Improving Your Home With Green Renovations
Green is much more than protecting our Earth so that she will be around for many more generations to come. Let's be frank - green is about saving money! The cost of powering your home, having fresh water and even being entertained is skyrocketing. With the economy at an all-time low, we each have to reevaluate our lifestyles to pare down our expenditures. We've included many tips here which will help you keep your wallet fat and your home enjoyable.
The easiest, fastest and most effective first step is to replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. If you can afford it, an even better step is choosing LED options, but they can be cost prohibitive. That said, comparing LED to both compact fluorescent AND incandescent shows a huge cost advantage. To start, LED uses less electricity than the others by far. On top of that, they last through thirty to fifty thousand hours of use, meaning you have to replace them far less frequently. They also malfunction less frequently as they are made from durable materials, unlike the filaments in a traditional bulb. Lastly, they are environmentally friendly from start to finish, while fluorescents have to be disposed of specially due to their toxic components. When you add up all of these factors, the overall cost of an LED bulb is negligible in comparison to that of CFLs or incandescent bulbs.
The next step, when it comes to lighting, is to go outside. Do you really need your lights to be on all night long? Instead, install motion-detecting light fixtures which are listed as being Energy Star rated. This will ensure they aren't power hogs when turned on, but they also aren't turned on unless they need to be. Place these both in front and back of your home to thwart would-be burglars and ensure safe passage for your family.
Insulation is key to keeping your home comfortable temperature-wise. This doesn't just mean your walls and attic, but also doors and windows. Have an energy auditor come to your home to identify where heat is being lost so you can seal up cracks, replace gaskets, bulk up fiber insulation and even add new technologies to ensure efficiency.
When it comes to those windows and doors, weather stripping is an excellent addition. It can be placed around the inside of the opening to ensure air can't leak in or out. You can also place it on mail slots, pet doors, milk doors or any other opening to the outside world. Consider using similar fixtures for dryer vents and chimneys to ensure air goes out but doesn't come back in.
When tiling your roof, think brightly. White tiles reflect the light, and since you don't want to heat your attic, they ensure that the temperature there remains appropriate. This keeps your house cool in the summer, and it ensures your attic doesn't overheat in the winter. Since heat rises, it will already be hot enough! If you do end up with a very hot attic in the winter, that means the insulation in the floor there needs to be increased.
As you can see, a few simple changes make a world of difference. The Earth stays cleaner and your wallet remains full. When you put in the effort to change your life, you'll find yourself smiling much more frequently!
