Green Habitations: Tips on Making You House Eco-friendly and Energy Efficient.

The planet Earth is ours. It is ours to keep, and it is also ours to destroy. Also, as far as the foreseeable future is concerned, it is the only home we know. So, we need to treat it with care and consideration. Eco-friendliness has become a culture and we have a lot of buzz words and catch phrases associated with it, but that’s not the aim of this article. Here, we are going to be showing you practical ways to reduce the energy expenditure of your house and make your house more eco-friendly.

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Mind your duct system: Your duct system is responsible for circulating heated or cooled air (depending on the weather) around your house. Sometimes, there are leaks in the duct system which cause heated or cooled air to leak out of the house thereby wasting the energy that was used for the heating or cooling. Making sure that your ducts are leak-proof could drastically reduce your energy expenditure.

Doors are important too: Do not scrimp on doors. Get the best quality you can get. The extra cost will pay itself off and then some more in the long run. Already heated or cooled air can escape the house from cracks between the door and its frame. However, a quality door when closed will seal in the air totally.

Efficient insulation: In addition to leaks in the duct system and improperly closed doors, heat transfer can occur across the walls and roofs of a house. Insulation which is done properly helps to reduce this exchange to the barest minimum and in the long run, the energy saved will add up to greatly reduce your energy bill.

Lights: Do not leave your lights on for longer than you need them. Form the eco-friendly habit of turning off lights when you leave a room. Also, it would be wise to invest in energy efficient bulbs which give off the same amount of light (or maybe more) for a lesser amount of energy consumed. You could even launch activism to ensure that large corporations and government agencies adopt more efficient lighting. It’s the internet age and memes could help you. Check out apagraph if you wish to create a meme that will connect to people rationally and emotionally.

Use recycled materials: Ensuring that as many as possible of the materials used in building your house are recycled will go a very long way in helping our ecosystem. So, consider the origin of the building materials you use when constructing your house.

Smart faucets: You might want to consider these types of faucets which only turn on the water flow when proximity sensors are activated and turn it off when the object in question (your hands, perhaps) are no longer close by. These types of taps could go a long way towards slashing your water usage.

Employ dual flush toilets: This type of toilet has two different buttons for flushing. One is for liquid waste and only uses a small amount of water to flush while the other is for solid waste and uses a greater amount of water to flush. This type of contraption could also cut down on your water usage.

Conclusion: Individual efforts like this may not account for much in the grand scale of things. But our little efforts may snowball into something much bigger, a positive effort for change that will leave our earth looking and feeling better for future generations.