With the rising call for eco-friendly initiatives, more and more homeowners today are getting conscious of the demands of their houses' appliances, heating and cooling system, energy consumption, carbon footprint, etc. Thus, they search for more eco-friendly alternatives that can help for sustainable living. In this entry, we will look at some of the most popular green initiatives and home-efficiency tips that can suit to almost any budget, whether it's for home construction plan or renovation plan.
1. Knowing the Energy Weak Points of Your Home
Whether you choose to hire a contractor or you do home renovations yourself, it is always good to start with an energy audit of your house. This can be done by thorough inspection where professionals checks for air leaks, combined energy consumption of your home appliances, electrical system, etc. Professionals can pinpoint energy weak points of your house and how much they're costing you in your monthly bills, and of course, suggest for changes and improvements to address the problems.
2. Controlled Airflow
Outlines and tiny spaces around your doors and windows can cause tremendous waste of your energy consumption. United States Department of Energy estimated that, about 20% of your energy spent in heating or cooling goes to waste, as air literally creeps out through the doors and windows. This problem is quite common in old-houses because of ill-fitted and worn-out doors and windows that can easily warm or cool air to leak into or out of the house.
Your best bet is to repair these leaks with various home improvement tools and methods. Using something as simple as draft-catcher placed under the door can easily seal and control airflow. Addressing this problem is relatively easy, and there are tons of DIY stuff available in home improvement stores for this.
3. Insulation
Blown fill insulation, batting and rigid sheets can definitely provide significant benefits for energy-conscious homeowners, as these insulation materials can avert heat transfer from materials in your house, namely drywall, masonry and wood. You can easily find this stuff in your nearest home improvement DIY shops and install these padding to avoid inside the walls and other energy-consuming drafts and crawlspaces.
4. Develop a Low-impact Lawn
Consider every typical home yard equipment most home owners use; lawn mowers and string trimmers, all these things produce harmful emissions. Also, many fertilizers and pesticides use to grow bountiful gardens can leach into the groundwater, causing water pollution that can easily affect the quality of the water that pours out from your faucets. In addition, badly managed runoff water can easily fill your sewers.
Your best bet for a low-impact lawn is to grow native plants as ground cover, rather than baggy grass seeds. You can also change your landscape from and fit it to your lawn with layers of wild flowers rather than filling it up with rare ornamental plants. This will help you put your lawn's water consumption and chemical fertilizers use in minimum. For maintaining your lawn, you can opt for manual lawnmower or electric lawnmower rather than gas-powered machines. You can also cool the temperature of your lawn and protect your house from the harsh solar heating in summer days by strategically placing shade trees.
Whether you're hiring a professional construction company for your home building or renovation needs, it is always better to tell them your eco-friendly needs right at the planning of the construction. This will help you protect your environment and save you from expensive monthly electricity and water bills.
