We all have to do our part to stop climate change, and that means reducing your home’s carbon footprint as much as you can. There are many ways you can minimize your impact on the environment in your personal life – for example, by buying more secondhand clothes, eating less meat, and driving less.
But there’s a lot you can do around the house to help your household create fewer carbon emissions. You can start with a home energy audit, and follow that up by installing a smart thermostat to control your home’s temperature even when you’re not in it. You should plant trees and shrubs around your home and use solar-blocking window coverings to keep the heat out of your home in the summer. You should make the switch to cleaner energy, if possible, install ceiling fans, and upgrade to high-efficiency appliances when it’s time to replace them.
Get a Home Energy Audit
A home energy audit can give you valuable information about how much energy your home is currently using, and how much is being wasted through drafty windows and doors, dripping faucets, lights that get left on all the time, and so on. A professional home energy auditor can also give you insight into how safe your home’s electrical wiring and other energy systems are. Your utility company may provide free or low-cost access to home energy audits.
Install a Smart Thermostat
Heating and cooling accounts for a big chunk of your home’s carbon footprint, but you can make a big difference simply by turning your thermostat back from its normal temperature by a few degrees. That means turning the temperature up in the summer and down in the winter. If you use a smart thermostat, you can set your thermostat to use less A/C or heat (depending on season) during the day when you’re at work, and even at night when you’re asleep. For each one degree that you turn your thermostat back from normal for an eight hour period each day, you can shave one percent off your heating and cooling costs.
Upgrade to High-Efficiency Appliances
You may not be able to go out and buy all new appliances, but as it comes time to replace each of your appliances, you should replace them with high-efficiency models. ENERGY STAR®-rated appliances can drastically reduce your dependence on fossil fuels and help you save money on energy, too. ENERGY STAR® products are high-performing, and save Americans billions on their utility bills every year.
Replace Your Light Fixtures with Ceiling Fans
Few home upgrades can help you cut emissions like installing ceiling fans. In one study out of Australia, participants slashed their greenhouse gas emissions from 5,091 kilotons to 1,208 kilotons just by using ceiling fans more in the summer and air conditioning less. To make the most of your ceiling fans, you should run the blades counterclockwise in the summer, when you want to create a strong downward breeze that can make you feel cooler, and clockwise in the winter, when you want to push warm air back down from the ceiling to make you feel warmer. Most ceiling fans you can buy have a switch on the outside of the motor casing that allows you to change the direction of the fan blades.
Plant Shrubs or Trees Around Your Home
You’ll need to use more energy to cool your home in the summer if the hot sun is beating down on it all the time. Plant trees and shrubs around your home, particularly on the west- and south-facing sides, to block the heat of the sun and create a buffer zone of cooler air around the outside of your house. If you don’t want to plant trees and shrubs, training a vine to climb the side of your house (or a trellis attached to the side of your house) can work just as well.
Use Solar-Blocking Window Coverings
Your windows let in lots of heat in the summer and let out lots of heat in the winter. Use solar-blocking window coverings, like solar cell blinds, solar curtains, or even solar window film. Solar-blocking window coverings will keep the heat out and keep UV rays from damaging your floors and furnishings.
Switch to Cleaner Energy
Many utility providers now allow customers to specifically request energy from clean sources. If yours doesn’t, you can consider installing solar panels, or switching to a heat pump HVAC and a heat pump water heater. Both use geothermal energy, which is a lot cleaner than fossil fuels. You’ll reduce fewer carbon emissions and could save some money on heating and cooling costs, too.
Are you looking for ways to reduce your home’s carbon footprint? You can do so much to reduce your dependence on fossil fuels and help save the environment – after all, it’s the only one we’ve got!
