Architecture

How to Make a Home More Environmentally Friendly

Whether you already own a home and you’re wanting to improve its environmental credentials or you’re considering having an eco-friendly home built for you by specialists, moving towards being friendlier to the Earth is not a bad thing. We all have to live here and it’s up to us to take care of the planet.

Accordingly, here are a few tips on making a home eco-friendlier.

Clean Refrigerator Coils

When looking to reduce the energy footprint of your home, one way is simply to reduce its energy consumption, including waste energy. The refrigerator coils are a good example of this. Not necessarily seen as an eco-friendly thing, the coils get dirty and dusty, preventing the cooling which requires additional energy to regulate the internal temperature. Not only does this cost more on the electricity bill but it also uses coal, fossil fuels or other forms of energy to generate the extra household electricity used.

Power Strips to the Rescue

Plugging most electrical appliances into power strips makes it a simple matter to flip one switch to turn off all appliances in one go. This obviously doesn’t include the refrigerator that has a freezer compartment too. If you tend to be forgetful, use a timer. It will plug into the power outlet and the power strip then plugs into the timer. The timer will shut off the power strip on its own. They’re inexpensive and easy to program for up to a week in advance.

Use Water Filters & Reusable Water Bottles

Use a whole house water filter system to clean the water supply. It will be more palatable because it screens out undesirable additives or remnants picked up in the water pipes along the route from the water provider.

You can use reusable water bottles in the home too. This stops you having to use disposable water when taking some refreshing water out with you on a walk around the park. Some reusable water bottles also come with their own replaceable filters to fill up directly from a friend’s tap water when making a pit-stop.

Building from Scratch or Remodeling

When you don’t feel like the smaller internal changes are adequate, then you might be interested in having an eco-friendly home built from scratch. Good home builders MN can build a new ecologically designed home or perform extensive remodeling of an existing home to create an energy-efficient one that’s better for the environment.

Designing a new home from scratch is almost always going to be the best option. This is because the home is created completely from the perspective of being in harmony with the Earth and not created in spite of it. Sustainable living in a pleasant environment that’s energy efficient and comfortable to live in are the definite goals here.

Creating an eco-friendly home is a noble objective. Not everyone becomes a homeowner with this intention in mind, but we can all do more to achieve it one change at a time. And usually, it saves money too.

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