As homeowners, we are often looking for ways to add Eco Friendly tools, tricks, and tips to help create a green home that is good for the environment and good for the world around us.
In this series of articles, we focus on ways to improve the Eco friendly footprint of your house, saving energy (and money) along the way to reducing your family’s carbon footprint on the world.
From simple tips, such as using earth-friendly cleaning products to larger installations to improve your home’s energy efficiency, there are some simple (and not-so-simple) ways to create a greener home that you can enjoy and feel good about.
You don’t have to go overboard to have a positive impact on the environment.
Creating an eco friendly home does not mean you need to sacrifice style. And creating a “green home” does not mean you simply paint all the walls green (that would likely be a terrible idea, unless you truly love green).
Instead, when we are referring to creating a green home, we are looking at ways to reduce the negative impacts on the world around us while creating a friendly and healthy environment for us and our families.
Key Tips for Creating an Eco Friendly Home
Whether you make a few small changes, a few big changes, or a mix of big and small, everything we – as homeowners – can do to help create a positive impact (or, at the very least, reduce our negative impact) on the environment is a good thing.
According to Science Daily, the MIT currently estimates that the Carbon Footprint of even your “conserving” American household is still double the global average.
The World Bank paints an even grimmer picture, and puts the Carbon Footprint of the average American at 16.4 metric tons CO2 per year, which is more than three times the global average.
In some ways, that’s not a fair comparison. The USA is a highly industrialized nation, and highly industrialized nations tend to use more natural resources.
However, highly industrialized nations also have greater access to greener technologies that can help reduce the negative impact that we have on the environment and the planet as a whole.
Eco-Friendly Tips for a Greener Home: The Infographic
Reaching Your Goal:
Eco-Friendly Tips for a Greener Home
To help you in that goal, we have gathered 11 of our top tips to help reduce your home’s carbon footprint and create a greener, more environmentally friendly home.
#1 — Water Saving Tips
We take for granted that when we turn on the tap, water is instantly available. But, if we’re not careful, that may not always be the case.
The average leaky toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water per day. And that annoying drip, drip, drip from your tap could be costing you up to 5 gallons of water per day or nearly 2,000 gallons per year.
Shorter showers, or turning the water off while lathering, can significantly reduce the amount of water that is wasted on a daily basis.
If you can’t, or simply don’t want to, reduce the amount of time you have the water turned on you can reduce the amount of water that flows out per minute.
Read More Eco Friendly Water Saving Tips >>
#2 — Heat Saving Tips
It doesn’t take a lot to make a big difference to your home heating bills. Small changes in how you heat and insulate your home can add up to big savings, and a big contribution to the Eco Friendliness of your home.
Turning down the thermostat, or installing a programmable thermostat, can help cut your heating bill by up to 10%.
Plugging drafts and sealing windows can have a significant impact on how much heat leaks out into the cold winter air. You don’t want to heat the entire neighborhood, after all.
And keeping your heating system clean and flowing freely helps let warm air flow to the places it’s needed more efficiently, so it does not have to work as hard to keep your home warm.
#3 — Electricity Saving Tips
Sometimes, electricity feels like magic. You turn on a light switch and – poof – the light turns on. But it isn’t magic, and wasting electricity is in no ways magical. That’s why I’ve pulled together a few energy saving tips to help you save electricity in your home.
From the simple act of turning off lights when they are not needed to the “next level” installation of LED bulbs, motion sensor light switches, dimmers, or timers, changing how you light your home can significantly reduce your drain on the electrical grid.
Scheduling your electrical usage for when others are less likely to be causing a significant drain the power grid can also help, either directly through Time of Use billing, or indirectly by helping to create a better balance between On-Peak and Off-Peak utilization.
And using the right appliances in the right way can significantly impact both your electricity consumption and the size of your electric bill at the end of the month.
Read More Electricity Saving Tips >>
#4 — Eco Friendly Air Quality Tips
Dust, pollen, moisture, odors, gases, and a whole lot more can negatively affect indoor air quality.
But there are some simple and easy ways to improve indoor air quality and help your family breathe easier.
From house plants to air filters to cleaning tips to help remove chemicals, toxins, and other irritants from the air, this collection of quick and easy tips will help you improve your indoor air.
#5 — Eco Friendly Cleaning Tips
Using harsh chemicals to create a “clean” environment can often be counter-productive, adding more toxins to the air and the surfaces of your home. Instead, we offer these green home cleaning tips to give you a clean and green home.
From natural and Eco friendly alternatives to harsh cleaning chemicals, to tips on how to reduce waste by using washable cloths, to harnessing the power of fresh water and steam to give your home a sparkling, chemical free shine.
Vinegar, lemons, baking soda and salt are just a few natural items that can easy be mixed together to create natural cleaning superheroes. And who thought tea had so many uses around the home!
These easy and effective green cleaning tips help you make small changes to how you clean your home that can a big impact on your home, your indoor air quality, and on the planet itself.
Read More Green Cleaning Tips >>
It’s Pretty Easy Being Green
By following these tips, you can take some quick and easy steps towards creating a healthier, Eco-Friendly, and cost-saving household that looks as great as it feels.
I appreciate your help on how to have an environmentally friendly household. I like how you mentioned using LED lights to save up on electricity costs since it uses less energy and using appliances the right way to utilize its electricity consumption. I think it might be helpful for businesses to also be conscious of their carbon footprints and it might be helpful if they build a commercial facility that is eco-friendly end energy efficient.
Yes, I completely agree!