The way we live in our homes has an impact on the planet. We regularly consume resources and items and waste daily. With a world population nearly hitting 8 billion, you can only imagine how many tons of waste and garbage is piled in landfills each day. If we have at one point thought about this, we should at least know what our responsibilities are as stewards of nature and creation for future generations.
There are a lot of things we can do to make our homes eco-friendly. With this small step we start at home, we can at least pass the eco-friendly practice to our children. The small things we can do to reduce landfill waste, pollution of natural resources, and wasting of resources can go a long way and has the potential to start a positive chain of events.
To help start an eco-friendly revolution in our homes, we will share here twelve things to look for in an eco-friendly home to inspire you to get started.
Zero Waste Toiletries
Many of us may be familiar with this type of toiletries, especially for those who travel a lot. Zero waste toiletries are convenient to have while traveling, and these can also be used for daily consumption. Yes, this is a good alternative for conventional toiletries, especially for those that come in plastic containers. Your home should have at least one or all of these alternatives: zero waste shampoo, bath soap, face wash, and a bamboo toothbrush among others. One simple way of making your toiletries zero-waste is to reuse the plastic container for refills. Keep the used large plastic containers of your shampoo and buy refills on your next shopping trip. Another option is to make a homemade mix for your soap or shampoo. You just need to buy the ingredients individually and create your very own special shampoo or soap formula for everyday use. This is also beneficial, especially if you or your family members have sensitive skin or allergies to certain chemicals. A natural and zero-waste alternative can be the answer to these problems.
Energy Star Appliances
Energy Star certified appliances help homeowners save money by conserving energy consumption. These appliances are up to 40% more efficient than regular appliances, and they use less energy without sacrificing performance. The generation of heat in appliances reduces performance over time, and it also shortens the operating lifespan of an appliance. Thus, using Energy Star appliances gives you long-term savings by using these appliances for a longer time than regular appliances. They also use anywhere between 10 to 50% less energy than regular appliances, which can help cut electric bill costs in the long run. How is this eco-friendly you might ask? Saving energy consumption means fewer carbon emissions. If all American households use Energy Star appliances, billions of tons of carbon emissions can be prevented, which can help reduce air pollution and global warming.
Solar Panels
Harnessing the heat and light coming from the sun can do benefits for the environment and your home’s energy consumption. Solar panels convert solar energy into usable electrical energy in your home, which can significantly reduce your electric bills and give you long-term energy cost savings, making it a good investment. You can still get cool and comfy during summer without worrying about high electric consumption costs.
Living Walls
Green and eco-friendly living can do wonders for your home. Living walls make use of vines and climbing plants to not only decorate your home roof, fence, or side walls but also provide insulation and protection for your home. A living wall is a good acoustic absorber for reducing noise pollution. It also absorbs outside heat from the sun and car fumes and reduces the conduction and re-emission of heat from concrete and other solid external surfaces of your home. Best of all, it absorbs carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases and improves the air quality in and around your home.
Home Garden
Having a garden in your backyard not only beautifies your house exterior, but it also improves its real estate value. It also helps absorb carbon emissions coming from escaping from your home and those coming from outside your home. If you live in an urban area with limited living space, much less a backyard area, you can make use of your fence or walls to create a hanging garden. By simply hammering concrete nails or wood nails onto your wall or fence and hanging your potted plants, your home becomes greener, has cleaner air, and has more oxygen circulation.
A vegetable garden is also an eco-friendly and sustainable idea to adopt at home. By planting your garden vegetables, you can ensure that these are organically grown and guaranteed fresh. Again, space shouldn’t be a constraint for starting a vegetable garden. Even if your home has limited space, you can still have your hanging vegetable garden for small vegetables like tomatoes, lettuces, peppers, small Asian eggplants, and peas. You can get rid of these scraps in a compost bin.
LED Home Lighting
Using LED bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs can help you get big savings when it comes to energy consumption and electric bills. LED lights are energy-efficient, meaning nearly all of the electrical energy it receives (about 90%) is converted into light, compared to incandescent bulbs, which only convert 30-40% of energy as light and the remainder as heat.
As mentioned earlier, too much heat makes an electronic or electrical device less efficient as it expends more energy and has a short operating lifespan. This energy efficiency makes LED light bulbs last 10 times longer than incandescent and halogen light bulbs and 3 times longer than compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). A longer bulb lifespan means lower replacement costs for you and less manufacturing intervals for manufacturers, resulting in fewer materials used and less carbon dioxide released during the manufacturing process.
Aside from energy efficiency, LED light is non-toxic, as it does not contain mercury, which is found in CFL and incandescent bulbs. Incandescent and CFL bulbs cannot be recycled once they reach the end of their usable life but LED light can be recycled, which makes it a sustainable electrical device.
Recycling Bin and Compost Bin
Being eco-friendly deals a lot with the things we throw away as garbage and waste materials. Proper garbage segregation is a good practice we can incorporate into our daily lives at home. Separating the non-biodegradable and recyclable materials from the biodegradable ones not only makes garbage collection more efficient, but it also helps speed up and improve the recycling process and increase the number of recycling plants. Biodegradable waste can be converted into compost by placing organic waste materials in a specialized container or a compost pit. The decomposed waste can be used as fertilizers for those who have gardens or indoor plants at home. A simple biogas converter kit can help convert biodegradable organic waste into methane gas, which can be used as fuel for kitchen stoves or gas-powered heaters. The fire created from methane is clean, releasing less than half of the carbon dioxide released from burning coal.
Energy-Efficient Air Conditioning Unit
An efficient AC system is essential for many suburban homes. It regulates air temperature, air circulation, and humidity. Many of us may think that AC units have high energy consumption and tend to put up with it. There are energy-efficient AC models, especially those with built-in inverters. Energy Star-certified AC units last longer and work as good as regular or conventional AC units. They also have a high energy efficiency ratio (EER), which means most of the electrical energy is converted into most of the AC unit’s function. Also, these units have smart control features like an automatic thermostat that adjusts the AC temperature according to the difference in outside temperature or a timer that automatically sets different times for activating and turning off the AC unit, especially at night.
Energy-Saving Windows
There are more functions for windows than giving you a good view of outside surroundings and giving you privacy from the prying eyes of your neighbors. Your home windows play a significant part in the heating and cooling energy use in your home. About 25 to 30% of your home heating can be gained or lost through your windows. This is why windows also have Energy Star certifications even though they are not devices or tools. The insulation capacity of your windows can determine how much heated or cold air stays and circulates within your home. Multiple window glass panes are effective in preventing air from entering or escaping from your home. Low-emissivity or Low-E glass coating further enhances the insulating function by preventing the entry of ultraviolet and infrared lights in the house while still allowing heat to circulate throughout the house. These windows function in much the same way as a greenhouse does, trapping warm air during winter and trapping cool air during summer.
Low-Flow Faucets
Aside from electricity, water is another important resource at home that is often used inefficiently and frequently wasted. While all of us may know that turning off the tap while brushing our teeth can help save water, there is also something we can do to save water while turning on the tap. Low-flow faucets, also known as high-efficiency faucets, provide a wonderful eco-friendly and cost-saving solution for homeowners. Homes with low-flow faucets installed have a flow rate of 1.5 gallons per minute (GPM), compared with the regular faucet flow of 2.2 GPM. That’s 30-35% less flow rate and wasted water, which translates into more water bill savings. Some homeowners may think that low-flow faucets have less pressure, which necessitates the need for more water consumption, but these high-efficiency fixtures come with laminar flow devices and/or aerators, which help keep a strong stream of water without sacrificing performance. Having efficient faucets and applying water-saving practices can help save up to 3,700 gallons per year or roughly the same amount of water needed to take 225 showers.
Sustainable Wood Materials and Wood Utensils
Having a house or certain parts of your house made of wood is lovely to look at. What makes it even better to behold is knowing that the wood you used as building material comes from forests with active renewal and reforestation. Sustainability of resources is an important aspect of environmental conservation and keeping the Earth safe and habitable for future generations. Bamboo wood or lumber is an excellent example of sustainable building material. Bamboo, though technically a grass, has hard, sturdy, and other characteristics akin to wood. It is also a fast-growing and adaptable plant, capable of growing in tropical and temperate regions. Thus, it is easy to make sustainable harvesting and renewal of this plant. Its versatility has made it known as a good alternative material for furniture, cooking utensils, spoons and forks, toothbrushes, fabrics, and more. If you want an eco-friendly change in your household materials, trying bamboo-made versions of synthetic fabrics and plastic chairs and tables would leave you satisfied without compromising functionality and quality.
Smart Lawn Sprinkler System
The latest technology can work hand-in-hand with your conservation efforts if you know where to look and apply it. Smart home technology such as the WeatherTRAK Water Resource Management System can control your lawn sprinklers to work with weather conditions to make water use more efficient and less wasteful. This smart system uses satellite communication to retrieve local weather forecast information to guide to the function of the sprinkler system. This will restrict and activate the sprinklers under certain weather conditions, such as turning off during light rain showers, heavy rains, and thunderstorms and turning on during the early morning and late afternoon hours of the hot summer season. Water is conserved this way, and the grasses and plants received balanced hydration and nourishment, which in turn improves outdoor air quality.
There are many ways that you change your house into an eco-friendly home. You just need to be perceptive and find ways on how you can conserve resources. You can also think of how you can lessen the things you throw away by segregating those that can be reused and recycled. Even organic waste can be useful if you are willing to take the effort in converting it. Being eco-friendly doesn’t have to be difficult and expensive. You can always start small and make a few adjustments. The important thing is you are planting the seeds of conservation in your heart for the sake of future generations.
