The next time you come home, pause for a moment to take in the scene. As you look around, you’ll see a multitude of little things that quietly shape your daily life, bring warmth and personality to your spaces, and safeguard your loved ones. There are the obvious elements of it: the perfect curtains matching the colour of the sofa, the nicely designed kitchen, or the well-thought lighting to make a cozy feeling. Now have you ever realised there are many other small things that can have a big Impact on our daily lives. These things are less visible. They usually act silently, without you paying attention. But they are incredibly important to make all the rest perfect. What are these little things that have not caught your attention, you may think?
It’s these overlooked, unsung devices that are at the core of Schneider’s home technology. The little apps that help save energy and reduce bills. The sockets made from recycled materials. The compact circuit breakers that stand guard over families and the sleekly designed switches that add a touch of style to each room. Not to mention the diminutive sensors and other things which bring comfort and convenience to your everyday lives.
1. The little things that make your homes more efficient and sustainable
Energy bills have weighed a lot on households lately. But this is not always easy to know where to start tackling your energy bill problem. Hence, it is important to track and manage this consumption as best as possible. Not only this can contribute towards energy savings and reduce bills, but – as energy is the number one contributor for our home carbon footprint – managing your energy better can also contribute to minimize your home greenhouse gas emissions, a small step to tackle global warming.
To help, here come our little heroes, like the Wiser home energy management app. When coupled with tiny energy sensors like PowerTag, Wiser can help homeowners better manage their energy use real-time. The system allows homeowners to see exactly how much energy they are using within the home. If your fridge is malfunctioning and over consuming energy, the app will immediately tell you. With this data, households can start to make behavioural and actionable changes to reduce their energy consumption. Just by visualizing data, one can achieve up to 8% energy savings.
The app will also tell you what the biggest consumer of energy in your home is. And guess what? It is more likely to be space heating and water heating. In average, these two energy loads account for close to 80% of your energy consumption according to Eurostat.
And this is also usually the loads where households can make the biggest savings as this is where there is the biggest amount of waste. We heat too much, for too long and often empty rooms.
Thanks to Wiser’s multi-zoning capabilities and smart modes, we can continue enjoying the right level of comfort and start to eliminate waste: control and restrict the moment when your water tank is heating, heat your water to 55C degrees instead of 65, pause the heating when a window is open or a room is empty, etc. All in all, households can save up to 30% on their average energy consumption (based on Schneider customer data) thanks to the management of the space heating and water tank.
See! These are all very little things which can have a big impact in reducing your energy consumption at home. While they help you do so, they also reduce the carbon footprint of your home. And this can be done without compromising on comfort!
2. The little things that make your homes more comfortable and convenient
As well as offering efficiency improvements, there are tiny sensors that make our daily lives easier and more convenient.
Embedded with Wiser, these sensors allow you to control your heating, lighting, shutters, electrical devices, and more. This can be done at any time, from anywhere in the world, using the Wiser app on your smartphone, or by simply asking a voice assistant.
For instance, the Wiser sensors can automatically turn on the lights at night time if movement is detected in the corridor. Or, when the sensor acknowledges air quality is below standards, it will immediately provide an alert. Same goes with water leakage or open window detection. So, homeowners don’t have to worry, the app would only let you know in case of abnormal situation.
Additionally, by creating moments in the Wiser Home app, with just one click of a button homeowners can create the right ambience for any activity. Think about a ‘party moment’ that can activate the stereo on and dim the lamps. Or what about a ‘babies bedtime moment’ that would automatically set the heating at 19º and turn the nightlight on.
3. The little things that make your homes protected
Here comes the most unsung mini hero of all times: name it the miniature circuit breaker, usually hidden within the electrical panel or consumer unit. 30% of the consumers we surveyed admitted they don’t know its role. Still, circuit breakers are protecting homes, belongings and people from electrical faults and fires for 100 years now. How do they do that? These small but mighty devices withstand short circuits and overloads, enduring electrical surges. By quickly interrupting the circuit, they protect your home and loved ones from serious electrical hazards.
There are good reasons today to put circuit breakers under the spotlight. With the increased electrification of homes and the growing number of solar installations on our roofs, there is an urgent need to have our electrical panel evolve in order to cope with these new needs and avoid overloading the current electrical installation. At Schneider Electric, we are innovating to make the circuit breakers evolve to these new home situations. So electrical protection remains a given.
4. The little things that make your home more stylish
Little things are equally important for adding that final finishing touch. They help create a beautifully designed interiors that you want to spend time in.
Luckily, you don’t have to choose between style and functionality!
Take for example our Miluz Zeta series – winner of India’s Best Design Project 2024 – that offer six elegant colors and finishes to complement your home. The switches and sockets also come with a built-in voltage surge protector to protect your plug-in devices. Additionally, our Unica X range of slimline stainless-steel switches and sockets offers three textures and six color options to complement different aesthetics. All products within the range have undergone a refined color treatment for a premium feel to elevate home interiors.
Because we produce a lot of switches and sockets to serve your homes’ project around the world, we’ve been carefully looking at how we can replace materials and use recycled versions instead. At Schneider Electric, we’ve taken this issue very seriously by committing to switch 50% of materials to recycled version and 100% of recycled packaging by the end of 2025. Bear in mind this is not such a simple thing to do as per a sneaker. Some of our devices needs to be able to withstand temperature above 960 degrees Celsius as part of our tests. Our engineering teams work very closely with material suppliers to find the best content options that can match the strictest safety requirements.
Our Merten Ocean Plastics series is one of those examples. We worked hand-in-hand with DSM to apply their material, made out of fishing nets found on ocean or beaches, to our switches and socket series, Merten. This is an opportunity for consumers to make conscious choice and combine style and sustainability.
We also look at the entire lifecycle of our products. Three of our switches and sockets flagship series in Europe – Odace, Ovalis and Unica – have received the bronze cradle-to-cradle certification.
Because every little things can have a big impact.
The power of little things creating big impact
At Schneider Electric, we believe that the details matter. Little things can make the biggest difference in our homes. From smarter energy management and enhanced protection to greater convenience and stylish design, these innovations help create a home that’s not only efficient and secure but also comfortable and tailored to your lifestyle.
We want to celebrate with you the big impact they have in our lives.To learn more about how little things can make a big difference, watch the video here
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