Sustainable Home Renovations: Eco-Friendly Upgrades for Your Home
Renovating your home is about improving the quality of your home life. When you make changes to your home, you aim for lasting and worthwhile changes, so that you and your family can live more comfortably.
In recent years, the topic of sustainable renovations has gained traction. By making your home more eco-friendly, not only are you aiding the environment, but you are also making your home easier and cheaper to operate in the long run. This means incorporating energy-efficient appliances, insulation, and sustainable materials in your home renovations. Additionally, sustainable renovations can significantly increase your home’s value, making it a smart long-term investment. These home value upgrades can make your property more appealing to potential buyers and can also save you money on utility bills in the meantime.
Benefits of Eco-Friendly Upgrades
While it can improve the quality of your home life, there are also several other benefits that you can forward look to. Sustainable changes can ultimately lower your energy bills and lower your carbon footprint at the same time.
There are also incentives for families who make greener choices in their home’s design. You can receive a rebate of tax credits for your efforts thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Sustainable renovations are also useful for people looking to put their homes on the market. Many are looking for eco-friendly homes to live in and are willing to pay a high price for them.
Understanding the Use of Energy in Your Home
Before you make any sustainable changes to your home, you need to look at your current energy consumption. This can be assessed with an energy audit of your home and discern where most of the energy is being consumed. Thereafter you can make the necessary changes to reduce this amount. It is important to note that making these eco-friendly changes to your home may be costly to implement, but the long-term benefits make your return on investment worth it.
Energy Efficient Appliances
These are the common renovations that can be made to your home. Energy-related changes can be made in small segments and are relatively easy to include in your home.
Solar panels
These are an alternative energy source that is installed on the roofs of homes, like the increasingly popular Tesla House. It uses the energy from the sun to generate electricity to be used in your home. In addition to its positive effect on the environment, it also makes a large difference to your energy bill.
LED bulbs and appliances
These electrical devices draw far less energy than their non-sustainable counterparts. Despite using less energy, it still provides the same level of functionality. These appliances extend to light bulbs, refrigerators, washing machines, stoves, and computers.
Smart Lights
These are lights that operate on motion sensors or on timers. They either switch on and off at designated times, or they switch on if it detects a presence in the room where it is located. This way these lights don’t stay on for extended times and use up unnecessary energy.
Water-Related Renovations
Sustainable efforts don’t only relate to conserving energy. Another way to make sustainable improvements to your home is by making water conservation efforts.
Rain tank
By installing a rain tank in your home, you can collect rainwater which can be used for multiple purposes. You can use it to water your plants instead of using water from the tap. You can use the water collected to wash clothes, to flush toilets, or for washing your vehicle.
Tankless water heaters
These are energy and space-saving additions to your home. It heats water as you need it, and it is particularly useful for homes that have large water demands. There is less water damage, and depending on the source of heating, it performs it’s duties at a faster rate.
Plumbing
There are several changes you can make, like adding low-flow fixtures, which reduce water usage yet don’t affect the performance of the faucet. You can also use eco-friendly material that doesn’t have a negative impact on the environment.
Indoor Changes
When you are improving the interior of your home, there are several things you can do to improve the interior of your home in accordance with sustainable practices
Insulation
Helps with regulating the temperature of the home. It can reduce the cost of heating up and cooling down your home, and by extension reduce your energy bills. You can insulate the ceiling, the walls, and the floors. When insulating your home, you can use a vapor barrier to reduce moisture in certain areas of the home that are troublesome with this.
Green flooring
This is when you change your flooring and use recycled materials. Recycled flooring reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. Options include reclaimed wood, cork, bamboo, carpet tiles, recycled cement, and rubber.
Energy Ceiling fans
These are ceiling fans that are considered energy-efficient cooling systems. They use less electricity but still work to capacity.
Eco-friendly paint
These paints are considered low-VOC which means they contain fewer volatile organic compounds, that are harmful to people and the environment. They have natural ingredients and bio-degradable components. These paints have the same coverage and durability as regular paints.
Double-pane Windows
These windows have insulation properties and have the ability to regulate the temperature inside the house, which helps reduce energy consumption. It also improves home life, as the insulation also reduces noises coming from the outside, and protects the items inside the house from fading because of UV rays.
Eco-Chimney
This is a solar or thermal chimney. It improves ventilation inside the home and it has energy-saving properties. In addition to preventing indoor air pollution, it also promotes fire safety properties.
Garden Initiatives
Your garden can also benefit from sustainable practices. From landscaping efforts to how you plant your flowers can make a difference.
Compost Bin
A sustainable compost bin is made from recycled materials and provides a space to collect organic waste to turn into nutrient-rich compost. This reduces waste that will end up in landfills, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves the quality of your soil.
Xeriscaping
This is a landscaping effort that focuses on using drought-resistant plants in your garden and minimizing the use of water. This type of landscaping allows for a low-maintenance garden as well as a sustainable effort.
Final Thoughts
Making sustainable home improvements to your home has two main benefits, it reduces the amount of energy consumed thus lowering your bills, and it has a positive effect on the environment. There are several changes that you can make to the inside and outside of your home to help improve your home and quality of life.
