December routines that keep your energy bill chill down

[Alan]

Now that heating is kicking in and the holiday lights are doing their best to recreate a small sun in the living room, I am curious which automation routines help you keep things under control.

Some folks schedule everything like a strict holiday traffic controller and others let the system sort it out on its own. What has actually helped you smooth out the power spikes this month?

 

[RocketGiovanni]

I stopped trying to micro manage everything and focused on peak times. Heavy stuff like heaters and dryers don’t overlap as much now. Letting the system spread things out helped smooth spikes. Sometimes less automation logic works better.

 

[Ephemer_Leader]

Honestly, the biggest win was not over-automating. A few simple schedules for lights and letting the thermostat do its thing worked better than micromanaging everything. Less tweaking, less stress.