The world is moving towards the exhaustion of natural resources and climate change quickly. Due to the deterioration of the environment, more and more people are getting conscious of their impact on it and are willing to take action. If you are unsure how to do that, how about starting from your home? An eco-friendly living space that is in harmony with the ecosystem and respects the environment will positively impact our surroundings. It will also mean water and energy efficiency and a healthy indoor atmosphere. Apart from that, an eco-friendly home will be equally friendly to your pocket. You will get a lifetime return on your investment in the form of reduced billings, low maintenance costs, and a high property value. So if you are planning to renovate your home, here are some tips to make your space eco-friendly and trendy at the same time.
1. Use Recycled Products:
Considering the intensity of carbon emissions by fossil fuels-powered industries and waste accumulated due to the overuse of resources, using recycled products is the dire need of the day. Recycling products is also a great way of waste management that usually ends up causing trouble to the air quality. Apart from that, it is equally necessary to use your belongings with care to ensure their longevity and prevent them from being a part of landfills. Especially if you live in cities like Houston, the most populous city in Texas, which has made its place in the top ten most polluted cities in the nation for ozone, reducing waste becomes more crucial. So while upgrading your home, move your items to a storage facility to avoid their wear and tear. You can search for the best storage facility houston tx and keep your belongings safe while your house is getting its top-notch look. You can also look for companies that use waste products, such as glass and concrete, and recycle them into worktops.
2. Go for Eco-friendly Paints:
Applying a fresh coat of paint to your walls is a quick and budget-friendly way to spruce up the look of your home. However, while revamping your house’s image, you unknowingly damage the environment and your health if you are not careful with your paint selection. Unless you make a conscious effort in this regard, you will most likely be buying paints with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can dissolve in the air and damage your health. Your lungs surely deserve a break at home, considering the dwindling air quality nowadays. Not all VOCs leave the walls as the paint dries up. Your freshly coated walls can emit VOCs for many years, putting your family and environment at risk. You can opt for eco-friendly paints that are water-based and free of VOCs to ensure your and your environment’s safety.
3. Invest in Solar Power:
We receive abundant reusable energy from a renewable source, the sun. It does not cost as much to produce and distribute electricity from the sun as it does with fossil fuels. As the world is moving towards an energy crisis and exhaustion of fossil fuels, it becomes more obvious why you should invest in a solar power system for your home. You are not only locking away years of financial relief but also ensuring electricity production through a greener and cleaner way. A solar power system is a great way to channel solar energy into electricity without producing harmful by-products. So if you are fed up with the ever-increasing cost of electricity and tired of monitoring your electricity use to avoid heavy bills, solar panels are the right solution for you.
You can install solar panels on the roof that absorb photons from sunlight and generate electricity. If you want to go for a less expensive way, you can also install solar water heaters. So rule out your contribution to carbon emissions by not buying the carbon-emitting electricity from the grid, and play your role towards a healthier environment.
4. Install LED Lights:
Installing LED lights is a smart way to save electricity with style. LED lights are more appealing than incandescent bulbs and use approximately 75% less energy than traditional lighting systems. They are also comparatively more durable and last longer. It means a reduction in electricity bills and no hassle of changing your light bulbs frequently. Moreover, they do not contain harmful chemicals like mercury and lead present in incandescent bulbs. Once they make their way to the waste dumps, these chemicals are slowly released into the environment.
5. Install Water Saving Bathroom Devices:
Saving water is the most crucial aspect of eco-friendly living space. While you may practice caution in its use, you can also install water-saving devices in your bathrooms with maximum water use. For this purpose, you can install aerators on your faucets to cause a considerable drop in water pressure, saving water and money.
You can also install automatic faucets that turn off automatically when you remove your hands from beneath them. Apart from that, plenty of water gets wasted in flushing. Consider setting up dual flush triggers. These are a pair of buttons on top of the tank that releases water as you require. The small button releases little water while the other one releases complete volume. These small bathroom renovations will not be heavy on your pocket and will save much water.
Conclusion:
It is high time to align our living styles with the changing climatic conditions and our environment. We must live in a way that causes minimal damage to nature. We have a responsibility to save our environment and help generations in the long run. We are deeply indebted to our surroundings for supporting our survival, and investing to keep it intact is the least we owe to it. Building an eco-friendly home is a great attempt to reduce your carbon footprint and make your home durable. Once the trend of eco-friendly homes sets in society, individual efforts to reduce the burden on our environment will have a strong cumulative effect.
