Smart homes don’t have to be flashy. In fact, if you have a smart speaker that controls even a few devices in your home, like speakers and lights, and you use it to do things like set calendar appointments and check reminders, congratulations! You have a smart home. A smart home can, of course, be complex as well, with everything from smart security cameras to blinds, scenes that activate multiple things at once, voice-controlled robotic devices, and more. But sometimes, the smartest devices aren’t the ones that sit front and center, employing elegant designs. They’re functional and serve a purpose that pays off in other ways.

Rather than fork over thousands for flashy gadgets, start or even expand a smart home with some simple ones. These won’t make visitors “ooh” and “ahh.” But they’ll achieve one of the biggest advantages with a smart home: helping you save money.

Related

Alexa vs. Gemini isn’t the right question — I use both for my smart home

Why choose the best of both worlds when you can have both worlds, you know?

Smart speaker

Your control hub

A smart speaker is the simplest yet most essential part of a smart home. It can be a simple one like an Amazon Echo Dot or Google Nest smart speaker, but it can also be from another brand that supports Alexa, Google Gemini (formerly Google Assistant), or Siri. These come at a nominal fee, and the entry models are simplistic in design. Place it somewhere central, plug it in, and set it up with a few steps and an account. From there, it becomes the command center for everything.

Use it to control smart devices as you add them to the home, whether that’s other speakers, lights, a robot vacuum, and more. You can have it set reminders to do things like take the laundry out of the dryer in 45 minutes or use up the milk in the fridge before it expires. You can even use things like Gemini routines to enhance a Nest speaker, or Alexa routines with an Amazon Echo or other compatible speaker, so one vocal command triggers several actions at once. All these small things can help save you time and money in the long run by simplifying and automating tasks.

Smart thermostat

Intelligent temperature learning

Credit: Christine Persaud / MUO

Smart thermostats certainly look nicer than the basic ones that come in homes. But they’re mostly boxy, square, rectangular, or circular devices you mount on the wall. There are many reasons you should upgrade to a smart thermostat, and cost-savings is a big one. Once installed, a smart thermostat can monitor the ambient temperature and the temperature outside, as well as your usual habits, and adjust accordingly. It will learn eventually, for example, that you leave every morning at 8 a.m. and come back at 6 p.m., then turn down the heat or air conditioning during the hours you’re away to avoid unnecessarily heating or cooling an empty house, and turn it back up shortly before you’re home, so the temperature is just right upon arrival.

Since you can remotely control them, you can do things like adjust the temperature when you’re away on vacation. If you’re out of town when an unexpected cold front hits, you can crank the heat to help prevent the pipes from freezing, bursting, and causing costly damage. Over time, these small temperature modifications can save you money on electricity. Some regional utility providers offer discounts for homes that use smart thermostats, so that’s worth looking into as well.

Smart light bulbs

Longer lasting, set on scenes

Credit: Kasa

Grab smart lights and replace your old incandescent or even standard LED bulbs with them. From here, you can remotely control them from an app on your phone, with your voice, and even set schedules. If you ambled up to bed after midnight and forgot to turn the living room lights off, they’ll go off on their own at 1 a.m. These save energy and electricity over time, which can in turn reduce your bills. They can also help prevent theft if you set lights to go on and off at specific (or random) times, so potential thieves think someone is home while you’re away.

Smart light bulbs are more efficient LEDs, so if you are still using incandescents, they will last longer overall, which also saves you money. Plus, you can control them with scenes. Your “Work Day” scene, for example, might include turning on the bulb in your nightlight to get you up in the morning, your office light, and the kitchen light . Some also have adjustable lighting for softer or warmer, even different colors to set the mood for casual reading, working, playing video games, or a romantic dinner. They can even make your home look more expensive with simple lighting tricks.

Smart leak sensors

Prevent a potentially costly problem

Credit: Jonathon Jachura / MUO

An ingenious idea, smart leak sensors can be positioned in spots where leaks are common, like by the toilet, under the sink, the sewer drain, refrigerator, or washing machine. If the tiny sensor detects moisture, it will sound an audible alarm and/or alert you via smartphone app. This can save you on costly repairs for not just the appliance or plumbing, but also damage to your floors. You can catch a problem immediately before a light drip accumulates to become a pool of water. A cheap water sensor can pay for itself after the first incident.

If you’re away on vacation and you receive an alert, you can have a friend, family member, or neighbor go by to check on things and react immediately if there is indeed a leak. We had a sewer backup issue a few times after first moving into my current house, and a water leak sensor helped ensure we could do a clean-up and contact a plumber before the entire basement was soaked.

Smart homes save money

It’s not just about convenience

Credit: Christine Persaud / MUO

You get incredible convenience with a smart home, able to remotely control devices, set scenes to trigger multiple actions at once, set schedules for things like daily robot vacuum cleaning sessions, create ambiance with music and lighting, and more. But there’s also the benefit of cost-savings with smart homes. And this doesn’t require flashy or even expensive devices.

You could get everything on this list for a couple of hundred dollars and be well on your way to a smart home that not only gives you better control but also saves you money. From savings on electricity usage to preventing food spoilage, deterring potential theft, and eliminating the risk of costly damage, each of these smart home devices is a no-brainer to invest in. Just make sure to get ones that are compatible with the control platform of your choice, like Alexa or Google. Matter-enabled devices aim to make cross-brand compatibility more common, so with the latest devices, you should have no problem seamlessly connecting multiple products from different brands.