Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Easy and Simple Ways to Make Your Home More Energy-Efficient

Energy-efficient homes are also called green homes because of their huge contribution to saving nature. Maintaining this kind of homes can be of great help in deterring the imminent demise of our planet. As more ways of saving energy is discovered, more people have also tried to play a huge role in the green revolution.

If you also want to become an active agent in the advocacy of protecting the environment, you must become more conscious of the way energy is consumed in your house. Here are some of the easiest ways to make your home more energy-efficient.

Taking advantage of natural light

The first step to reduce the electric consumption in your household involves taking advantage of natural light. Natural light pertains to sunlight, a free, nonrenewable, and healthy source of energy. Depending on too much artificial light from incandescent bulbs is both wasteful and unhealthy. Meanwhile, utilizing sunlight during the morning can increase your serotonin levels and keep you happy all day long while causing a dramatic drop in your electric consumption. Therefore, taking advantage of sunlight outweighs all the benefits that artificial sources of energy can provide.

Now that you know the benefits of maximizing sunlight, you can already perform some steps to experience its benefits. First, observe your windows and identify if they are situated in places where sunlight can easily enter. Once you notice faulty window designs, you can consider minor renovations in your house. Add more windows and put them in a place where the rays of the sun can easily penetrate. You can also add some skylights or translucent panels into your ceilings and walls.

Another way to maximize the sun is to use neutral shades of paint in your rooms. Such colors can easily reflect light and make rooms look brighter. Using wood or linoleum tiles on your floor can also do this amazing trick. By doing these steps, your energy-efficient home would be within your reach.

Choosing alternative light bulbs

Another way to cut down your electric bills is to avoid using incandescent bulbs. These bulbs cause tremendous usage of electricity because of their wattage requirements. You can invest on environment-friendly compact fluorescent lamps instead. By using these energy-efficient bulbs, you can reduce your electric bills while decreasing pollution-causing agents that incandescent bulbs bring.

LED lights or Light emitting diodes is also a viable option. They have longer shelf lives because they do not overheat. They also use less energy than fluorescent and incandescent lamps use. Research more on the different benefits that you would receive from replacing your bulbs with eco-friendly LED lights.

Maintaining normal sleeping patterns

Lastly, you should also change your abnormal sleeping patterns. Waking up in the evening and staying up late during the night would oblige you to use more electricity than other people normally do. Try waking up early in the morning and welcoming more sunlight into your home. By doing so, your general health would dramatically improve and your excessive energy consumption would substantially decrease.

If you have noticed, most of the suggestions mentioned in this article are related to your lifestyle. This shows how your lifestyle greatly affects the amount of energy that you regularly consume. Hence, it is impossible to make your home energy-efficient once you continue your disruptive lifestyle. Review all of the tips mentioned in this article, and strive harder towards becoming a responsible consumer of nonrenewable energy sources.

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