Five Solutions For a Greener, More Economical Home

There are a million things you can do to make your home more economical and environmentally friendly, form installing a whole clean energy heating system to replacing all your incandescent bulbs or using cloth kitchen towels and napkins, instead of paper ones. Here are five solutions, big and small, to make your home greener.

Consider infrared heating

Infrared heating works by heating the surface area of a room, rather than the volume (as is the case the traditional convection heaters), which means they are heating considerably less to provide the same amount of heat. Infrared radiation is emitted from the heater, which then travels unimpeded through the air until it hits an object. The object absorbs the radiation, causing molecules within it to vibrate, producing heat.

Electric infrared panels involve no fuel consumption and no direct emissions. Moreover, if you use them in conjunction with solar panels, you get 100% emission free heating.

Get rid of all incandescent bulbs

One of the easiest ways to save energy is by ditching your incandescent light bulbs in favor of CFLs and LEDs. CFL’s use 80 percent less energy, last 10 to 15 times longer and will pay for themselves in five months. For the outdoors, use motion sensor lights, to increase your energy savings.

Insulate your pipes

Insulating your pipes can have a huge economic benefit for your household- not to mention being a major energy-saver on water heating.

Use power strips

Plug your electronic devices into power strips and flip the switch at night when the electronics are not in use. This applies to computers, printers, TVs, DVD players and stereos as well as lights and other appliances.

Store rainwater

Rainwater is one of nature’s most underused resources—if homeowners store the rainwater that falls on their property and use it for watering their plants, flushing their toilets and bathing, they’ll see a significant decrease in their water bills.

Credits: thegreenage.co.uk, housebeautiful.co, sheknows.com

Photo credits: alchinlong.com