Making your home eco-friendly is the best example of being the change you want to see in the world. Why? Well, because it allows you to make your entire lifestyle into something a lot greener and more convenient. This way, even some of the basic processes like the way you prepare food, heat up the place, maintain the lawn, or create power might become a lot eco-friendlier. Fortunately, there are more ways than one can count to make the place much eco-friendlier. You can start by learning a thing or two about these options and picking those that you find the most convenient.
1. Install solar panels
Installing solar panels is a method that pays off double-fold. First of all, it’s a method for your household to produce its own electricity. Due to numerous government grants, it’s possible to make this sizable investment a lot more affordable. Other than this, you need to keep in mind that installing solar panels might allow you to produce more electrical power than your household actually uses. This way, you might be able to sell some of this power back to the utility company. Lastly, you should consider that installing solar panels starts a psychological domino effect in your neighborhood. Upon seeing them on your roof, your neighbors might think of installing some of their own.
2. Install new windows
The next thing you need to take into consideration is the prospect of strengthening the outside barriers to your home. What this means is insulating walls and replacing windows should be your first step. According to one survey, replacing all your windows with quality double glazing can save you about $200-$250 per year. This is a huge quality of life improvement that also boosts the resale value of your home. In other words, whenever considering a major upgrade, this option should be at the top of the list.
3. Change your shopping habits
Regardless of the home-improvement project that you’re planning to execute, you should pay more attention to the category of the item that you’re buying. The materials that you should purchase should definitely be eco-friendly. According to one survey from 2019, about 38.5% of people stated that they bought eco-friendly products in the past 12 months, while 39.8% stated that they didn’t. What’s the most curious about this statistic is the fact that about 21.7% of people stated that they simply don’t know. Being more invested in the nature and origin of the materials, tools, and products that you use in your home can make the place eco-friendlier.
4. Go smart
Smart technology enables you to use eco-friendlier practices with unparalleled ease. First of all, it has an eco-setting so that it balances performance and power use. Second, it can be programmable with some eco-friendly features. For instance, you can set your thermostat to start heating when you’re close to home (via a GPS on your phone). You can also utilize smart technology to save other resources. For instance, a Wi-Fi irrigation system can be used to maintain the lawn with optimal efficiency in water use.
5. Tiny house movement
The next thing you should understand is that unnecessarily large homes tend to be major contributors to a huge part of residential-homes-related pollution and the greenhouse effect. How? Larger homes take more materials to build, which means that they lead to higher deforestation and pollution. Second, tiny homes require more power to heat up/cool down and tend to be quite energy-demanding to run, as well. Not to mention that building a tiny house may cost you less than purchasing an already existing home. In other words, if you’re planning on starting a home from scratch, it’s always a good idea to consider building a tiny house.
6. Start your own garden
While this may not sound like an outright household improvement, we’ve already discussed the importance of a cleaner shopping list. So, why not change your shopping habits by growing some of the ingredients on your own. For starters, this outright saves you quite a bit of money. From the other standpoint, you also find yourself in a situation where you stop spending money on genetically modified food. This way, you’ll stop endorsing industries that are polluting our planet.
7. Rely on local repairs and maintenance
Finally, you need to understand that materials and home maintenance practices aren’t the only ways to reduce your home’s carbon footprint. The travel industry is one of the largest polluters in the world, so when ordering an appliance from half-way across the globe, it’s quite questionable whether this is an eco-friendly move, even if the appliance itself is green. The same goes for hiring far away contractors and handymen. The key thing is to keep your efforts localized and this will, on its own, reduce the carbon footprint of your household.
In conclusion
As you can see, you should first focus on your understanding of the phrase eco-friendly. Material can be eco-friendly, and so can a practice. Other than this, a certain habit or a type of behavior is also eco-friendly. A green practice that encourages others to go green is also incredibly eco-friendly. In other words, you need to stop measuring your eco-friendliness in watts and gallons but, instead, expand your own approach to this situation. This will allow you to notice some options that you never even considered before.
