Many of us want to be kinder to the environment, but the best way to make your home a friend of the Earth is not always clear. Reducing energy consumption is a simple way to help your green credentials, and often making these changes in your home will save you money in the long-run. There’s lots you can do, and it needn’t be daunting.
1. Reduce Energy Consumption
One of the biggest impacts on the environment is the amount of energy we use in our homes. There is a variety of simple changes you can make to your home: changing to energy efficient light bulbs, replacing old appliances with newer, energy efficient models, and switching electrical items off completely and not leaving them on standby.
However, if you are looking to make a more significant change to the energy consumption of your home, there are larger changes you can make to help reduce your energy usage.
A significant amount of the energy we use in our homes is spent on simply lighting it. Having lights on in every room in the house makes a significant impact on your home’s carbon footprint. It could be worth making steps to introducing more natural light into your home, by adding a sky light to a roof, larger windows or folding/bifold doors.
2. Naturally Heat Your Home
Having a warm home is part of what makes it, well, homely. However the impact that heating has on the environment is significant due to the amount of energy that is required for most central heating systems.
Depending on the age of your home it is likely that the windows and doors fitted are not heat efficient. The patio doors and windows fitted in your home can make a huge difference to energy consumption. Installing new, high rated doors and windows is a fantastic first step to making your home more environmentally friendly, by reducing heat leakage and reducing your carbon footprint.
Insulating your home is key to keeping it warm. Ensure that you have sufficient insulation especially in your loft where a lot of heat can get lost.
Solar panels are also worth considering for a greener home. Using solar panels is a very effective way to heat the water you use in your home, and despite the initial outlay for the panels and fitting, they soon pay for themselves as any surplus energy created can be resold to the grid meaning that your energy use starts to make you money.
3. Reduce Waste
Not many people spend a lot of time thinking about rubbish – but it can seriously change your green credentials. One day we will run out of space to bury our rubbish so it is essential for the environment that we make efforts to reduce our waste. The breakdown of biodegradable waste creates huge quantities of Methane, which is a green house gas attributed to global warming. This is not to mention the amount of fossil fuels and energy used to actually get rid of our rubbish!
An important first step is to recycle! Card, paper, glass and some plastic products are now widely recycled, and the energy used to make these old materials into new is significantly less than making these things from scratch.
As well as this you can also make positive steps to reduce the amount of packaging you throw away. Eat foods in season, and less processed foods as these are often the ones that come with excessive plastic wrapping. Become informed and make positive choices when you shop.
4. Use Less Water
In the UK every person uses approximately 150 litres of water per day – and our water source is finite!
To save water in your home the first place to start is in your bathroom. Choose a shower instead of a bath and consider buying a low flow shower head. While these used to lead to a frustratingly meagre shower in recent years they have been redesigned to use much less water without you even noticing. When brushing your teeth, washing your face or having a shave remember to turn off the tap when you don’t need water!
5. Use Environmentally Friendly Products
The final straightforward step is to be aware of the chemicals you are using in your home. It is very easy now to swap to environmentally friendly cleaning products, and toiletries, which reduces the amount we are polluting our water supply – meaning that it takes less for us to process the water to make it safe for use again, and less pollution in our rivers.
Bifold Doors for Energy Efficiency
Our elegant folding doors are environmentally friendly, with excellent thermal properties and strong construction. All of our bi-fold doors meet heat conservation regulations and are made from recycled aluminium. They allow natural light to enter, brightening and warming your home’s interior.
For more information about how our bi-fold doors can positively impact your property’s energy efficiency, get in touch.
