5 Ways to make your home eco –friendly

With the state of the current economy we all need to find ways in which we can become more eco-friendly but also save as much money as possible.  In this article I have come up with five eco-friendly techniques you can use which will not mean huge changes to your home.

Energy efficient light bulbs

People do not realise how much money you can save by simply switching to an energy efficient light bulb – you can actually save up to £30 in each bulbs life time. In theory you could be saving a couple of hundred pounds around your home before having to change a light bulb again!

Energy bulbs are a very simple change to make, get rid of your standard incandescent bulb and replace it with a Compact Fluorescent light bulb (CFL). A CFL will use 66% less energy than your standard light bulb and save you so much money through the years; this is a technique well worth applying to every room in the house.

Turn the ‘off switch off’

Around your home you will have many electronic gadgets that are left on standby when you think you have switched them off – items such as stereos, TV’s, and DVD players. By not turning our systems off standby we are giving off up to 4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year, this means we are wasting around £740 each worth of energy every single year.

In my opinion this is the easiest cost effective way of becoming more eco-friendly in your household, it costs you no money at all, and is simply just switching our electronic devices off at the switch when they are not in use, how easy is that?

Keeping your garden green

Our garden may not be the first place we think we can become more eco-friendly but it really is – Simple little changes will help to make our gardens a much greener and friendlier place.

Using compost instead of synthetic fertilisers is the easiest place to start. Our soil needs a balance of soil organisms and nutrients, it needs these things in order to keep up its wellbeing and compost does this without the need for synthetic fertilisers.

British households use 60 million pounds worth of chemical pesticides each year, this really needs to stop. These toxic chemicals escape into the atmosphere and leave pets and wildlife in danger, and humans, especially our children. The alternative is to try and use physical pest control or use organic pest control. Other methods include; as using beer to bait slugs, or pouring boiling water on weeds.  All these techniques will help you become much more eco-friendly.

Watching the temperature

Almost half of a home’s energy consumption comes within its heating and cooling systems, the things we rely on to keep our homes happy.

There are a few simple precautions you can take in order to help your home run more efficiently.  When it’s warm remember to keep your thermostat on above 78°f and when it is cold keep it below 68°f – Doing this will save 3% – 5% more heating energy. You may now be thinking you will be warm when it’s hot outside, but simply shading your windows that are in direct sunlight will cool the place down.

Another tactic to keep you cool would be to delay your general heat producing activities until it has cooled down, white goods like washing machines or the dishwasher add heat to the home when they are running.

If your furnace is old fashioned then it is maybe a good idea to replace it with a new one, did you know they are 25% more efficient than the old fashioned 1980’s style furnaces. Or if you cannot afford that then ensure you clean your furnace monthly, simple upkeep will save you so much money with its general efficiency.

Using healthier paints

This may be a bit of a specific method, but should you be decorating the home bear in mind you can get healthier paints for you and others around you, as well as the environment.

Conventional paints contain solvents, volatile organic compounds (VOC’S) and also toxic metals. These substances cause smog, ozone pollution and also indoor air problems which have a negative effect, according to the EPA. These ingredients are released into the atmosphere not only while you are painting yet while the paint is drying and still also after the paint is completely dry.

So I advise next time you decide to re-paint to opt for a zero-or low-VOC paint, these will be made by most if not all major paint manufactures.