Climate change and global warming are no more predicted concepts. They have begun to unfold and unleash punishment on human kind for generating ridiculous amount of carbon footprint through its activities, especially power generation that is rising with increasing need. So, for each of us, shifting to green living has become almost mandatory. Making your home eco-friendly is first step to do so. It’s doesn’t ask for any investment to turn your home green, and in fact may turn out to be quite pocket friendly. For instance, below given green methods just require your attention and little maintenance:
- Insulate pipes to save energy
According to an estimate, proper insulation of pipes can save as much as $10 annually in water heating-costs, which is less than the cost to install the installation. Make sure that pipes in your home are covered. Any saving on energy bills add to efforts to support greener lifestyle.
- Rainwater harvesting
If a family installs rainwater harvesting system, then a huge volume of clean, drinkable water can be saved. Even simple, rainwater storage tank would do well for watering garden or plants and flushing toilets. It will also bring down the water bills.
- Prevent heating of home
The level of ambient heat decides how harder your AC will have to work. So, if you can prevent adding to heating of home, then avoid heat generating activities inside home, such as laundry and BBQ. In summers, try to shift cooking activities to outside space. It’ll cut your electricity bill for sure.
- Natural air conditioning
Although, it’s a tough task for those who have rented a house or have already built a house, but still adding vents for air to naturally cross through interiors can also help you save a lot of AC bill. Cross ventilation works fine in summers, but is bad during winters. So, the vents must have some mechanism to cap them in winters.
- Create your own all-purpose cleaner
Going for home-made, all purpose cleaner instead of commercially available chemical cleaners is also an eco-friendly practice. Some vinegar mixed with water can easily help you clean your windows, scrub bathroom, and wipe down kitchen counters. Vinegar can also overpower stench and this property can be enhanced by adding essential oils to this mixture. Chemical free world is another aspect of eco-friendly living.
- Limit entry of heat by orientating blinds
If you are living in hotter climate then do everything to prevent sun rays entering into home. Perhaps, proper orientation of your blinds will help limit this amount and prevent additional heating. Lesser the heating, less would be the AC bills and every unit of electricity saved is like a green incentive.
- Efficient Use of Washing Machine Dryer
Clotheslines and foldable drying racks are advisable if you want to save energy used to run dryer. However, busy schedule and nature of urbanization make dryer an necessity. Still, you can save some energy by knowing how to optimize working of your dryer. Cut down the time you run your dryer. It actually takes less time to dry than we think. If your machine does not have auto-dry setting, then try drying for less than a full cycle.
These simple methods, if adopted, can save huge amount of electricity. Adding photovoltaic might ask for investment, but it’s easier to build a simple tank to collect rain-water. We must understand how we can reduce load on AC or heater by properly insulating pipes or preventing unnecessary heating of rooms. There are a number of other similar ways, such as adopting recycling for every kind of waste, that can be adopted to initiate green lifestyle.
