Going for a more energy efficient home indisputably has no downsides. Not only does it help the environment but is also less brutal on your wallet. Thus, by adapting a few simple habits along with some effective changes around your home, you can begin to live a more environment friendly sustainable living. To help you on your way to starting this journey, here are some ways to conserve energy at your home:
1. Turn Off Lights When Leaving Room
Now, this may seem like a very basic tip. Everybody knows that switching off lights or other appliances when you’re not using them is energy efficient but the reality is, not all of us follow through this. The more trivial and widespread this knowledge has become, the less likely each individual has become on actually acting on it. Thus, adapt this habit as if it were a sin to not turn off the lights when you leave the room. Whenever you see an unattended light on, turn it off immediately. Make this a stern habit and you will start to see changes in your energy bill.
2. Use Energy Efficient Lighting
Commonly, incandescent bulbs are preferred due to their low price, but the reality is that they run for a far lesser time than fluorescent bulbs and consume way more energy. Thus, an incandescent bulb may cost very less but runs roughly for about 1000 hours while a fluorescent bulb costs more but runs for 10,000 hours. Consequently, in the long run, fluorescent bulbs are well worth the money, run longer and consume far lesser energy than incandescent bulbs. A professional interior designer will be able to assist you with choosing more energy efficient lighting.
3. Plant Trees
For those of you who have a bit of gardening skills, this simple technique can really help keep your environment clean and your house cool in the summer, thus allowing you to save quite a bit of energy in air conditioning. Trees provide a natural shield of insulation from heat and when you have your own vegetation, you can fertilize it using your own compost comprising of used egg shells, banana peels and other organic matter. This not only makes living significantly waste free but also saves energy consumption on garbage disposal.
4. Use Cold Water in Washing Machine
This is a very simple tip. Heated water requires a lot of energy consumption thus cutting down on its use where it won’t cause any discomfort is a very effective way of conserving energy at home. Washing clothes in cold water will help you get rid of this issue. Furthermore, choosing a shorter spin cycle on your washing machine will also lower energy consumption as the washing machine will be running for a significantly lesser amount of time.
5. Switch to Energy-Efficient Appliances
Changing appliances around the house may seem like an expensive endeavor but one that benefits you in the long run. Newer models of appliances these days are especially designed to be more energy efficient and switching to them inevitably saves energy at the end.
6. Lower Temperature of Water Heating Systems
As stated earlier, water heating systems consume a lot of energy that can otherwise be saved. Lowering the temperature of your water heating system to a moderately warm level will hardly cause any discomfort to you. However, it will end up helping you conserve energy in your energy efficient home.
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