How to Set-up a Green Home
The environment is on everyone’s mind these days, but how can you as an individual make a difference by going green at home? Many of us recycle and conserve in many ways already, but it’s very easy to do other things that can make us “green,” too. And there are other advantages to going green besides the benefits to the environment. Going green can actually save you money. It just takes a little adjustment to enjoy the benefits going green can give you.
A good portion of a home’s costly energy consumption relates to cooling and heating. Setting a home’s thermostat to below 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter and at 25 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer will save money on energy bills and conserve energy at the same time.
You can also save energy costs if you can create shade in the summer at the west and east ends of your home. This can keep your indoor temperature several degrees cooler while the sun is at its hottest in the morning and afternoon. If you cook early in the day before the temperature is at its hottest or late in the day after it has cooled down, this will also reduce your energy needs because heat won’t be trapped inside your home, thus reducing your dependence on air conditioning. You can also use ceiling fans to circulate the air and help keep it from becoming too hot.
Reducing our use of plastic bags is another way we can have a positive impact on the environment and go green. Polyethylene plastic bags like those that are commonly offered by grocery stores are made with petroleum. 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away every year, and their disposal creates a significant hardship on the environment. Buying reusable cloth grocery bags for just a few dollars each can have a very positive impact on the environment because you reducing your use of plastic bags and therefore their impact on global warming.
Plastic water bottles increase the level of greenhouse gases as they languish in landfills. To reduce this impact, every member of the family should have their own re-usable water bottle to carry with them when they are away from home. Filling bottles before leaving home also saves money.
Travel, too, is another thing you can easily adjust to help reduce your fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions, which negatively impact the environment. Use public transportation or carpool to get to work, and walk or bike shorter distances whenever you can. Reducing the number of cars on the road makes the air cleaner and also saves you money, because it’s much cheaper to take public transportation, to carpool and/or to ride a bike or walk where you need to go. In addition, walking or biking provides you a very effective form of exercise that’s easy to do.
When you remodel your home, choose bamboo floors instead of traditional floors made of wood. Bamboo is environmentally friendly because it replenishes itself very quickly as compared to wood. Bamboo can mature in 6 to 8 years, as compared to the 50 or 100 years it takes to grow the trees needed for hardwood. When you install your bamboo flooring, use glues that are free of formaldehyde, which is toxic.
Finally, whenever possible, to see electronic bill payment system of paper bills. Companies sometimes offer discounts to customers who opt out of the paper bill choice and who choose to receive and pay bills electronically. This saves many trees every year because of the paper saved, and also helps keep paper waste products out of landfills. To further reduce paper usage and keep paper out of landfills, when you must buy paper products choose those that are recycled and choose products that are unbleached. Bleaching paper is toxic to the environment.
Some erroneously assume that going green takes a lot of thought and work, but in fact, it’s pretty easy to do once you know how. If you go green, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing your part to take care of the planet — and save some money besides.