Samsung announces SmartThings Energy, giving visibility into your electricity usage

Samsung is expanding SmartThings with the release of SmartThings Energy. The new feature gives users of the SmartThings app visibility into their electricity utilization so that they can understand and make changes in their life to reduce their overall usage.

According to Chanwoo Park, Vice President and Head of IoT Business group at Samsung Electronics:

People are spending more time at home and using their appliances more frequently, driving a need for larger capacity and better energy efficiency. Our consumers want to be part of building a better, more eco-friendly tomorrow, and we are proud to help them achieve that vision by offering a more energy-efficient smart home experience.

In addition to simply tracking how much electricity is in use, SmartThings Energy promises to give you energy saving tips for its connected devices. For example, your refrigerator may remind you to not cram too much into it because air needs to circulate for efficient cooling. SmartThings Energy can also be used to provide alerts when you're using too much energy at a certain time, such as leaving the television on when you're not home.

Currently, SmartThings Energy will only support Samsung home appliances and Samsung HVAC products, but the company hopes to expand that to Works with SmartThings (WWST) partners, as well as identifying new partners that specialize in energy management.

Samsung has been busy adding new features to its SmartThings line. Last year, it released SmartThings Find, a feature that makes it easier to find your lost Galaxy phone or tablet, even if it's offline. Earlier this year, it released SmartThings Cooking and SmartThings Clothing Care. While these new features aren't directly related to home automation, they are a way to give users more visibility and control over their connected homes.