The trend of “going green” has swept the nation and many people are consciously coming up with ways they can reduce their negative impact on the environment. At BelRed, we’re big fans of sustainability, especially when it comes to making your home a little greener. Energy conservation is and energy savings upgrades are a big part of our work, so we’re involved in green home discussions on a regular basis.
We thought we’d spell out a few ways on the blog that our readers could use to make their homes greener. Enjoy!
· Clean your appliances regularly. Cleaning appliances and home heating and cooling systems can drastically increase their efficiency over the long-term. Dirty or clogged appliances can cause energy usage to skyrocket. Unless these units and systems are maintained and kept clean, they will have to work extra hard to perform, meaning you’re going to be using way more energy to keep your home and way of living in order.
· Upgrade your light bulbs. This is a small and rather inexpensive change that can have a major impact. Replacing incandescent light bulbs with eco-friendly and high performing CFL bulbs can make a huge (and positive) dent in your monthly energy use and bill. This option is not only good for your wallet, it’s good for the environment.
· Get an energy audit. It’s hard (or impossible) to know how to fix an energy problem if you don’t know what that problem is in the first place. By bringing in professionals and specialists like the team here at BelRed, you can rest assured that you’ll have all energy and overall home performance issues pinpointed. Once you have the problems identified, these same professionals can lay out a roadmap and path to fixing the problem. This added help will be set up in a way that’s reasonable for your home budget and lead to ensuring your home’s environmental footprint is as small as it can possibly be given your unique situation.
· Adjust your heating and cooling. One of the biggest culprits of high and sometimes unnecessary energy use comes with not properly adjusting the temperature settings in your home. Many people don’t take advantage to helpful tools and practices like scheduling your thermostat to allow for lower energy usage when nobody is home. Even if you are home, can you adjust the temperature a degree or two and still be comfortable? Even a slight change like that can add up to big energy savings over time.
There are many other tips to greening your home and way of life within the household. We’ll be following up shortly with more tips. Stay tuned!
