We all know about turning off the water while brushing your teeth, changing to energy efficient light bulbs, recycling and reusing. Your house can go green as well. Living in an Eco-friendly home reduces your carbon footprint, helps sustain our natural resources, and saves money on your energy bills. Here are the 5 best ways to make your house a home mother Earth would be proud of.
- Exterior Doors – Choosing the right exterior door for a home should be a carefully thought-out decision. When you choose a door, you should first consider the doors’ energy-performance ratings. This score lets you know how well each door does in preserving the energy in your home by trapping heat or cool air inside. Using this score to help you find the ideal door will also help you narrow down your selection and find an exterior door that best matches your taste, needs and wants.
- Skylights – Skylights are often a feature that enters homeowners’ mind when they think of improving their homes’ energy efficiency. Skylights have many benefits, which makes them ideal for any home. Skylights improve houses’ heating, lighting and ventilation. It is important to note that if you are considering placing skylights in your home, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends they be no larger than five percent of the floor area in rooms with several windows and 15 percent of the floor area in rooms with minimal windows.
- Window Treatments – Boring curtains do more than drive your spouse crazy; they can actually help reduce energy costs in your home. By being specific in your choice of window treatments, you can reduce heat loss or keep cool air inside your home. Many factors determine window treatments’ energy efficiency. For example, the type of material and color of the treatment are significant, along with how it opens and closes.
- Fans – Installing fans throughout your home is an easy way to keep it cool and save you money that you would spend on air conditioning. Ceiling fans come in a wide variety of colors, shapes and styles to match the interior of any home design without looking out of place.
- Bathroom and Kitchen Fixtures – When you purchase the appliances and the fixtures for your bathrooms and kitchen, consider each one’s Energy-Star rating. Buying items with high Energy-Star ratings can save you a substantial amount of money each year. You can find Energy-Star ratings on most fixtures.
It’s important for all of us to take care of where we live, and this includes the planet as well as our homes. Going green will pay for itself in the lower utility bills as well as helping the planet for future generations.