With summer almost here, it’s the perfect time to start planning all those home projects you’ve been meaning to tackle. But instead of just cleaning out the garage, tidying up the lawn, and getting rid of old junk, why not take your projects one step further and tackle some eco-friendly upgrades?
The Importance of Lowering Your Home’s Carbon Footprint
Making eco-friendly improvements to your home not only helps boost the resale value but can also help you reduce your carbon footprint and save money on your utility bills. And who doesn’t love helping the planet and cutting costs?
With climate change becoming increasingly problematic, it’s important for everyone to start pitching in to do what they can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And while there are a number of ways to reduce your carbon footprint, making your home more environmentally friendly is a great place to start.
Your home’s carbon footprint can have a significant impact on emissions. According to the EPA, each home, on average, emits 10.97 metric tons of CO2 per year. So by making eco-friendly upgrades, you can lower this number and help mitigate the effects of climate change.
Additionally, reducing your home’s carbon footprint can help improve public health. According to NASA, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has significant short-term effects on public health because it improves air and water quality and supports global food production.
And, of course, when you give your home eco-friendly upgrades, it reduces your energy usage, which means saving on your electric bills.
5 Eco-Friendly Home Updates to Try This Summer
There are a number of ways you can update your home to benefit the environment this summer. What you choose to do will depend on your home, the time and energy you have to devote to projects, and your specific budget. But we thought we’d get you started with the following ideas:
1. Remodel Your Kitchen
A kitchen remodel is a great place to start when making eco-friendly changes. The kitchen is often the room in the home where people consume the most energy because of all the appliances and water usage.
So if you want to go green and cut down on your electric bill, start by switching out all of your kitchen gadgets and appliances for ones that run on less energy. You can also update your plumbing in the kitchen to eliminate leaks that are wasting water or install a low-flow faucet to help you use less water. Switching over all the bulbs in your kitchen to LED can also help you reduce your energy consumption.
2. Add Insulation
If you live in an older home, chances are your home was not built with the best insulation. And when your home is not well insulated, you end up running the heating and cooling more often, which jacks up your electric bill and consumes energy that contributes to gas emissions. So adding more insulation to your home can also help make your home more eco-friendly.
3. Install Solar Panels
When solar panels first became available, they were not easily accessible to everyday homeowners. Today, however, there are numerous companies that provide solar panel installation to help homeowners reduce their carbon footprint and lower their electric bills.
The cost of solar panels is still not cheap, but in the long run, it is considered well worth the spend for how much money it can save you. The government even offers incentives to homeowners that make clean energy upgrades using solar panels.
4. Upgrade Your Sprinkler System
There are so many smart home gadgets available today that make our homes run more efficiently — but did you know you can also install smart sprinkler systems? If you tend to run the sprinkler a lot during the spring and summer to keep your yard and garden looking lush, you should consider this upgrade.
Smart sprinkler systems use automatic irrigation programs to detect the weather. This allows the system to avoid overwatering when rain is detected. These systems also send you alerts, so you know when you’re using too much water.
5. Build a Deck
If you want to get handy with some woodworking projects this summer, why not build a new deck? Spending more time outside on a new deck means you’ll spend less time inside consuming energy. Just make sure you use sustainable products, such as recycled wood, forest-friendly wood, or recycled plastic lumber that resembles real wood. Bamboo decking is also more sustainable than traditional wood decking materials.
Be Kind: Keep Your Neighbors in Mind
When undertaking your home projects this summer, it’s not only important to be kind to the environment but to be respectful of your neighbors during renovations as well. Home projects, especially ones outside, can get noisy and messy.
To keep everyone happy, make sure you communicate with your neighbors ahead of time about the projects you plan to tackle, especially if they will be bothersome to your neighbors. If your renovations get messy, keep materials out of your neighbors’ yards as well, and maintain a clean work area as best as possible.
Additionally, it’s important to follow local regulations in regard to zoning and permits. You don’t want to put all your time, effort, and money into a home project only to find you’ve violated some regulation or restriction.
Wrapping Up
Whether you are considering a larger home renovation or some smaller summer projects, these eco-friendly ideas can help give you some ideas for where to start. And, of course, not all your upgrades need to happen all at once. You can always start small and tackle more things each year until you’ve got your dream eco-friendly home.
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