This iOS 26 Feature Could Help Lower Your Energy Bill

It's great coming home after a hot day outside to discover your house is at the absolute perfect temperature. Or, even better, spending all day in the cold and arriving home to a snug 78-degree abode can be a wonderful feeling. While accomplishing this without wreaking havoc on your energy bill can be tricky, Apple may soon have a solution.

Discovered by writer and developer Steve Moser, who shared his findings on X, the app formerly known as Twitter, code within the iOS 26 beta Home app has revealed a potential new "Adaptive Temperature" feature that will track when you come and go from your house and adjust the temperature inside accordingly. The new code also reveals the potential for Home to make certain adjustments based on energy cleanliness and rates.

There's no guarantee that this feature will arrive in iOS 26, if at all. However, just like Moser finding two new Apple Maps features, there's still plenty of time between now and the likely fall release of iOS 26 for Apple to unveil some surprises.

According to Steve Moser's post on X, new code within the Home app in the iOS 26 beta will automatically adjust your thermostat based on your schedule, lowering or raising the temperature based on when you are home. The coder notes that this may work similarly to the way Maps now learns your daily routes, meaning this feature will likely be sensitive to your privacy thanks to end-to-end encryption. Additionally, the code also reveals users would be able to set preferences should they be gone for an extended period of time, along with options for adjusting night time preferences.

Another small detail found by Moser notes an "Optimize for Clean Energy" option, which aims to adjust a thermostat by "small amounts" in an effort to reduce energy usage should the source be unclean or the cost of electricity suddenly spikes. This is similar to the already available Clean Energy Charging from iOS 16, which stirred controversy online after Apple enabled it automatically. While you can disable Clean Energy Charging on iPhone, time will tell with Home's potential new temperature feature.

There's plenty packed into iOS 26, and some big changes are coming soon. While it's still up in the air whether or not users will see "Adaptive Temperature" anytime soon, the possibility of saving money on an energy bill should be enough to get anyone excited.