It’s one thing to remodel your home into a comfy and efficient one after remodeling it, but it’s just as important to keep a green approach to remodeling your home too. Sustainable Design has a cost effective strategy that involves local materials with energy efficient products, adding a distinctive quality to the green roof we turn your house into. There are many ways to incorporate energy savings into green roofs, and these are some of the most popular ones.
Air Sealing
An important practice, air-sealing usually occurs on high-end new builds. It requires specific measures to filter the air in a building. Poorly sealed homes end up losing a lot of energy, potentially increasing bills. Air sealing allows your home to be climate-controlled, while you save money.
Chemical-Free Products
The construction business has been involved with harmful chemicals for a long time, from using them to wash brushes to having formaldehyde in numerous building materials and household products. Some chemicals, such as heavy duct brick cleaners, wallpaper stripper, and white spirit can harm your skin.
To avoid these issues, it is best to go for chemical-free products, especially those without formaldehyde. Doing so would benefit both the environment and your own health.
Deconstruction — Not Demolition
Inspect your house before attempting to renovate your home. You will certainly find renewable material to use for your house. This is both eco friendly and cheaper. Bricks, cabinets, flooring, light fixtures, reclaimed wood and tiles can all be conserved. You can also just put an already acquired item in a new room instead of throwing it away and replacing it.
Donate Unwanted Items
No one likes having undesirable or unused items in their house, but it can be surprisingly difficult to make a decision concerning them. If you are changing how your home looks and operates, then the most environmentally conscious solution to unwanted items is donation.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and giving away recycled materials to people that need them saves money and helps nature conserve its resources and energy, and reduce water and air pollution. Additionally, your house will be more spacious, allowing you to renovate it as you originally intended.
Energy-Efficient Appliances
Everyone uses a lot of resources in their home, but an eco friendly remodeling project requires lower energy bills, and lower energy costs require you to use less energy. Remodeling your hope is a wonderful opportunity to pick out energy efficient appliances. Modern appliances have become highly efficient regarding energy consumption, and simply do not use nearly as much as the older options.
Sustainable Design works with this modernity by consistently aiming to improve energy efficiency, whether it’s to generate electricity or simply saving money by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficient appliances are some of the most important tools to reduce your environmental impact, and Sustainable Design’s energy efficient homes prioritize these renewable energy sources.
Insulation
High-quality insulation is necessary to protect yourself from the harsher parts of nature, since it shields your home from heat flow. It reduces the amount of heat escaping in winter and entering in summer. Insulation helps reduce your carbon footprint and energy bills, especially your heating and cooling costs.
Green Cleaners
Green cleaners are both environmentally friendly and energy efficient. There are plenty of natural and organic cleaning products, and solutions can also be created with everyday ingredients, with vinegar being one of them. New cleaners should be safe for the surfaces they are used on, as well as the people doing the cleaning themselves.
Less Water
Water is needed every day, whether the purpose is nutritional or recreational. However, it is often neglected when people turn their homes green. Using tools like washing machines, sinks and showers responsibly is part of the process, but minor gestures like shutting the water off while brushing your teeth can do wonders for energy efficiency.
Rain barrels are also effective because they collect rainwater that can be used for gardening. This system waters your garden while conserving your money and water at the same time,
Low-Flow Toilets
Low-flow toilets are more eco friendly due to using less water per flush. Toilets in general use a lot of water, so replacing old ones with new ones with low-flow functions can do wonders to your surroundings. Most hardware stores sell them for similar prices as their water-guzzling counterparts, so there’s no reason not to upgrade or install them when you build.
Low Maintenance, Long-Lasting Materials
Having items that not only last long, but require low maintenance to operate is an ideal scenario. If you want an eco friendly home, these materials are to be prioritized. The best options are sustainable in nature because they’ll last for years, even decades on end. Examples of low maintenance, long-lasting materials include high-quality doors, furniture, and as well as energy-efficient appliances.
Programmable Thermostat
Programmable thermostats help keeping the heat down when you’re home alone, significantly reducing wasted energy. Additionally, all you need to do to make the devices work is install them and set your preferences, making programmable thermostats one of the easiest solutions to making a house greener. Due to how they conserve energy, you can monitor your home’s temperature with a mobile device regardless of how far from home you are.
Solar and Renewable Energy
Solar panels are a budget-friendly source of renewable, especially for areas that are mostly sunny and not very windy. If you don’t have the space or money for solar panels, other options such as solar-powered generators, lights, water heaters are good alternatives.
Renewable Energy is one of the best ways to make your home greener because they allow you to save money while reducing your impact on the environment. Aside from solar power, wind is the most effective renewable energy source, but geothermal, hydro, and nuclear power are also variations of renewable energy.
Usually, power is drawn from the closest source, so the more energy efficient and eco friendly a power source is, the more beneficial it is to be situated near it.
Ventilation
Ventilation is important for various health reasons, especially in houses built in high radon areas, which can be devastating due to radon’s proven history of causing cancer. Few techniques are greener than letting the air circulate within a building by allowing as much to come and leave as possible. Breathable walls are also important.
It is important for your home to have sustainable natural ventilation for the sake of energy efficiency. To do so, disregard any mechanical aeriation system and aim to have windows on at least two walls in each major room. The consistent design will allow your home to ventilate natural energy wherever you go without pulling more money out of your wallet.
VOC-Free Paint
VOCs (volatile organic compounds) produce harmful molecules that can be damaging to your health in the long run. Paint made out of them contains chemical ingredients that evaporate into the atmosphere when the paint dries. Switching to VOC-free paint is safer for the environment, the home, and the people inside it due to making spaces more breathable. They are most recommended for children’s rooms and nurseries.
Conclusion
There are many aspects to consider when even renovating one room, so aiming to use less energy across the household can be a daunting task. Thankfully, organizing the process is much easier when you are aware of solutions, especially the most popular ones. Sustainable Design is ready to answer any questions you might have concerning these eco friendly remodeling strategies. Simply contact us if you have anything to ask!