Making your home environmentally friendly can contribute to protect the environment significantly. You can follow and apply some techniques in order to make your home environmentally friendly. Required products for implementing these techniques are comparatively inexpensive. You can purchase these products at your local home improvement store. Following techniques should be followed and implemented in order to make your home environmentally friendly:
Minimize your electrical usage:
A large portion of a home utility bill is caused by electrical usage. For example, when you plug any household item into an outlet, it is utilizing energy even if the item is not on. For creating a baseline for home electrical usage, an energy audit should be conducted.
How can you conduct an energy audit?
- You need to record when the item is used or requires electricity.
- Make an evaluation when the item requires to be connected to an outlet.
- You should record each and every item which is connected to an electrical outlet.
- You need to shut off any unused surge suppressors and power strips.
During purchasing a large appliance, it is very important to make sure that the appliance is more energy efficient. At present, incandescent bulbs are used in many older homes. Initial costs of these types of bulbs are comparatively low but are highly inefficient. Incandescent bulbs should be replaced with CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs. Though the initial cost of CFL bulb is comparatively higher than incandescent bulb, the energy required to power the bulb is significantly less. LED (Light Emitting Diode) is also a good choice for most home lighting systems. Like a spotlight, LEDs emit the light in a specific direction. The lifespan of LEDs are comparatively higher than incandescent and CFL bulbs. LEDs are cool to the touch, so they don’t consume much energy at all. In comparison, they are still more expensive than either incandescent or CFL bulbs.
Maximize the efficiency of heating and cooling systems
Typically, heating and cooling system users are the largest electrical users in any home. The most efficient system currently available is geothermal heating and cooling system. Installation of a heat pump, heat ex-changer and distribution system are required for this system. The initial cost of this type of system is comparatively higher than that of the average heating and cooling system, but is still reasonable due to the rapid decrease in electrical utility bills once it is installed. A significant amount of energy will be wasted due to unnecessary cooling and heating if the doors and windows in a home are not sealed properly. You can purchase several products in order to seal your doors and windows. It is very important to inspect all seals in a home annually. Rope Caulk can be utilized to create a seal where windows open and close. Alternatively a Window Insulation Kit can be used to place an air tight plastic covering over the window.
Use Eco paints on your walls
Traditional paints contain damaging volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which can continue being emitted into your home’s atmosphere for 5 years after painting. You should use plant-based and water-borne paints. If you can’t find plant-based paints, try to find paints that are labeled “VOC-free”. Many large paint manufacturers produce paint which is VOC-free.