You may get the impression that living eco-friendly at home might be expensive and time-consuming, however, there are many little things you can sort around the house in order to save you money and be more environmental. Here are 6 things you can do today.
1) Insulate
You should insulate your loft and fill any cavity walls with insulation also. This is the most practical and economical way to create an energy efficient home. Without insulation, half of the energy we use to heat or cool our homes may just leak out and go to waste. It will reduce your energy use and thus lower your carbon footprint, as well as save money on your energy bills.
2) Solar Panels
Solar energy is the future, and everybody should slowly gravitate towards using it for many different things. By doing this you will save a significant amount of money in the long run, and thankfully there is extremely minimal maintenance that is needed – they can last roughly thirty years without needing to be maintained. People worry what happens when there is little sun, that’s when solar batteries come in. You can get solar batteries capable of 13kWh capacity today which will keep your home running on those cloudy days.
3) Ditch Plastic
As you may know, plastic has become a huge issue lately, with more than 8 million tonnes of it being dumped into the ocean each year. Packaging accounts for over 40% of total plastic usage, so if you tried to drastically reduce purchasing of any bulky, over packaged items (or recycling ones that can be recycled) you will be helping a great deal. Stop buying plastic bottles and instead invest in a stainless steel one that you can take everywhere with you. You can quite easily make your home plastic free within a few weeks as there is usually a replacement for everything e.g. plastic containers can be replaced by glass containers, plastic straws replaced by glass or steel straws.
4) Energy Saving Bulbs
On average, lighting accounts for 10-20% of a homes electricity bill, however, this can be easily altered by switching to energy saving light bulbs. Energy efficient bulbs initially cost more than normal ones but they last longer, and also save you money by saving energy. You can calculate your expenses and savings by TaxBite Bolton Accountants.
5) Go Electronic
Although we are in the age of the Internet, paper is still used a great deal and it is everywhere; it actually accounts for around 25% of landfill waste. Cutting down on your paper use at home, in general, is a great start, and then you could begin to file your taxes electronically and have tax forms and bank statements emailed to you instead of mail. As well as this you could switch to a Kindle reader as opposed to purchasing paper books.
6) Monitor Energy Use
Especially if you follow the advice in the previous tip it is also important to monitor our energy use nowadays; it’s easy to forget that you are costing money whilst casually watching TV, or doing work from home. Digital displays that show your daily energy consumption are available in many places such as eBay and Amazon.
By using the 6 tips above, you can become more eco-friendly whilst saving money. It’s a win, win situation that you should start taking advantage of today.
