you’ve got a pool, running the pump during solar hours instead of overnight saves you the full grid rate on 6-8 kWh of daily consumption. Most pool pumps already have timers. Just change the schedule. Savings: $500-800/year for a typical pool.

Off-peak EV charging. Set your EV charger to start at 10pm (or whenever your off-peak rate kicks in). Every EV charger and most EVs themselves have this feature built in. Savings compared to peak charging: $400-700/year.

Tier 2: Some setup required (1-2 hours)

Smart plugs on high-draw appliances. A $30 smart plug on your washing machine or dryer can be scheduled or triggered based on solar production. Use a basic automation: if solar production exceeds 3kW, turn on the smart plug. If it drops below 2kW for more than 10 minutes, turn it off. This works with Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, or even basic Tuya/Smart Life apps. Savings: $100-200/year.

Thermostat scheduling. A smart thermostat (Sensibo for split systems, or Ecobee/Google Nest for ducted) lets you pre-cool your house during solar hours rather than blasting air conditioning during the evening peak. Set it to cool to 23 degrees between noon and 3pm, then let the house coast through the evening. Savings: $150-400/year depending on your cooling load.

Ceiling fan automation. Smart ceiling fan controllers ($50-80) can be scheduled or triggered by temperature sensors. Run fans instead of air conditioning when temperatures are moderate. A ceiling fan uses about 50W; an air conditioner uses 1,500-3,000W. For shoulder-season days, fans are dramatically cheaper.

Tier 3: Proper home automation (half a day)

Solar-diverting EV charging. Chargers like the Zappi can dynamically adjust charging speed based on surplus solar production. This requires installation of a CT clamp on your grid connection and some configuration. Once set up, your EV automatically charges with excess solar — faster when the sun’s strong, slower when clouds pass, stopped when production is low. Savings: meaningful if you’d otherwise be exporting at 5 cents and charging at 30+ cents.

Home Assistant energy dashboard. Home Assistant (free, open-source) can pull data from your solar inverter, smart meter, and individual devices to give you a comprehensive energy dashboard. It shows exactly where your energy goes and lets you build automations around real-time data. Setup takes a few hours if you’re technically comfortable, longer if you’re not.

Battery charge/discharge scheduling. If you’ve got a home battery, most management systems have basic scheduling. But more sophisticated setups (via Home Assistant or manufacturer APIs) can optimise based on tomorrow’s weather forecast, tariff rates, and predicted consumption. This is where things get genuinely smart.

What’s not worth the effort

Smart bulbs for energy saving. LED bulbs use so little energy that the savings from smart scheduling are negligible. Smart bulbs are great for convenience and ambience, but don’t buy them expecting energy savings.

Automated blinds for thermal management. In theory, closing blinds before the afternoon sun hits your windows reduces cooling load. In practice, the energy savings from automated blinds rarely justify the $300-500 per window cost. Manual blinds work fine.

Whole-house energy monitors without action. A Powerpal or Sense monitor shows you interesting data, but data without action doesn’t save money. Only invest in monitoring if you’re actually going to change your behaviour based on what you see.

My setup

I run Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 4 with integrations for my Fronius inverter, Tesla Powerwall, Zappi EV charger, and Sensibo air conditioner controllers. The key automations:

1. Hot water runs during solar peak (timer relay)
2. EV charging diverts surplus solar (Zappi built-in)
3. Air conditioning pre-cools before evening peak (Sensibo + Home Assistant)
4. Notifications when daily solar production falls below expected (Home Assistant)

Total cost of the automation equipment (excluding the major appliances): about $500. Annual savings: roughly $1,200. Payback period: five months. For more advanced setups, AI consultants in Gold Coast and Brisbane are working on home energy AI systems that go beyond basic automation into predictive optimisation.

You don’t need everything at once. Start with Tier 1, see the savings on your bill, and decide if Tier 2 and 3 are worth your time. For most people, a hot water timer and pool pump schedule get you 80% of the benefit with 20% of the effort.