When you make your home eco-friendly, you’re helping look after the environment by reducing your carbon print while enjoying high energy efficiency, reduced energy bills, and less home maintenance overtime. Building with eco-friendly materials can be quite beneficial because they’re free of dangerous chemicals, environmental pollutants, and finishes, creating a healthy indoor environment.

Most Americans are increasingly becoming aware of eco-friendly home benefits, including reduced running costs and a future-proof and more sustainable way of living. This increases the demand for green homes, attracting higher property values than non-green homes. This article outlines eight ways to make your home eco-friendlier.

1. Install smart meters

Heating is one most significant ways to utilize energy. Leaving your heating on for longer than needed is common, especially during winter. This results in high energy consumption and increased utility bills. Installing smart meters is an excellent way to combat this issue. You can program these electrical products to only turn on at specific times of the day.

For instance, you can program your smart meter to start heating before you get home and shut off sometime before leaving the house. A smart meter is a must-have for any homeowner looking for ways to reduce their energy bills and carbon print.

2. Invest in solar panels

Solar panels are an excellent way to generate sustainable and clean renewable energy for your home and reduce carbon print. They’re environmentally friendly because their energy replaces greenhouse gas, fossil fuels, and carbon dioxide emissions. Since their energy is green and is from renewable sources, it’s cost-effective. Solar panels have a long lifespan and require less maintenance.

The renewable energy they generate is excellent energy conservation. In addition, solar energy releases no air pollution or emissions, meaning harmful chemicals aren’t released into the air, positively impacting your health and that of others.

3. Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs

Energy-efficient light bulbs are excellent for the environment because they save significant electricity amounts and last longer, meaning they don’t lead to high landfill levels linked to incandescent bulbs. LED, CFL, and halogen incandescent light bulbs are a great way to reduce your carbon print. Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs reduces energy consumption, carbon print, and energy bills, saving you money and conserving the environment.

4. Use natural cleaning products

Using cleaning products with harmful chemicals is destructive to the environment and increases your carbon print. However, investing in natural cleaning means using eco-friendly or organic products for daily cleaning activities. When looking for natural cleaning products for your household, consider the ingredients to ensure they’re naturally derived, safe, and non-toxic.

Choose natural and organic cleaning products that are top-rated by reputable organizations like Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Environmental Working Group (EWG). The best natural cleaning product should have a high cleaning ability, and customer feedback and user reviews should back its effectiveness.

5. Insulate your home

Insulation is a vital component of a sustainable home because it helps curb heat, the most significant expense in your energy bill. Eco-friendly insulation makes your home more energy-efficient. This means you can keep your home warmer in winter and cooler during summer without turning up the boiler. This cuts your carbon emission and combats climate change. You can start by insulating your walls, roof, and windows.

Also, read Exciting Ideas To “Go Green” With Your Fix + Flip Business

6. Install sustainable flooring

Sustainable flooring is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and made from sustainably recycled, harvested, or reclaimed sources. The best green flooring option should be durable, as natural as possible, and not negatively impact indoor air quality. Some eco-friendliest flooring options include cork, bamboo, linoleum, glass tiles, concrete, wool carpet, polyester Berber carpet, rubber, leather, and reclaimed hardwood.

7. Use smart thermostats

Smart thermostats are a home efficiency solution you can quickly implement. They’re Wi-Fi enabled, and you can control them from any remotely controlled smart device. Smart thermostats can be connected to the central heating unit, including air conditioning units and boilers. They memorize your home heating patterns based on the outside temperatures.

They know when to cool or heat your space. Using the sensing technology, smart thermostats automatically turn off your system when you leave and back on in time for your return. This reduces your carbon print and conserves energy, reducing utility bills.

8. Invest in energy-efficient appliances

Home appliances consuming a lot of energy significantly contribute to harmful greenhouse gasses. Investing in energy-efficient appliances reduces carbon footprint emissions, saves energy and money, protects the environment, and enhances lifestyle. When choosing energy-efficient appliances, look for the ENERGY STAR label to ensure the products you use meet or exceed the rigorous EPA and DOE-established energy-efficiency guidelines.

Endnote

Making your home eco-friendly reduces carbon footprint and saves energy. Use these tips to make your home more eco-friendly.