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Smart homes might be able feed your pet or unlock the door when you arrive, but here are BPI we are most interested inhow smart home technology can make your home more comfortable and efficient while lowering energy costs.

When smart home technology is working just right the home adapts to our habits. It eliminates energy use when we don't need it, and make sure the home is comfortable when we do. For example, the home may lower the heat when everyone is at work in winter but warm up to be toasty when we get home. Or it may shut off lights in unoccupied rooms but turn them back on when someone enters.

The important part is that smart homes don't ask us to do things differently to use less energy--they look for wasted energy and eliminate it, without us changing what we do at all!

Smart home technology is a new and growing field. It has tremendous potential to improve comfort while reducing home costs, but there's a lot to be done. There are so many ways that careful technology can improve quality of life. Designers and manufacturers are working hard to develop new tools to fill these gaps.

Recently BPI sponsored the Integrated Home Competition to help bring innovative new products to market. The contest is a project of the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, a group of over 100 efficiency programs who work together to accelerate energy efficient products and services to benefit the public.

We are tremendously excited by this year's winning designs. Some of them use familiar technologies, like a smart fan that makes your heating and cooling systems more effective. Some are less familiar, like a sensor to shut off your dryer as soon as the clothes are dry. But they share a dedication to making your home more comfortable and efficient.

We're glad to support this contest, which helps move some of the most innovative and exciting new designs to market each year. Check out all of the 2021 winners here and ask your local home performance contractor what measures might be right for your home!