How to Make an Eco Friendly House

-There are many ways to create an eco-friendly home. You can begin with the most effective, low-cost strategies, and as you save money, you can move into bigger changes to save even more.

STEPS

1/ Go online.

2/ Find an energy calculator to assess your current energy usage. Try and find one that suits your country. Some sites have calculators that will automatically tally up the energy efficiency of your house currently. It is also helpful if the site can also produce a graph or tally that can demonstrate what your house's potential could be after making some minor changes.

3/ Insulate Your Home. Especially in cold climates, making sure you have good insulation in your walls and for your windows is key to reducing heating costs. Some states offer free home energy assessments which can help you identify places that need more insulation. Over time, insulation can get compressed so often the walls near the ceiling are heat sinks. To get better insulation right now, check your windows and doors - are there breezy gaps? If so, put up some thick curtains on your windows. If you want to enjoy natural light during the day, you can get a cheap plastic insulation kit from Home Depot or the like, which covers windows and is almost invisible. For doors, you can buy a cheap draft stopper, or make your own with a rolled up towel.


4/ Use low wattage light bulbs. These are a great way to save energy easily. They plug straight into any lighting unit and use less energy. Some are even brighter than standard light bulbs but are consuming a lot less energy.

5/ Consider using motion sensor light bulbs for both indoors and outdoors. These will keep you from leaving a room without turning the lights off. Outdoors, they can save a lot of money on wasted electricity but will illuminate your pathway to the door when needed. These are also good burglar deterrents, as the sudden switching on of a light is very disconcerting when unexpected.

6/ Update Appliances. Your refrigerator is the greatest energy consumer in your house, especially if it's more than 5 or 10 years old. Upgrading is certainly an option. You can also consider getting a smaller fridge, since much of the time we refrigerate things that don't actually need to be.


7/ Choose low flow toilet mechanisms. These use less water while still doing the same job as regular toilets. Obviously, you will save water and money on water bills.

8/ Install skylights in your roof. This will allow natural sunlight to illuminate your house for free, especially over rooms that are the darkest. Sunlight is more powerful than any bulb, so the light will flow through much of the room where the skylight is installed.Or add in sun lights which will provide lights in the day time.

9/ Install solar panels. Solar heating will provide energy for your house in many ways. It can heat water at the most basic level. Solar energy is pure, clean energy. As an added bonus, the surplus energy can be transferred to a battery and stored for later use; however, be aware that this will increase your costs considerably, depending on the size of the battery. Solar water tanks can heat stored water for whatever reason you need hot water for, such as showers and tea.

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