A decade ago, playing your part in protecting the environment usually meant separating plastic from paper in your trashcan. It also meant that you had to purchase organic vegetables that you carried home in a reusable tote. However, nowadays, you can do so much more to create a green or eco-friendly home.
Green living leads to the conversation of the little natural resources we have left for us. It also means introducing some lifestyle changes to save our planet.
According to sustainable living expert Joanna Yarrow, a human being’s every action impacts the world. So, small changes to our daily routines and activities will provide us with an opportunity to look after our beloved planet without drastically adding a lot to our to-do lists. To help you get started, we will give you some tips to turn your home into a self-sustaining, eco-friendly one. Below are some of these tips:
Ditch Incandescent Light Bulbs
One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to turn your house into an eco-friendly one is to ditch your old incandescent bulbs and install efficient ones. These include CFLs (compact fluorescent light) or led bulbs. These bulbs use just one-fourth of the electricity than incandescent bulbs. Plus, they have an operational life of around ten times more than incandescent ones.
As far as LED lights go, they have slowly picked up pace in the last five years. Everyone is choosing them over regular light bulbs as they last longer and save more energy.
Turn Off Appliances That You Don’t Use Often
Well, Eco-Friendly Living is not all about replacing your old light bulbs with new energy-efficient ones. It is also about smart decision-making when it comes to the appliances already present inside your home. For example, you might have an old dishwasher in your basement plugged into the electricity socket. It might be the time to get down there and unplug it because it’s just sitting there adding to your electricity bill.
Your efforts should not stop there. If you live with forgetful people, there will be a chance that somebody leaves the lights on, for instance, in the morning. And, it would be silly to run after them, closing every single light bulb they left. A solution would be to install a motion sensor that acts as a switch, turning on the lights only when it detects someone is present inside a room.
Another thing you could do is install automatic timers on all the light bulbs. So, whenever someone leaves them on, they will turn off after a particular time.
Give Solar Energy a Try
One thing that you will always find inside an eco-friendly home is solar panels. They usually provide clean electricity, which is enough to run the essential electrical appliances such as TVs, computers, fans, lights, and many more. However, the amount and type of devices you want to run depends on the solar panels’ size and power. The bigger and more powerful they are, the more home appliances you can run on them.
However, always remember that solar panels are not only for the sake of saving money on your electricity bill. You are installing them to save the planet from all the harmful by-products released into the atmosphere through regular electricity generation techniques.
Utilize Green Cleaning Products
Chemical-based cleaning products not only harm your health but are also bad for the environment. For example, when you clean your bathroom with such products, you wash away these chemicals into the water supply. It takes more energy for the city purification plant to recycle and purify the contaminated water.
However, you can play your part by using natural cleaning products such as vinegar, tea tree oil, or citric acid. They are less expensive and will cause no harm to the environment or the people living inside your house.
Insulate Your Home
One of the best ways to make your home more eco-friendly is by installing insulation inside it. It will make sure you utilize as little energy as possible to keep warm during the winters. A properly insulated home will ensure that that you won’t have to turn on your heating system again and again. Insulation will allow the heated air to remain inside your house for a longer time, drastically reducing your bills.
There are various places inside your home that you should insulate, such as the roof or walls. It will also be an excellent idea to double-glaze windows, which will reduce heat transfer from the inside of your home to the outside. If you have hardwood flooring inside your home, consider covering it with rugs and mats to keep the floors warm during winters.
Going green is more straightforward than what people usually think. To start with the going-green process, you have to make subtle changes to your habits. These include switching off the lights whenever you leave a room or removing any unnecessary appliances from your house that might be taking up more energy than usual. But, to take it to the next level, consider investing in energy-efficient appliances or go for efficient power generation methods such as solar panels.
With these tips, you will be able to convert your house into the eco-friendly, self-sustaining home of the future.
*Photos by cottonbro
