Owning your home is great for giving yourself peace of mind. There is a lot that you can do to your property to make it roomier, more visually appealing, or add monetary value to your home. However, there are more important modifications that you can make to your home in the modern age.
Sadly, climate change is becoming a real concern for the planet. Greenhouse gasses are making it harder for the sun’s UV light to escape the atmosphere, creating a situation where the Earth is steadily getting warmer. This issue has an immediate effect on all life on earth, with rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns drastically changing the delicate ecosystems across the globe. Unfortunately, biological evolution does not work quickly enough to keep up with these huge changes to the environment around us, and these transformations will have an impact on human life too, as well as cause damage to every ecosystem. Everyone on the planet has the ability to shrink the amount of pollution or waste that contributes to this problem, and you can start with some alterations to your home. With that said, here are a few ways that you can make your home more environmentally friendly.
Use A Compost Bin
You may think that it is perfectly safe to leave garden waste at the local dump as it is a substance that naturally decomposes quickly. Unfortunately, this waste still contributes to the amount of rubbish left in a landfill. These landfill sites produce a lot of methane gas when the waste is burned to make room for new rubbish, and this methane is one of the most prolific greenhouse gasses that is contributing toward climate change.
Instead of taking this garden waste to be disposed of in this fashion, it is far more beneficial to create a compost bin at home in a spot that is easy to access. This dedicated area for garden and food waste provides you with a place for this type of waste to decompose naturally. Plus, the materials left behind have additional benefits. For example, you can use your compost as a natural fertiliser for your garden plants and improve the health of your soil.
Install Solar Panels
One of the biggest causes of air pollution is the methods we use to obtain energy. Burning fossil fuels like coal emit a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Also, this method of obtaining electrical energy isn’t renewable, which means that these fuel stores will eventually run dry. Fortunately, there are alternative energy solutions that remove both of these problems. Before embarking on any major projects, it will be best to conduct an ecology survey with the help of relevant experts such as Arbtech. This can help satisfy local planning authorities, especially if the project itself is a green project.
One of these alternative energy solutions involves installing solar panels. Solar panels on your roof or in your garden are designed to absorb the natural UV rays from the sun and convert it into clean energy that you can use throughout your home. This energy is considered clean energy as it does not leave behind any harmful waste. These panels also store enough energy so this power system will still work on a cloudy day and during the night. This is a big misconception about solar panels as a reliable energy source. Solar power isn’t a material that is going to run out, so you never have to worry about wasting a natural resource when you power your home using solar power. In fact, some households take in so much energy from their solar panels that they are able to sell some of this energy back to the energy companies for an additional bit of profit.
Use Natural Products To Clean Your Home
Keeping your home clean is another big part of property ownership. You will find life far more relaxing if you come home to a tidy space. Running the hoover around your home and decluttering will go a long way to making your home a comfortable place to live. However, it is much more of a challenge to stains out of your bathroom and kitchen tiles. For this, you will need some special cleaning chemicals.
Unfortunately, a lot of modern cleaning chemicals include substances that are harmful to the environment. Since there are so many of these chemicals in these products, it is easy for these chemicals to wash into water features. This water pollution can seriously damage the ecology of rivers and oceans. That is why it is better to switch to more natural cleaning supplies. A lot of homemakers swear by natural cleaning compounds like citrus fruits and vinegar; however, there are companies that now specialise in cleaning products that are made using only natural ingredients. Therefore, you are less likely to cause pollution when using these substances in your home. It also helps to reuse and refill spray bottles and other cleaning solution containers.
Insulate Your Home
It is estimated that almost 61% of the energy you use in a day is required to heat your home. If you are trying to cut down on your energy consumption, then reducing this number is a good place to start. Again, using too much non-renewable energy is a huge contributing factor toward climate change and other forms of eco-damage.
One of the best ways to reduce the amount of energy you use in your home is by adding insulation to your property. Insulation is designed to prevent the heat from escaping your home. As such, you will have less of a need to turn on your heating devices. The less you use these devices, the lower the amount of energy you will use. You will also find out that this method of heating your home can reduce your energy bill too. Using less energy also reduces the amount of carbon emitted by your home and energy providers. Therefore, insulating your home reduces the amount of pollution released into the air.
Grow Vegetables
Growing vegetables in your own garden is easy, especially if you have the compost ready to help fertilise your soil. All you need to get started is some seeds and the motivation to see these seeds provide you with the veg you need.
Growing your own vegetables reduces the amount of fuel you need to power your car on every trip to the supermarket. You will also save money this way too. Planting live vegetation also has the added benefit of cleaning the air of carbon dioxide. However, the biggest benefit of growing your own veg in your garden at home is the fact that you will only ever need to grow the exact amount of veg that you and your family need. As such, you can greatly reduce the amount of food waste that you accumulate.
Change Your Windows
Just as insulating your walls can help with the amount of electrical energy needed to heat your home, so too can changing the type of windows in your property. A lot of heat can escape through the wrong kind of window. While single-glazed windows are the least efficient type of window to use in the UK, even double and triple-glazed windows contain gaps. Though these gaps are used to vacuum seal these windows, the best type of window to install is still the Low-E glass window.
Low-E glass windows are specially designed to keep the heat in your home to prevent energy loss. This is because they come with a thin layer of metal oxide in any potential gaps. This substance is included as it is designed to reflect any escaping heat directly back inside. Therefore, you will have less need to switch on your home’s heating appliances.
Wash Your Clothes With Cold Water
Just as you need to use a large amount of energy to heat your home, it also takes a similar amount of energy to heat the water in your property. While you shouldn’t use cold water to shower with, there are still ways to benefit from not heating your water all the time.
Washing your clothes with cold water has no negative effects, while also coming with the added benefit of saving you the effort of using excess energy heating the water. Also, washing with cold water prevents stains from setting into the fabric. Therefore, your clothes will stay cleaner for longer.
Use LED Lighting
While regular electric lights do not emit too much greenhouse gas into the environment, LED lights are proven to emit a lot less. As such, you should consider trading the lightbulbs in your home with LED light bulbs. These lights require less energy to use and do not reduce the amount of light emitted into your home.
What’s more, these types of lights do not produce heat. This means that they can reduce the amount of waste created simply by lighting your home. These types of lights also reduce the need for people to rely on nuclear power, another energy solution that is harmful to the environment.
Conclusion
Most people can reduce the size of the carbon footprint attached to their homes by making a few small changes. The tips listed above will help you to make your home more environmentally friendly, while also providing a few additional benefits.
