3 Ways to Keep Your Home Green & Sustainable
Today, environmental consciousness is important to most homeowners. They want to keep their homes as green as possible, but the effort and cost of such an undertaking can put many people off. In reality, keeping your home green doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Parker Design | Build | Remodel can provide tips to ensure your home is environmentally friendly while keeping your bank account is intact.
Find Ways to Save Energy
Energy is often the biggest thing that keeps a home from being green, especially when it comes to heating and cooling. Small adjustments to your thermostat will not greatly influence your home’s temperature but can greatly affect your energy usage and utility bills. Keep your thermostat at a consistent temperature – about 68 degrees – when you’re at home. When you’re away, turn the thermostat to about 55. Programmable thermostats are a great way to ensure that your thermostat is turned up or down when you’re away from home.
Heat pumps provide energy efficiency in more ways than one. First, heat pumps can provide equivalent space conditioning as little as ¼ the cost of operating conventional heating or cooling appliances. Depending upon your geographical location, there are new ways to heat more efficiently. Geothermal heat pumps utilize the relatively constant ground or water temperatures to condition your home’s temperature providing low long-term costs and high customer satisfaction.
Window to the World
If your home is more than 15 years old, your windows may need replacing. Energy efficient windows and Low-e coatings have been developed to minimize the amount of ultraviolet and infrared light that can pass through glass without compromising the amount of visible light that is transmitted, causing heat or light energy to be shifted away from the glass surface and your home.
You can also incorporate other features to facilitate energy savings, such as window tinting. Window tinting absorbs heat and naturally regulates your home’s indoor temperature. You can also use larger windows to let in natural sunlight and air, or invest in solar panels if your budget allows.
Unplug Often
Electricity is a necessity for most of us, but it’s a drain on the environment. Follow a simple rule – if you aren’t using something, turn it off. Even if your computer or television enters “sleep mode,” go ahead and shut it down all the way. This saves your electronic devices from overheating, which can cause several problems, including corrupted files and slow connections. Do the same thing with your light switches; if you aren’t in the room, turn them off. Many homes now have motion sensors so that a light can automatically turn on or off, depending on whether or not you’re in the room.
At Parker Design | Build | Remodel, we care about the environment. Contact us today if you would like more information on how your home can be more eco-friendly.
