Smart Home Energy Savings Calculator

Check whether smart thermostats, plugs and lighting pay for themselves, and how long the payback period actually is.

About Smart Home Energy Savings Calculator

Simple payback divides the up-front cost by the recurring annual benefit to get the number of years before the smart home upgrade has paid for itself. Everything after that point is net gain, which the lifetime figures make explicit. Payback is the first screen most buyers apply: a system that pays back inside its warranty period is a very different proposition from one that does not.

Formula

Smart Home Energy Savings

Payback (years) = Smart home hardware and install cost ÷ annual monthly energy saving

Smart home hardware and install cost: Up-front cost
Monthly energy saving: Recurring saving or return per month

Worked example

With the default values below, Smart Home Energy Savings Calculator returns Payback Period of 2.08. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Smart home hardware and install costminimum 0: 350
Monthly energy savingminimum 0: 14
Expected lifeaccepts 1–60 years: 10 years

Results

Payback Period: 2.08 years
Payback Period: 25.0 months
Lifetime Saving: $1,680.00
Net Lifetime Benefit: $1,330.00
Lifetime Return: 380.0%

Step by step

1Values used
2Smart Home Energy Savings
3Payback Period= 2.08 years
4Payback Period= 25.0 months
5Lifetime Saving= 1,680.00
6Net Lifetime Benefit= 1,330.00
7Lifetime Return= 380.0

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Smart Home Energy Savings calculated?

Payback (years) = Smart home hardware and install cost ÷ annual monthly energy saving Simple payback divides the up-front cost by the recurring annual benefit to get the number of years before the smart home upgrade has paid for itself. Everything after that point is net gain, which the lifetime figures make explicit.

Why does Smart Home Energy Savings matter?

Payback is the first screen most buyers apply: a system that pays back inside its warranty period is a very different proposition from one that does not.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 3 inputs: Smart home hardware and install cost, Monthly energy saving, Expected life. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.