The idea of a “green home”–one designed to be sustainable and environmentally friendly–is appealing for a number of obvious reasons. Who doesn’t want to curb wasteful energy use and stop using materials that are harmful to the environment? Even little efforts can help protect the planet in the long term and improve your life in the process. The problem is that people tend to think of green homes as a relatively recent thing reserved for new constructions, and if you live in an older house it’s probably too late to do anything about it.
That’s not true, of course. There are things you can start doing immediately to make it more energy efficient. These easy changes can have a big impact even on an advanced smart home.
Here are a few quick and easy tips…
Start with Light Bulbs
One of the easiest swaps you can make involves light bulbs. If you still have any old incandescent bulbs hanging around, replace them with LED bulbs. Traditional incandescent bulbs are horribly inefficient, with most of the energy they consume going into generating heat rather than light. They also have a short life span – the average bulb lasts around 1,200 operating hours. This means that even though incandescent bulbs are cheap to purchase, you have to purchase a lot of them (roughly 50-100) to equal the lifespan of a single LED. LEDs can last 50,000 to 100,000 hours or more and waste very little energy by way of heat (they also have no warm up time like incandescent bulbs, and reach peak brightness immediately).
Go with Curtains
It’s not as if blinds are bad, per se (and in some cases they make more sense), but where you can, consider room-darkening curtains–especially in rooms that get a lot of direct sunlight. By not being as leaky as blinds, they keep such rooms cooler, which in turn keeps you from using energy-heavy devices like fans or air conditioners. Opt for insulated curtains to maximize the heat retention. Less ambient light and glare from the sun shining in also allows you to keep your device brightness turned down, which can save energy. That 85-inch TV backlight burns serious power when cranked up to overcome strong ambient.
You could also ditch your blinds for some cellular shades, which provide similar benefits to curtains and look aesthetically cool.
Install a Better Shower Head
Showering, in general, is a less wasteful way to keep clean, as it uses less water than filling a bath. But you can still do more. An aerated or low-flow shower head will do the job just as well as a more powerful option, and will use even less water to do so. In fact, most low-flow options can decrease water consumption by more than 40%. You can also adjust your habits, too, to keep showers under 10 minutes, which is usually enough to get done what you need to get done.
Stop using Paper Towels
Consider switching out your go-to paper products with something reusable, such as replacing paper towels with more eco-friendly washcloths. According to Terra Pass, “Producing paper towels requires things like trees, chemicals, fuel, water, and electricity—contributing to millions of metric tons of CO2 annually…According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), paper and cardboard waste—of which paper towels are a contributing factor—make up the largest percentage of waste materials in the U.S.” In addition, stop using paper plates and napkins as well, opting for reusable dishes and washable cloths. If you really want to go the extra mile, consider reusable toilet paper–yes, that’s a thing – to even further reduce paper waste.
Also, Stop Using Chemical Cleaners
Not only is it healthier to have less chemicals in your house in general, consider this: Once your go-to detergents and washing agents are flushed down the drain, they go into the water supply and often require water treatment plants to consume more energy to process them out. Try using substitutes like bicarbonate of soda, lemon juice or vinegar to kill bacteria, remove grease and keep your house odor-free. You can learn how to evaluate your cleaning products with our guide.
Line Dry Whenever Possible
A traditional clothes line or drying rack will not only extend the life of your clothing (further reducing waste), it’ll keep you from constantly using the clothes dryer, which is a huge energy consumer. Two hours of dryer use is roughly the equivalent of a week’s worth of TV watching.
Along with these simple swaps, there are other relatively easy additions and habits you can adopt in your home in an effort to “green-ify” it even further. Including…
- Dryer Balls: Like paper towels, disposable dryer sheets are wasteful, and a set of wool dryer balls can do the same job over and over without the waste or the chemicals.
- Houseplants: Why not convert some of your home’s CO2 into healthy O2 the old fashioned way? Fill your house with plants and make it greener – literally and figuratively. If you have the time, space and inclination, you can go the extra mile and plant a vegetable garden to also increase sustainability (and shopping costs).
- Solar Panels: if possible, a long-term investment in solar panels will do wonders for your home’s energy consumption. After the initial installation costs, it will be nothing but energy savings going forward.
- Clean your Fridge: Not the inside, the back side. Keeping your refrigerator coils free of dust and grime will actually cause it to use less energy and perform more efficiently.
See? With a few simple swaps and a few conscientious changes, any home or apartment can be a “green home.” The planet thanks you.
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