Four Home Improvements Designed to Help the Environment

Eco-friendly products and reducing your carbon footprint have long become a modern staple of life. It is important that we all do our bit to help the environment, lest we leave our children nothing left of the environment to enjoy. While global warming is a relatively small problem nowadays to the average Joe, it is still important for you to contribute to helping the environment in some way, so that we can continue to enjoy this green earth for as long as possible. 

It also works out for the best if your environmentally friendly energy saving methods are also cost-effective and if you’re smart, you can often find a few ways of reducing your carbon footprint while at the same time also reducing your heating and electricity bills. Does this sound like something you would be up for trying? Read on for four of our home improvements designed to help reduce your bills and to help the environment!

1.    Energy Saving Light Bulbs

Nowadays it is far better to invest in energy saving light bulbs than it is to have regular light bulbs. The first wave of energy saving light bulbs were dull and easily breakable, making them a poor alternative to the modern day lightbulb. However experts have greatly improved the technology since then and often energy saving lightbulbs you can buy can even be brighter than the regular kind. Added to the fact that you can save up to 80% on the cost of electricity and these are a purchase well worth making. 

2.    Upgrade/Replace your Boiler

The longer you wait to upgrade or replace your boiler, the higher your chances of getting a fault or a breakdown when you need it most. Many of us don’t really need to use our boilers during the summer months, so they often get neglected until the cold winter, where a breakdown if more likely to occur. If you are stuck with an ancient boiler, for now, it is important that you check its functionality at least once a month in order to avoid having an emergency engineer come out in the dead of winter to fix a failing boiler.

An expert will always recommend that you upgrade or replace a boiler if it is three or more years old. Newer models are designed with energy saving in mind and use less energy in order to heat your house. Older boilers are also less accurate at gauging the temperature, so you could be spending more money on heating up your home when you don’t need to. 

3.    Installing Double Glazing

While an expensive investment initially, double glazing is highly recommended by many experts, particularly if you’d prefer not to heat up the entire street. Helping to reduce moisture, condensation and the growth of mould on the interior of your windows, double glazing also helps to reduce draughts and keeps the heat tightly locked into your home. For hotter summer months, double glazing also prevents the heat from getting in, so there is no fear of getting caught in a greenhouse during heatwaves!

4.    Solar Panels!

If you want to go all out with your energy saving and money saving mission, consider installing solar panels on your roof. It is often considered a major step towards independence as the solar panels greatly reduces your need for electricity, although it can be unsightly and visually polluting to your neighbours. It is important that you gain permission beforehand, even if you own the property in which you are currently living, as some people are highly against solar panels so it would be a waste of money to have them installed, only to receive a letter from your local town council stating they should be taken down. 

Initially, solar panels can be quite expensive, but over the years, they will pay for themselves in terms of money saved over electrical and heating bills. Whether you want to consider them as an investment, or you just want to go the whole hog when reducing your carbon footprint is up to you. 

There are a number of other, smaller amendments you can try to help reduce the costs of heating and electricity in your home at the same time as reducing your carbon footprint. Using food waste in a compost bin to help grow your own vegetables, for example, or make your own draught excluders so that you don’t have to keep the heating on as long during the winter. Every little helps and if you take a little more time to think about your energy output, and what you can do to amend it to help the environment, you would certainly be doing your bit to preserve it for future generations.

Article provided by Mike James, an independent content writer working together with Sussex-based boiler system, central heating and renewable energy specialist BSW Energy, who were consulted over the information in this post.

from Home My Heaven: Home Improvement Blog UK http://www.homemyheaven.co.uk/2016/05/four-home-improvements-designed-to-help.html