Eco-friendly living is no longer a trend, it is a necessity. All over the world homeowners are looking for ways to make their home more environmentally friendly. If you are one of them, here are six tips to get you started.
Replace the Windows
The first step many people take when improving their home to become more eco-friendly is to switch out their windows. Replacing old windows with energy efficient windows can reduce heat loss from a home by up to 25%, resulting in less need to use energy to heat up a house. Not only does this save the environment, but it also saves you money.
Use Sustainable Materials
If you are creating your house from scratch, or simply adding more onto your existing home, try your best to source and use ethical sustainable materials. Materials that are gaining popularity in the sustainability world are bamboo for its quick growth and strength, and hemp, for its incredible versatility (there’s even a whole house made out of hemp). Using these sustainable materials supports industries that are doing pioneering work in creating a more eco-friendly world.
Create an Entire Eco-Friendly Home
Maybe you’ve watched a few documentaries and decided that environmentalism is incredibly important. You’d be right, it is a pressing issue, but what does that mean for your home? For most dedicated environmentalists, this means building a house that is as sustainable as possible, and surprisingly, this is not only being done all over the world, but it’s also pretty affordable. Building a sustainable home can actually cost you a lot less than building a regular home. There are many different styles of sustainable housing from earth ships, to earth-bag houses, to cob, straw bale, and tiny homes made from re-purposed shipping containers. What will work for you depends on your lifestyle and finances, so make sure you research properly.
How to Finance Your Eco-Friendly Home Conversion
How exactly do you finance all these home conversions though? Installing new windows and solar panels isn’t the cheapest endeavour, and finances can put many homeowners off. PACE financing is a popular option that makes it easy for property owners to reduce energy usage and invest in home improvements; a quick google search will help you find pace home improvements explained.
Install a Smart Meter
A smart meter helps you to control your energy, get more accurate bills and save money. They send daily meter readings to your energy supplier, meaning you get more accurate bills, but they also mean you can more accurately track your energy usage and change your habits accordingly.
Install Solar Panels
Installing solar panels is a big step, and a big financial investment. However, they are one of the most environmentally friendly ways to create electricity and can save you a lot of money in the long run. Investing in good quality solar panels could potentially mean that you can create all the electricity you need to use. Any excess energy you harvest from the sun you can actually sell back to the grid for others to use and make more money that way.
Hopefully this has given you some ideas on trying to improve your home, or it has encouraged you to do so. Climate change and global warming are increasingly important issues and making small changes does add up to a bigger effect overall.