Preparing for eco-friendly home improvement ideas is a great idea to make your home greener. Having a home in ecofriendly design doesn’t mean that you should rebuild the home and change all parts of it in newer and greener options. You can make it more affordable but quite effective by having some home improvement projects. By redesigning and replacing some things inside your home, you can have a greener home. So you can save more money and decrease carbon footprint produced in the home.
Improve the Landscape and Hardscape
Landscape is a part of home that is located outside but you can make it greener too; besides having eco-friendly things inside the home. A greener landscape can be made by incorporating more features of hardscaping, like patio stones, planting original plants rather than seed or sod. It will help reducing water consumption and maintenance needs to maintain the grassland. Place the shrubs and trees strategically on the yards so they can provide more shades for the home. It will make your home feels cooler and you don’t need much energy for air conditioner operation.
Lighting
Applying the right lighting is also great to preparing for eco-friendly home improvement ideas. You can do it by replacing your old light bulbs with the one in more energy efficient consumption. The best choice is the LED bulbs because it lives in longest time, don’t get hot, and save largest amounts of energy. Even you have to spend more money to buy LED bulbs, you can save more money for it can operate up to 25,000 hours. It means that you don’t need to replace the bulbs too often. On the other hand, you can install dimmer switches that can keep your lighting fixtures at 80% of full power.
Using Newer Appliances
If you still operated old appliances at home, then you should replace them with the newly designed ones. Newer appliances come in more modern design and efficient energy consumption. For example, newer fridges that can save up to $200 per year for lower energy bills. It means that you can get the purchase price again in some years from the lower bills. The same case happens if you choose dishwashers with Energy Star because the appliances consume 50 – 75% less energy and water combined with the older models. You will only consume about $20 per year for laundry if you choose front loading washer and cold water.
Choose the Right Windows Designs
Preparing for eco-friendly home improvement ideas can also be done by replacing your windows with the more eco-friendly versions. You can reduce the energy bills by choosing windows with double or triple pane. Such versions will also reduce the emissions because of the glazing, as well as lower UV rays because of the perfect transparent coating. However, replacing the windows and the frames may be costly, so you should replace them in brick-to-brick way.
By following the tips above, you can start preparing for eco-friendly home improvement ideas and take a part in saving the world from global warming as well as saving some money from the lower energy bills.
