Easy Ways You Can Lower Your Home’s Carbon Footprint
Almost everything today emits some form of pollution, but you can go out of your way to minimize your contribution to this pollution. Many people follow the reduce, reuse, and recycle mantra, but the average consumer isn’t polluting all that much. Instead, it’s their homes that are the bigger polluters. Fortunately, there are easy ways you can lower your home’s carbon footprint. Not all are the same, and some are more difficult than others, but you’ll do the earth good when you implement these changes.
Use LED Lightbulbs
One of the worst ways your home builds its carbon footprint is through incandescent light bulbs. It’s one way your home uses energy you don’t often think about. And when people do, they don’t think about switching the lightbulbs. Instead, they simply try to turn their lights off more than normal. If you want to lower your home’s carbon footprint, you should switch to LED bulbs. They’re long-lasting, use much less energy, and help reduce your carbon consumption drastically. This is one of the easiest ways to lower your carbon footprint, so get yourself some new bulbs instead of waiting or just turning your lights off more often.
Install Solar Panels
This option may seem extreme to some, but the actual purchase and implementation of solar panels is quite easy and can do a lot to lower your carbon footprint. These solar panels capture the energy of the sun and make you less reliant on other, more harmful sources of energy, such as the following:
- Oil
- Coal
- Natural gas
In addition to curbing the use of these nonrenewable, pollution-causing resources, other benefits to installing solar panels on your home exist. They help you save money with your utility bill and are reliable in case the grid goes down. If you want to bring more green energy into your life, look no further than a solar panel!
Become Less Reliant on HVAC
For some homeowners, this is a big ask. People love their ideal temperatures, so getting them to go outside them is like talking to a brick wall. However, it’s one of the better ways to lower your home’s energy use, and you don’t even need to be too drastic with it. Simply keeping your thermostat two degrees higher or lower than normal can save you money and greatly lower your energy usage. Instead of having it super hot in the winter, just wear a jacket and a blanket inside. In the summer, open some windows and let the breeze cool you off.
If you want to contribute to a greener and more sustainable world, you need to find ways to lower your home’s carbon footprint. Not all of them have the same environmental impact, but as long as you recognize your home’s impact and make those necessary changes, you’ll put the world on a greener path.