Making your home more “eco-friendly” can feel like an impossible task. If anything, it seems somewhat vague or even expensive.
Fortunately, establishing a greener home doesn’t have to be complicated, stressful, or costly.
Creating a sustainable lifestyle by starting with small changes can lead to building a green, energy-efficient home. From adding solar power and installing energy-efficient lights to ditching plastics, we’ll cover a few practical tips to make your home more eco-friendly.
1. Add Solar Power
The sun is a natural power source of energy, and using it to power your electrical appliances is an effective way to make your home more eco-friendly. We recommend opting for solar panels to use natural sunlight efficiently.
Solar panels collect UV energy from the sun’s rays and convert them to usable energy. Many portable panels won’t even require the hassle of installing them on your rooftop, either.
You’ll want to connect your solar panels to home portable power stations so that you can effectively store the energy you generate. This energy stored can later be used at any time so that you can have ample power anytime, whether it’s a cloudy day or even at night.
These power stations will directly power your appliances, such as your TV, dryer, washer, and coffee machine.
2. Ditch Plastics and Commit to Recycling
Not every change has to be significant. Cutting down on plastic use is easy to do. With over 300 million metric tons of plastic produced per year and only 21.3% recycled, plastic is a massive contributor to the waste on our planet.
Instead of using plastic products like shopping bags or cups, invest in canvas totes and reusable bottles. You can even support businesses that aim to minimize plastic waste. For instance, buying produce from a farmer’s market rather than prepackaged at a store is another excellent option.
Once you’ve ditched the plastics, you want to begin recycling your household waste and support a greener planet—research local recycling programs to see how you can contribute. Most of these programs widely accept glass, paper, and cans. Set up separate bins to place your recycled goods.
3. Install Energy-Efficient Lights
Incandescent light bulbs emit heat and energy, making them an incredibly unsustainable option in the long run. Fortunately, there are many light choices to save you money. For example, LEDs last up to 25 times longer and use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs.
You can save on additional energy costs by using smart lighting, where you can control these LEDs using timers and dimmers. Timers automatically turn lights off when not in use, and dimmers lower the light levels.
Wrapping It Up
By making these easy changes in your home, you can significantly improve your home’s energy efficiency and positively impact the environment. Now, you have a handful of practical solutions to do so.
Embracing an environmentally-friendly lifestyle has a lot of benefits. You’ll contribute to a sustainable future and reap the rewards like enhanced home value and reduced energy costs.