Florida Homebuilder Centerline Homes | Real Estate Blog

10 Things You Can Do Around Your House To Live Green

1. Buy fluorescent light bulbs. This seems pretty obvious, although the bulbs are more expensive they have a much longer life expectancy than incandescent and will end up saving you a small bundle over their life. Fluorescent bulbs have come a long way.  They turn on very quickly and even come in a dimmable variety now.
2. These days’ people have more than just lights to worry about. Your TV’s, computers, DVD players, and cable boxes along with potentially dozens of other appliances plugged in all day are sucking the electricity out of your walls and dollars out of your wallet. An easy way to solve this issue is by using surge strips.  By simply turning off the surge strip when you’re not in the room can save you a bunch while dramatically reducing your carbon footprint.
3. Put plastic film over your windows. Replacing old windows isn’t always an option for everyone. But you can still save significant amounts of energy by simply putting clear plastic over your window to create a barrier.  Many Home improvement stores even offer window insulation kits.
4. Sure the dryer is quicker but what’s the rush? Put up a clothesline.  Air dried clothes smell fresh and it also discourages wrinkles since the clothes aren’t all balled up after they dry.  If you don’t want to hang your laundry out for all to see, get an umbrella dryer.  They are compact and fold up after use for easy storage.
5. Since you’re air drying your clothes you’re going to want to make sure you’re washing them with cold water.  Washing and rinsing with cold water saves a ton of energy with every load and gets your clothes just as clean as with warm or hot water.
6. Well this isn’t always the most appealing idea for many but start a compost heap. Anything biodegradable such as food scraps can be put there.  And since you’re composting you will want to make sure you recycle everything that doesn’t land in your heap.
7. Shop yard sales and thrift stores for new furniture and household items.  Not only will you save money but you will reduce waste in landfills from potentially unwanted items.  You also reduce the expensive cost of manufacturing and shipping new items.
8. Conserve water with everything you do.  Limit the length of your shower (and keep the temperature down), don’t flush the toilet every time you use it, shut off the water when you brush your teeth or shave.  One of the most important things to conserve water is to reduce or eliminate watering your lawn.  Sure a green lawn looks great but let nature take care of it.  You will save tons of water and money by only watering once a week and only when absolutely necessary.
9. Insulate your water heater.  Wrapping your water heater especially in colder climates can save a lot of energy.  Hot water costs can amount to as much as 50% of your monthly electric bill.
10. Alternate Energy!  There are many new alternate energy sources coming out, many with huge tax incentives and government subsidies.  Solar hot water, wind turbines, and solar energy panels can reduce or eliminate your electric bill all together.  These are renewable sources and are extremely clean to operate.  While they can be costly to install they almost always pay for themselves multiple times over the course of their lives.