In the past, having a sustainable home was something people could only dream of. Products for self-sufficiency either did not exist or work, or were too expensive. Equipping your roof with a couple of solar panels could easily cost you $5000 or maybe even more.
People living on an average salary could never afford to spend this kind of money to become sustainable. Fortunately, a lot of things have changed in the past decade or two.
As Get Multifamily Management says, creating a sustainable home is finally doable and inexpensive. With enough effort, anyone could do it.
However, the process of making your home more sustainable is not an easy task. There are some things you will need to know about before you make this kind of transition. But, do not worry because there is so much information you can find on the Internet that will help you with this kind of project.
So, if you truly want to be eco-friendly, to have a positive impact on planet Earth, then you deserve to know about all of the ways you can finally make your home sustainable.
Switch to LEDs
Regular light bulbs that can be found in most people’s homes do not require a lot of energy. Most of them require 50 W to 100 W, although there are some that spend a lot more, up to 200 W. This does not seem like a lot, but how many of these light bulbs do you have in your house? Do you have five? Do you have ten or more? Now multiply those 100 W with the number of light bulbs you have in your home and you can finally understand just how much energy they waste.
This is why it is very important to remember to turn off the light when you do not need it. There is no point for a bulb to burn while you are not there or in a different room.
Unfortunately, turning off the lights is not enough. The best way you can reduce energy consumption is by switching from incandescent lamps to LEDs. There simply is no reason why you should not make this transition to light-emitting diodes. They use 10 times less power (ranging from 2 W to 15W), they can shine in all kinds of colors, they can be brighter and they last twice as long.
So, not only will you be spending less energy throughout the day, but you also spend a lot less money on replacing LEDs. If everyone would make this kind of transition, light-bulb factories would have to reduce the amount of production they do in a year, effectively reducing pollution.
Solar-powered generator
If you truly want to reduce your carbon footprint on the world, then your next step should be to get a solar power generator. By making this kind of a purchase, you might reduce your electricity bills by a whole lot or you might even bring them down to zero, it depends on the type of generated you will purchase.
Smaller solar power generators come with a 200 W or a 300 wild battery. This is not a small battery in any way, but it is not enough to power an entire house. However, if you were to use it on a daily basis, the fees on your electricity bill could drop considerably. And if you do want a bigger battery, you can always buy a bigger solar power generator.
By buying this type of product, not only will you be more eco-friendly, but your life will also become a bit more practical. You can carry a portable power station anywhere you want.
Take it to the beach, set it up in your backyard, or use it in your car. According to bluetti.com, a 1000W portable power station could provide you with more than 250 recharges to your smartphone on a single charge.
Solar panels
The power of the sun is almost limitless. There are so many ways we could utilize it and it could save us so much money, so white not do that? The best way to utilize the rays of the sun is by installing several solar panels on the roof of your house.
There are two ways you can use these panels. If your house gets a lot of direct sunlight throughout the day, you get to use it as an alternative energy source. By doing this, you will effectively half the price of your electricity bills.
However, if your house does not get a lot of direct sunlight, you could use it as a water heater. Instead of having your boiler spend tons of energy just to heat up water, you can use the sun and these panels to heat that water. This way, you will always have hot water when you need to shower.
Insulation
Every year, people spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to cool or heat their homes. In colder winters, the temperature outside could drop well below zero, which will have a huge effect on the temperature indoors. In these times, you just have to bump up the heaters or your air conditioning to keep yourself and your family warm. You can’t just avoid using the heater just to save money or to be more eco-friendly.
But what you can do is isolate your home properly. The better insulation you have, the less electricity you will have to waste to heat up or cool your home.
For example, a home with bad insulation will require up to 5 hours of cooling or heating to reach an acceptable temperature. Turning off the cooling or heating will result in a drop or rise in temperature in just a few hours. With good insulation, the temperature indoors will drop or rise in a much slower time, reducing the need to use any kind of heating or cooling.
Be more responsible
If you truly want to reduce the carbon footprint in your life and if you want to secure a better future for the next generations, the best thing you can do is to be more responsible when it comes to using energy. This may be one of the most effective ways Earth can become more sustainable.
Keep in mind, this is only a fraction of what you could do to improve your home’s sustainability. However, even by implementing one of these things in your home, you will reduce your negative impact on the planet by a lot.
