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Home Upgrades That Have a Positive Impact on the Environment

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You’ve seen all the home remodeling shows and you want to make your home more beautiful, but you also care about the environment and you’re thinking about the upgrades that might also be environmentally friendly. You’d be amazed at how simple changes can make your home more eco-friendly, but also can benefit your life.

Solar Panels

Solar panels are very popular with people who want to live off-grid or who live somewhere where it would be very expensive or difficult to run electrical lines. But when you want to make a better impact on the environment, using a renewable energy source like the sun just makes sense. Any home can be outfitted with solar panels. This could reduce your energy consumption on the grid to zero, and in some cases, you could get money back when you send some of that electricity back into the grid for others to use.

Upgrade to Energy Efficient Appliances

Are you looking at new appliances for your home? Look to the energy-efficient options. These smart home appliances not only look great, but they also consume less electricity than their traditional counterparts. Energy-efficient washing machines for example use less water and less electricity to get your clothes clean. If you use a dryer, these appliances can more easily measure the moisture levels and turn off on their own when the clothes are dry. Energy-efficient refrigerators not only use better insulating materials, but they also keep things cold using less energy.

Install an Electric Car Charging Station

If you’re wondering whether to make the jump to an electric car, when it comes to decreasing emissions, the answer is yes. But this also means you’ll need to install your very own level 2 charger to keep your vehicle powered up. The energy that car chargers use is far less than using gasoline for fuel. An electric car charging station helps you stay environmentally friendly at home and when you’re on the go.

Improve the Insulation in Your Home

Do you have spots in your home that don’t seem to heat or cool as well as the rest of the house? These hot and cold spots can indicate that you need better insulation. Investing in something like foam insulation or adding more insulation to your attic space can go a long way to keeping your home at a more even temperature. It’ll also keep your home from losing heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. This means you’ll use less energy to keep your home comfortable which benefits your wallet and the environment. It’s also less wasteful.

Add Energy Efficient Windows

You lose a lot of energy through your windows. Whether it’s hot outside and you’re trying to keep the air conditioning from working too hard or you’re in the arctic and you need to keep the hot air in, it’s easy to lose energy through your windows. It’s time to upgrade to something more energy-efficient if you want to help the environment and keep your utility bills low. It seems like a low-tech investment, but new windows will help tremendously. You’ll use less electricity or gas to heat and cool your home which means good things for the environment.

Find Refurbished or Reclaimed Materials

Where it makes sense, look for cabinet bases, used sinks, tiles, and more to update your home. Using these materials creatively can not only make your home look good, but it can also help the environment by using less waste. Whether you make a wall look like a shiplap, or create a mosaic tile pattern in your bathroom, there are so many ways to leverage materials to create a beautiful home.

When you’re looking to upgrade your home with less waste, look for the projects that give you the most bang for your buck. You want to consider not only the short-term effects of your projects on the environment but also the long-term impact. You’ll want to use materials that improve your energy efficiency over time, that help you use less waste right now, and that gives you the ability to have a positive effect on the earth. These things are important not just for you, but for future generations.

I'm Nikos Alepidis, blogger at motivirus. I'm passioned for all things related to motivation & personal development. My goal is to help and inspire people to become better.

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