Retrofit Your Hillsboro Home With Smart Automation

If your home’s comfort system is stuck in the past, it is time to bring it into the 21st century, where it can anticipate your needs, save money, and operate efficiently.

At Hybrid Heating & Cooling, we see more and more Oregon homeowners embrace automation to transform their dwellings into intelligent, energy-saving abodes. We can help you upgrade your home comfort system by giving it the tools needed to operate more efficiently and effectively.

Automating Home Systems in Hillsboro

You can integrate your HVAC with smart technology, allowing various components and home systems to communicate with each other and react to room or home occupancy, outdoor weather, and your personal preferences, eliminating the need for manual adjustment.

The beauty of smart home retrofitting is that you do not need a newly constructed home to enjoy these benefits. At Hybrid Heating & Cooling, we can seamlessly integrate many of these intelligent upgrades into your existing HVAC, improving comfort and energy savings for older and new homes.

Smart Home Upgrades for Comfort

How can you integrate your HVAC with smart technology? Think of it as giving your HVAC system a brain, enabling it to save energy and operate at the top of its game. These retrofits can make a real difference in your home’s comfort and energy efficiency:

Smart Thermostats: Unlike traditional programmable thermostats, smart-thermostats learn your daily routines and preferences. They automatically adjust temperatures based on whether you are home or away and use geofencing, which senses your phone’s location, to help determine when to lower or increase home temperature. Imagine coming home to perfect comfort without touching the thermostat!

Many energy-saving thermostats also provide detailed energy usage reports, giving valuable insights into your consumption patterns.

The U.S. Department of Energy says you can save up to 10 percent annually on heating and cooling by turning your thermostat back 7° to 10° Fahrenheit from its usual setting for eight hours every day. With a standard thermostat, you manually change the setting. With a smart thermostat, it does the work for you.

Occupancy Detectors: These sensors, incorporated into a ductless mini split’s indoor air handling unit, can detect when a room or zone is occupied. How does this help your HVAC? If a room is empty for an extended period, the system can automatically set the temperature back or even turn off heating/cooling in that area.

Adjusting the temperature based on occupancy prevents wasted energy. The system can quickly return to the desired setting when motion is detected again.

Wireless room sensors can influence when your ducted, central HVAC unit heats or cools your home and at what temperature. They work with a smart thermostat and use room occupancy to determine the best temperature for your home.

Smart Home Platforms: SmartThings and Hubitat, for example, integrate with occupancy, temperature, and humidity sensors and your smart thermostat to help your ducted, centralized HVAC work more efficiently. With these platforms, you can set up automated demands such as:

• Adjust the heat if sensors detect no motion in all rooms for 30 minutes.
• Average the temperatures in the living room, kitchen, family room, and home office and override the thermostat setpoint.
• If any room exceeds 76° Fahrenheit, adjust the cooling, disregarding the thermostat reading.

HVAC Zone Controls: Do you constantly battle over the thermostat? Is one part of your home always too hot and another too cold? The solution is HVAC-zone-control.

This smart home upgrade for your centralized, ducted HVAC system allows you to divide your home into different temperature zones, each with a thermostat. Ductwork dampers direct the conditioned air only to the zones that need it.

For example, you can keep the upstairs bedrooms cooler during the day while maintaining a comfortable temperature downstairs, drastically reducing energy waste by only heating or cooling occupied areas. Zone controls are highly effective for multi-story homes or homes with varying sun exposure.

Interested in zone control? Let one of our experts at Hybrid Heating & Cooling show you what is possible for your Hillsboro home.

Smart Vents: You can install these vents directly into your existing ductwork openings, taking zone control a step further. The vents open or close automatically to direct airflow where you need it. Paired with room sensors, they can help fine-tune the temperature in individual rooms, ensuring consistent comfort and preventing wasted energy in unoccupied spaces.

Whole-Home Humidity Control Systems: Managing humidity is crucial for comfort and indoor air quality. Innovative humidity control systems integrate with your HVAC to maintain optimal moisture levels year-round, reducing the need to overuse your cooling system to feel comfortable.

Smart Lighting & Motorized Shades: Although not HVAC components, smart lighting that turns off when a room is empty and motorized shades that automatically close on hot, sunny days and open on cold, sunny days can reduce your overall heating and cooling load. These uncomplicated retrofits work with your HVAC system to achieve greater energy efficiency.

Get Smart About Home Comfort

Making your home smarter does not have to be overwhelming. At Hybrid Heating & Cooling, we specialize in assessing your current HVAC system and recommending the smart home upgrade solutions that will provide the most significant benefits for your comfort and energy savings in Hillsboro. Let us help you unlock your home’s full potential with intelligent automation. Call us at 503-357-5663 or request service online.