With the effects of climate change and global warming around us increasing, it is important to be environmentally friendly and aware of the impact our domestic activities have on the environment. It is also highly beneficial when you consider how much money can be saved by building or making your home energy efficient. In order to have a productive energy efficient home, you need to be able to cut costs when required. This means using less electricity and trying to eliminate the products that have a negative impact on the environment, which eliminates the stress that comes with paying high monthly bills. Here are few ways you can convert your home into one that is more energy efficient:
Smaller is Better: A small home built with eco-friendly techniques has less environmental impacts compared to a larger home. A house that is too large is likely to cost more to heat and cool. Try to keep your home manageable and cost effective.
Energy Efficient Equipment: ENERGY STAR label on a piece of equipment states that particular product has been deemed as energy efficient by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Switching to these appliances offer significant cost and energy savings without compromising performance.
Use Sustainable Building Materials: Use environmentally or eco-friendly products to reduce the impact of construction on the environment. Each and every part of your house such as roofing material, building material, cabinets, and counters to your flooring can be environmentally friendly. Use products such as recycled glass or natural products such as bamboo which are made of natural, renewable materials.
Install Solar Panels: Solar energy is a clean and renewable source of energy. Solar panels may be expensive at first, but the long-term savings you can put into your pocket is worth the upfront costs. By taking advantage of solar power you can bring down your energy consumption and supply more energy.
Water Conserving Fixtures: Low flow faucets, toilets, showerheads are few of the ways that you can use while building a green home to conserve water. They can cut down on your water bill cost and make your home much more environment friendly.
Rainwater Harvesting Systems: Install a rain-water harvesting system while building your energy efficient home to collect rainwater from roofs and then storing it in a tank. The collected water can then be used for other purposes such as flushing toilets.
Tank-less Water Heaters: Tank-less water heaters heat only the amount of water needed as it is passed through electric coil. This provides two benefits. Firstly, it eliminates excess energy costs as it heats up only that much amount of water that is needed and secondly, you can get ample storage space by eliminating the hot water tank.
Eco-Friendly Lighting: Both LED and CFL cost more upfront but use less energy and last longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. Since they offer significant cost savings in the long run, they can be ideal for your energy efficient home.
