It's a scene that plays out in homes every day. Someone opens a window to let in some fresh air, then leaves the room. The heating carries on regardless, warming air that's flowing straight outside. It might be hours before anyone notices. In the meantime, energy and money drift out through the gap.
With Baulogic Smart Events, this problem solves itself. A contact sensor on the window detects when it's opened, and a Smart Event turns off the heating in that room automatically. When the window closes again, heating resumes. No waste, no manual intervention, and no one needs to remember to adjust anything.
It's one of the most straightforward Smart Events to configure, and one that pays for itself through energy savings alone.
The Smart Event: open window detection
This automation uses one of the simplest WHEN / THEN structures available:
WHEN a contact sensor is opened
THEN set the room temperature to the Frost preset (or turn off the heating circuit for that room)
And a corresponding reverse event:
WHEN the contact sensor is closed
THEN set the room temperature back to the current Day or Night preset
The contact sensor is a small, unobtrusive device fitted to the window frame. When the window opens, the sensor registers the change and the Smart Event fires immediately. There's no delay, no cloud processing, and no reliance on WiFi. It happens locally through the hardwired Baulogic system.
Why this matters for energy efficiency
Heating an empty room is wasteful. Heating a room with an open window is worse: you're actively pushing warm air outside while the boiler or heat pump works harder to compensate.
In a well-insulated new build, this is especially pronounced. These homes are designed to retain heat efficiently, so when a window opens, the heating system doesn't naturally compensate. It simply increases output to chase a falling temperature. The energy cost is immediate and ongoing for as long as the window stays open.
An open window Smart Event eliminates this entirely. The heating pauses the moment the window opens and resumes the moment it closes. Over the course of a year, across every bedroom being aired, every kitchen window opened while cooking, every bathroom ventilated after a shower, the cumulative energy saving is meaningful.
Room-by-room precision
Because Baulogic operates at room level, an open window Smart Event only affects the room where the window was opened. The rest of the house continues as normal. The living room stays warm while the bedroom is aired. The kitchen heating pauses while the cooking steam clears, but the hallway and dining room are unaffected.
This room-level precision is a significant advantage over simpler systems that can only respond at a whole-house level. Turning off the entire home's heating because one window is open is a blunt response. Turning off heating in just that room is the intelligent one.
Each window with a contact sensor can have its own Smart Event, tailored to the room. You might configure a bedroom window to switch to the Frost preset when opened (preventing pipes from freezing in winter), while a kitchen window simply reduces the temperature by a few degrees rather than turning off heating entirely.
Adding conditions for context
The basic open window event works well on its own, but conditions can make it more nuanced:
Only during heating season. In summer, when the heating isn't running anyway, the event is redundant. Adding a time-of-year condition or a temperature condition (only if room temperature is above a certain level) avoids unnecessary triggers.
Only when the heating is actually on. If the room is already at its Frost or Away preset, the event doesn't need to fire. A condition checking the current room preset prevents unnecessary changes.
Only during specific times. If you regularly air bedrooms in the morning, you might want the event to run only during the hours when heating would typically be active, ignoring windows opened at midday in summer.
Practical scenarios
Bedroom airing. Opening the bedroom window each morning to let in fresh air is common practice. The Smart Event drops the heating to Frost, preventing waste. When you close the window 30 minutes later, the room returns to its scheduled temperature.
Kitchen ventilation. Cooking generates heat and moisture. Opening the kitchen window while cooking is sensible, but keeping the heating running at the same time is not. The Smart Event handles the switch automatically.
Bathroom moisture. After a shower, opening the window helps clear moisture. The heating in the bathroom pauses until the window closes, avoiding the cycle of heating damp air that simply escapes outside.
Children's rooms. Parents who like to keep a window slightly open overnight for fresh air can have the heating set to a lower, but not off, level while the window is open, balancing ventilation with comfort.
Setting it up yourself
If your Baulogic system includes contact sensors on windows, creating an open window Smart Event takes seconds. Open Smart Events from My Settings on the touch panel or app, select the contact sensor as the trigger, set the action to adjust the room temperature, and save. Create a second event for the reverse: window closed, heating resumes.
If you later add contact sensors to additional windows, you simply create new events for those rooms. Each one is independent, and you can adjust or disable any of them at any time without affecting the others.
Open window detection is one of the most practical Smart Events in a Baulogic home. It's a simple idea: if the window is open, stop heating that room. The impact on energy efficiency is real. It runs automatically, responds instantly, and works at room level so the rest of the house stays comfortable.
It's the kind of automation that works quietly in the background, doing something sensible that you'd otherwise forget to do yourself. And like all Baulogic Smart Events, you set it up and adjust it whenever you want.
To learn more about how contact sensors and Smart Events work together, speak with the Baulogic team or explore our frequently asked questions.
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