With few green adoptions, you can decrease landfill waste, make the air pollution-free, and help preserve the natural landscape. To double these positive impacts, involve your family and continue these eco-friendly practices to dwell in a better living space.

Let’s make these ten minor modifications in your home for a more eco-friendly environment!

1. Smart Meter

Heating is the primary source of utilizing more energy, especially in the winter season, as you let the heat on for longer than required. That results in wasting both energy and your money. The best way to avoid over-usage is to install a smart meter in your home. You can adjust these smart meters so that they turn the heat on at a particular time only. For instance, it begins to heat up before you arrive home or shuts down half an hour before you go to work. Smart meters help you reduce your carbon footprint and also decrease your electricity bills.

2. Get Professional Cleaning Services

To maintain the cleanliness and appealing look of your home, you might need a helping hand. Why not ask a cleaning expert to help you make an eco-friendly house? Well, a cleaning professional will help you maintain an eco-friendly environment by recycling, reusing, and finding ways to conserve more energy than consumption. Suppose you are considering hiring a pro for home cleaning. In that case, Networx leads have a wide range of qualified professionals that you can trust. Also, these experts can guide you on how to practice these things and help promote an environmentally friendly culture inside your home.

3. Turn to Energy Efficient Lights

Turning to more energy-efficient lights can make a big difference. It will save you electricity and make your living space more environmentally friendly. Incandescent light bulbs seem tempting but using LED bulbs instead is always a better alternative. The LED light bulbs are eco-friendly, last longer, and save some bucks in the long run. Ultimately, it is the best option to invest in more energy-efficient light bulbs to eliminate the need to spend money to replace them.

Furthermore, solar panels are a must-have feature for your eco-wise home. It provides entirely clean electricity and sometimes generates enough energy that you can sell to the grid stations. Investing in solar panels is a long-term plan and an excellent opportunity to live in an eco-friendly environment.

4. Decorate Your Home with Houseplants

Growing houseplants is an effective way for air-cleaning your home. They can make your living space look attractive and welcoming for all. A little care towards them can let them thrive excellently. Some must-have houseplants include the China doll plant, Spider plant, Peace lily, and Boston ferns.

Furthermore, most people consider making their herb gardens in homes. Herbs can grow in small areas and won’t demand much of your home space. They can grow in small planters, and you can keep them indoors as well. Place them near sunny windows as they love bright indirect sunlight. The most significant advantage of owning an herb garden is having fresh herbs anytime you want to complement the dishes you love.

5. Window Treatments

Besides keeping your nosy neighbors far away, the blinds and curtains can also help maintain the indoor environment. In the summer season, your home can heat up even more as the sunlight directly strikes it. If you have a tree outside your home, it will create protection against the sun, but if not, you have to think of other options. Try to keep all your windows perfectly closed and guard them with curtains and blinds to prevent the hot air from creeping inside your rooms. Also, they can help you maintain the indoor temperature and create an eco-friendly environment in your home.

6. Be Watchful in the Kitchen

Always use sustainable kitchen products in your home. Many people who love toasted bread use the oven instead of a toaster to do so. However, they might not know that a toaster is much more efficient to buy and can use less energy than an oven. Also, it will get your job done much faster. While using the oven, you must take care because if you leave the door open after cooking or baking anything in it, it could heat your entire kitchen.

Similarly, coffee lovers who use pod coffee makers should turn to drip coffee makers. Using pods is not environment friendly, but you only require ground coffee with a drip coffee maker. Finally, you need to properly store your food and ensure it is not wasted at all. Try to learn a meal plan to help get an organized and eco-friendly kitchen all the time.

7. Get Epoxy Garage floor

An epoxy flooring requires significantly fewer chemicals while cleaning your garage, and it is cost-effective and eco-friendly. There are two different organic epoxy floorings available. One contains organic resins, and the other is natural marble with zero solvents. Organic epoxy floorings are among the greenest floors.

8. Use Cold Water to Wash Your Clothes

Set your washing machine on cold water mode. That will help you reduce excessive CO2 emissions and allow your clothes and bedding in excellent condition for a long time. Washing your clothes in hot water will deteriorate their fabric, making them look less vibrant than before and fade their colors. If your clothes get stubborn oil stains that won’t go with cold water, you can set your washing machine on hot water mode. After removing the stain, turn the settings again to the cold-water mode for further washing your clothes. It is a more efficient way energy-wise, but hot water setting is still on top for better cleaning for stubborn stains.

Conclusion

In correcting an environment full of pollution, we all can contribute a little effort to make a difference. You spend most of your time in your home, and making it a better space to live in is also your prime responsibility. Adopt changes in your life that are more eco-friendly, like cutting down excessive use of energy-generating items and turning towards more efficient ones. That will make an excellent overall environment.

The post 8 Cost-Effective Ways to Make Your Home Eco-Friendly appeared first on Green Building Insider.

One part of your property that you need to make eco-friendly is your backyard. When you are designing your summer backyard, you need to think of ways to do so without leaving an unnecessary carbon footprint.

Creating a Great Summer Backyard for Your Eco-Friendly Home

As summer approaches, homeowners are all excited to see friends and family. One of the best places to enjoy company is the backyard. But if you have a party or a few friends over, you want to have a place to hang out and enjoy the sunshine. With so many ways to augment your backyard, you can create your own personal haven to enjoy yourself and your company. Here are some ways to create the ultimate backyard for summers.

The good news is that you can create a summer backyard without compromising your goals as a sustainable homeowner. We already talked about some eco-friendly lawn maintenance tips that you can follow, but there are some other ideas for green homeowners too.

Here are some backyard design tips for green property owners.

Install an Outdoor Kitchen to Reduce Energy Use

We all know a barbecue is a must have in the backyard, but what about a full outdoor kitchen? Installing a kitchen in your backyard will make cooking fun again. You will be outside, in the fresh air, where you can talk to your friends while they sit and take in the sun. L shaped outdoor kitchens are a great way to put in the equipment that you need without taking up too much space. These kitchens provide a place to cook food outside without using the whole backyard to do it. With a barbecue, a stove, and even a refrigerator, you can cook high-class meals outdoors.

If you rely heavily on your barbecue, then you can lower your carbon footprint by using less electricity. You can also heat more efficiently outdoors in the summer, because it will be warmer and you won’t need to use as much energy to get the temperature up.

Energy Efficient Pool & Jacuzzi

Of course, we all want a pool and a hot tub in our backyards. It isn’t only an amazing place to relax, you will be able to invite your friends and family over to enjoy it. Your house will become the spot that everyone wants to come to for a party or a barbecue. During the day, you can cool off and exercise in the pool and at night you can relax in the hot tub. There’s no going wrong with a pool and a spa. If you can only fit one, choosing between the two will come down to what you value. But if you can install both a pool and a spa in your backyard, it’s also a great investment.

However, it is a good idea to make sure that your pool and jacuzzi are as energy efficient as possible. This will help you lower your carbon footprint.

String Up a Hammock

Stringing up a hammock is a simple way to make your backyard more enjoyable. It is also one of the most eco-friendly ways to enjoy the summer!

It’s easy to put and relatively inexpensive. A hammock is a great place to drink some coffee, read a book, or take a nap. Not only is a hammock a perfect piece for your backyard, just about everyone who comes over will want to get into it. You won’t regret buying a hammock, even if you don’t use it as much as you should.

Build a Gazebo with Renewable Materials

If you have enough space in your backyard, a pergola or a gazebo will provide the shade and peaceful serenity that you want when you have people over or simply want to read a book under it. They can go with the landscape of your yard. It’s a great way to provide shade when it’s very hot and sunny. While a gazebo will take up a lot of space, they provide a great place to relax and find peace in the heat. Summer gets really warm, a gazebo will keep you away from the sun.

One of the good things about gazebos is that they can be built out of sustainable materials, such as wood and stone. This is preferable to using a metallic or plastic one that is bad for the environment.

Put in a Fireplace

Who doesn’t like roasting marshmallows over the fire? A fireplace is a great option for a home backyard. It is low maintenance and enjoyable. You will be able to have friends over for a chat, a story, and a song around the fire. Having a fire pit comes in handy. Sitting outside during the nighttime and enjoying a fire is one of the many pleasures of life. Whatever else you put into your backyard, a fireplace is a great addition that will make everyone happy.

Whoever you are and whatever your family is into, creating a safe haven in your backyard never disappoints. During the summer you will be able to enjoy the outside while indulging in some relaxation and leisure. Not only will you be able to take it easy, all of your friends will want to come over and go in the pool, use your barbecue, and relax around the fire or in a hammock. What are you waiting for? It’s time to create the backyard of your dreams. These are just some of the options for decking out your yard and making it the place everyone wants to hang out at. You’ll have your own little spot of paradise to disconnect and find a pure sense of relaxation.

Make an Eco-Friendly Backyard for the Summer!

There are a lot of great things that you can do to enjoy the summer without harming the environment. These backyard design tips will help you do this without leaving a higher carbon footprint.

The post Green Homeowner’s Guide to Creating the Ultimate Summer Backyard appeared first on Green Building Insider.

Here, we explore how you can strike a balance between the two.

Use recyclable or sustainable materials

Green design utilizes materials that have been recycled or that come from renewable sources. This means the material doesn’t harm the environment either in its production, use, or disposal. There are many simple ways in which interior designers now incorporate such materials into their designs.

Need some ideas? Rather than concrete, designers can create gorgeous interiors using reclaimed oak flooring and timber. A piece of teak can be turned into a chic coffee table or a slate of marble transformed into a countertop. There’s also recycled brick slips to build a homely fireplace, repurposed marble for a slick-looking bathroom, or old copper piping to create a rustic look for a dining room.

Rather than spending thousands on new materials, many of these used materials are available in salvage yards. Use your imagination. With a creative mind and moral determination, these items could become centre-pieces in your home and mean so much more than a self-assembled flatpack from IKEA.

Illuminate your home with energy efficient alternatives

Lighting is used in many modern homes to transform the entire vibe of an interior. Low level lighting can provide a subtle pathway of light in an evening, pendant lights can give the illusion of height, and spotlights can be used to draw attention to a particular focal point. Unfortunately, lighting is also one of the biggest contributors to a home’s energy use.

You don’t need to sacrifice your green ethos to bring transformative lighting to a home thanks to advances in LED technology. LEDs are more energy efficient than filament bulbs, meaning you can illuminate a house tastefully without dramatically increasing its carbon footprint. According to the Energy Saving Trust, replacing all the bulbs in your home with LED lights could reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by up to 65kg a year. This is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emitted by driving your car around 220 miles.

Incorporating such technologies into other luxury projects is also the best way of reducing their impact. For example, you can make a home lift more environmentally friendly by replacing its lights with an efficient alternative and incorporating a sleep mode. Meanwhile, submersible LEDs can be used in a variety of locations including pools, hot tubs, jacuzzis and ponds.

Offset emissions with renewable energy

Using the unlimited energy of the sun, solar panels are a long-term, cost-effective way to generate electricity that you can use in your home. You can get a lot of value from installing solar panels and other eco-friendly additions to help the planet at the same time.

A typical home solar energy system could save around 1.3 to 1.6 tonnes of carbon per year (depending where you are within the UK). From the luxury point of view, solar panels are now seen as an attractive addition that, when installed with taste and care, can actually add a modern slickness to a classic architectural style.

Similar to solar panels, geothermal heating utilises the forces of nature to provide optimal indoor temperatures throughout the year. Such a feature allows homeowners to keep their environmental footprint smaller. An efficient geothermal system can provide 20 years of reliable heating and cooling with minimal maintenance. Therefore, the benefits of installing one outweighs the upfront costs, especially if it’s for a newbuild.

The post Is It Possible To Have A Luxury And Sustainable Home? appeared first on Green Building Insider.

Despite their desire to shift towards an eco-friendly lifestyle, many homeowners don’t know how to make their houses more sustainable. They should take the time to research their options to create sustainable homes and live up to their pledge to be eco-friendly consumers.

How Do You Create a Sustainable Home?

Are you looking to make your home more eco-friendly? People are becoming increasingly more aware of the importance of eco-friendly living and taking action to reduce their environmental impact in their lives and there are lots of ways that you can do this with changes in the home. In addition to the environmental benefits, these can often help you to make savings too.

Solar Panels

This is the most important way to make your home more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. One of the most obvious and effective ways to make your home more eco-friendly is to have solar panels installed. This can be at a cost upfront, but you can make enormous savings over the long-term in addition to having peace of mind knowing that you are using renewable energy in the home.

Insulation

Insulating the home is another smart step to take because it will lessen your need to use the central heating which will help to lower your energy bill. Not only this, but insulation will help to keep the warmth in and the cold air out so that your home will be much more comfortable in the winter months. Adding insulation is especially important if you want to make older buildings more sustainable.

Recycle

Recycling is one of the most effective ways for a household to reduce their impact yet often an area that people struggle with. This often comes down to not knowing what can and cannot be recycled, so you should educate everyone in the house on this and check any packaging if you are ever unsure.

Grow Your Own Veg

Growing your own vegetables will lessen your need to buy from and travel to supermarkets, which can greatly reduce your environmental impact. In addition to this, it will also help you to lower your grocery bill and you could improve your diet too. Growing vegetables can be a healthy, active hobby as well but you should be careful as you could injure yourself from bending over. If you do suffer an injury, be sure to see the right medical professional so that you are not misdiagnosed which could lead to clinical negligence.

Small Changes

There are also a handful of small changes that you can make in the home. This includes things such as:

• LED lightbulbs
• Turning off equipment when not in use
• Washing clothes on a cold setting
• Air drying instead of using the dryer

These are a few of the best ways that you can make your home more eco-friendly. It is important for everyone to take a look at their life and find ways that they can be more environmentally-friendly and these are good places to start.

Create a Greener Home to Protect the Planet

Sustainability is a major concern for many homeowners. You need to consider all of the changes that you can make to lower your carbon footprint.

The post Simple Changes to Create the Perfect Sustainable Home appeared first on Green Building Insider.

This is becoming more important as people start to recognize the consequences of climate change. NASA reports that the average global surface temperature has increased two degrees in recent years, which can have a terrifying impact on the planet.

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint to Fight Climate Change

Climate change remains the biggest threat to our planet and our immediate future as a species and as more and more people come to that realization, more of us want to do something about it on a ground level. There are dozens of things you could be doing to reduce your carbon footprint at home with surprisingly little effort.

Follow the five R’s – Refuse, reduce, reuse, rot and recycle are the five cornerstones of any carbon-neutral makeover. Refuse refers to avoiding single-use materials, reduce means simply downsizing what you’re purchasing, reuse means to go out of your way to keep items relevant, rot refers to a compost system and recycle is pretty straightforward.

Use renewable energy – Installing solar panels is becoming an increasingly legitimate option for houses across the UK. There are numerous financial incentives being offered if you’re willing to look hard enough and you could even install them yourself if you are proficient in construction work. Though you might want to insure yourself before undergoing any serious work because if an injury occurs, you want to ensure you’re covered in case you are misdiagnosed due to poor care from a medical professional.

Keep the car in the garage – Even if you have an electric car, you’ll be taking so much off your overall carbon footprint if you choose to walk or cycle to work instead. You don’t need to see it as a chore either. Think of it as getting in your daily workout and your commute at the same time!

Optimize your home – There are dozens of ways you could be optimizing your home to take advantage of improvements in energy efficiency. For example, perhaps consider installing a new efficient boiler or going for a heat pump instead? Or maybe you could replace all of your old halogen lightbulbs with more efficient LED bulbs LED lights? Then there’s the whole argument for improving your home’s insulation. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Grow your own food – It’s not as difficult as you might think, especially if you compost properly. We’re not expecting you to become a full-time farmer here but by at least growing your own vegetables and herbs you’ll be making a substantial difference. Going further, you can also make a difference to your carbon footprint by avoiding the supermarket and shopping locally at your local farm shops too. The produce is always better and you might strike up a friendship with the farmers, which means even more savings.

Follow These Tips to Create a Greener Home

Ultimately, it all comes back to those 5 R’s. Everything you’re about to make a decision about how you run your household, run those 5 R’s through your mind and use it as a litmus test to help you make the right choice. It’s a tough habit to break into but once you do you’ll wonder why living a more eco-friendly life isn’t something you tried years ago.

The post 5 Ways to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your Green Home appeared first on Green Building Insider.

It’s not all bad news, though. As more people wake up to the reality of climate change, we’re coming up with more ways to reduce our environmental impact, including that of our homes. New construction materials, building designs, energy systems and other innovations are enabling us to make our homes greener.

It’s easier to reduce the environmental impact of some types of homes than others, though. Let’s look at four types of houses and their potential for going green.

1. Move-in Ready Homes

The environmental friendliness of pre-built, move-in ready homes varies. You might be able to find some newer homes that are built with ecological impact in mind. For many developers, however, that’s not the priority. Older homes can be especially problematic, as they might not have the latest green technology and are likely to have more insulation issues.

Of course, you can always retrofit an existing home to make it greener. The necessary renovation projects may be challenging, time-consuming and expensive. Fortunately, they do have the potential to significantly improve energy efficiency and maximize a home’s green potential.

Not all move-in ready homes are exceptionally eco-friendly, but if you find the right one — most likely newer, sustainable home building options — or complete some renovations, you can make yours relatively green.

2. Custom-Built Homes

With custom-built homes, you have plentiful opportunities to make green choices. You have much more control over how the home is built and what features you include. So, if you make the right decisions, you could end up with an extremely green house.

Of course, the environmental impact of your custom home will depend on the features you choose. Opt for recycled or sustainably produced building materials, electric- and water-efficient appliances and fixtures, and renewable energy systems, such as passive solar and solar panels. You can include the most up-to-date appliances right from the start, ensuring your home will save you money on energy output.

While these green features can require a substantial upfront investment, many of them will save you money in the long run. It’s also much easier to incorporate these features into a new build than an existing one.

3. Modular Homes

Modular homes are built in sections in a factory setting and then assembled on-site. Buying a modular home gives you the option to customize it to some extent. You don’t have as much freedom as with a custom-built home, but the process is typically faster and simpler.

There is less guesswork and waste in making modular homes because they are built in a factory with predefined processes. Many modular home companies also offer green feature options and consider energy efficiency in their designs, so these types of houses have the potential to be quite environmentally friendly.

Because of the way they’re built, they can also be an affordable option. Modular homes potentially free up more space in your budget for green features.

4. Tiny Homes

Reduced environmental impact is one of the most prominent draws of the tiny house movement, which, if you haven’t heard, involves houses that are about 100 to 400 square feet and sometimes mobile.

Because of the size of tiny homes, they use fewer materials and less energy, significantly reducing their effect on the environment. Many are solar-powered, which is easier to accomplish than with a larger house because they require less power to operate.

Tiny houses also encourage simple living and require cutting down on the number of possessions you have. This is another way they help you live a green lifestyle. Another draw is, of course, the tiny price as compared to a standard home.

Choosing Sustainable Home Building

We all have the potential to make our homes greener, as long as we have the right information, resources and the will to see our eco-friendly projects through. Some types of homes, though, making going green easier than others do. The next time you consider relocating, check out and compare those sustainable home building options with the most green potential.

The post Which Sustainable Home Building Option Has The Most Green Potential? appeared first on Green Building Insider.