Making more eco-friendly home updates will save our planet. It will also shave off a substantial amount from your monthly energy bills. So it’s a win-win for your home, family, and the environment.
Before we look at some green home updates, let’s delve into the main benefits of making eco-friendly home improvements.
Eco-Friendly Home Updates
A. Cost savings
Making eco-friendly home updates will always save you money. In the short-term, you can reduce your energy and utility bills through changes to lighting, plumbing fixtures, and improved insulation. Many companies offer ways of helping you find the best rates for your power bill such as Houston Electricity Rates.
For more savings over 10 to 20 years, investing in solar energy, wind energy, and replacement of home appliances will give you more money to plug into your retirement savings account.
The long-haul savings don’t end with the recovery of investments from low utility bills. All your energy-efficient installations will raise the value of your home and make it more attractive to the younger generation.
B. Better health
With eco-friendly products like low-emission materials, sealed combustion appliances, radon mitigation system, indoor air filters, your eco-friendly home updates will have a positive effect on the health of your family.
Improving your ventilation, heating, and insulation also reduces the risks of having asthma, cancer, respiratory, and infectious diseases. Similarly, installing a complete water protection system with modern solenoid valve controls will ensure that water drains away properly to prevent dampness that causes mold growth.
C. Safer environment
Our goal as enlightened humans should be to make the world a better place for the next generation. When doing eco-friendly home updates, using eco-friendly building and home renovation techniques will give us clean water, air, energy, and a well-preserved ecosystem for plants and wildlife.
Green homes reduce carbon footprint. They use less energy derived from fossil fuels for either electricity generation or for heating the home. Eco-friendly homes also require less maintenance. They are built to last and have a minimal effect on the surrounding environment.
Reducing home energy usage is one of the best ways to save our planet. The low “carbon footprint” helps to reduce the rate of climate change.
Now that you know the reasons why you need to do eco-friendly home updates, let’s see some of the upgrades you can apply to your home.
Eco-Friendly Home Updates
1. Make Your Bathroom Water-efficient
Potable water is a scarce resource. To avoid depleting the finite sources of clean water, we need to conserve our water resources. Here are a few tips that can help you manage water efficiently when you do eco-friendly home updates:
* Check for leaks in your toilet and fix them.
* Don’t use your toilet as a wastebin
* Install a low-flow showerhead and take shorter showers
* Turn off the water as you shave or brush your teeth.
2. Wash Clothes With Cold Water
A large portion of the energy that washing machines use is for heating water. You can reduce your monthly energy bill by washing your clothes with cold water. You will also use your clothes for a long time since they will wear at a slower rate. If you have clothes with oil stains, you can soak them in detergent first to make them easy to wash in your machine.
3. Use LED Bulbs
Switching to 100 percent LED lighting is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint at home. Most of the time, you will receive the return on your investment in less than a year. When you are changing your bulbs, from incandescent, fluorescent, or CFL to LED, focus on your living room and kitchen. These are the high traffic areas and the places where you spend the most time at home.
4. Install a Programmable Thermostat
A programmable thermostat can adjust the temperature of your home automatically at different times of the day. Some models also work with motion sensors to detect whether you are at home and adjust the temperature setting accordingly. Apart from these benefits, installing this smart device also provides:
* Remote temperature control
* HVAC system alerts
* Flexible scheduling of temperature adjustments.
Overall, with the flexibility offered by a smart thermostat, you can save a significant amount of money on your heating and cooling bills.
5. Invest in Insulation
Improving your home’s insulation will save energy. While you may need the services of a professional insulator or energy auditing firm to do a comprehensive home insulation project, you can get quick results by taking the following steps:
* Seal up any space around your doors and windows with caulk.
* Add thick insulation in your loft
* Replace existing windows with double or triple glazed models.
* Use solid wall insulation to make large savings on energy bills.
These are just a few of the many eco-friendly home updates and modifications you can apply to make your home more environmentally friendly. The list of improvements is endless. But if you apply some of the tips listed above, you will take a big leap towards creating a sustainable home.