A green home is hard to define in exact terms because they vary so widely. In general, though, the term indicates a household that’s particularly careful about the way it affects the environment around it and puts in a conscious effort to reduce its carbon footprint.
As mentioned, the scopes here are pretty huge and therefore, there are no exact parameters of a “green home,” but for those looking to get started on the path, rather than remodeling their entire house with green architecture right away, the following three points should prove to be quite useful.
Reduce Power Consumption
This is a very broad and generalized idea when you think about it, because there are so many ways in which we consume electricity in the modern world. Even then, heating, cooling and lighting are the primary reasons why we receive such exorbitant power bills these days.
As most of our electricity is still generated from nonrenewable fuel combustion, it is imperative for us to minimize our energy consumption, so that the future generations do not have to live in the dark. Aside from that, the financial burden would also be less when we reduce our electricity consumption, which is another very practical reason to consider the following methods.
- Improve the insulation in your home by sealing gaps, adopting double-glazed glass windows and weatherproofing external walls
- Use only 5-star rated electrical appliances for minimum energy consumption
- Invest in a smart thermostat to monitor the HVAC system intelligently
- Shift to LED bulbs from CFL or incandescent bulbs
- Maximize sunlight to reduce reliance on artificial lighting during the day
- Install dimmer switches to control the luminescence of your light sources
- Use washing machines only in cycles and not indiscriminately
- Insulate your hot water lines and AC cooling pipes
- Switch off or unplug the electronic devices properly, when not in use
- Don’t crank up the refrigerator all the way
Rely on Solar Power
PV or photovoltaic cells are more efficient and affordable now than they were when they came out first. Also, you don’t necessarily have to install a full solar-array to go green. Just take small steps towards reducing your reliance on mainline power.
- Use solar lamps, flashlights, chargers, cookers, speakers, plugs and other electric appliances that can partly or fully run on solar power alone
- Rely on solar lights for exterior lighting in the garden and backyard
- Install a small PV cell system initially, so that you can rely on it to take at least some pressure of the grid
- If the above feels too expensive, just invest a bit in a good quality solar generator
Shift to Biodegradable Coffee Pods (K-Cups)
The damage that plastic is doing to the environment is a serious threat that needs consideration from us as well. As traditional K-Cups are non-biodegradable coffee pods which are buried by the billions every year, no green home can be truly called green if you are not using biodegradable coffee pods for your Keurig coffee machine.
Glorybrew coffee pods are not just biodegradable coffee pods for your Keurig, but they are much more than that. In sharp contrast to the old K-Cups which always end up on landfill, the coffee pods for Keurig machines developed by Gourmesso can be industrially composted to pure, natural soil, fit for returning back to the earth! Therefore, by making this small shift to Glorybrew, you will be able to take a big step towards going green, but without having to sacrifice your precious K-Cups.
Admittedly, technology is responsible for much of the destruction that the planet has seen already seen, and continues to see. However, in that same technology lies the key to creating a sustainable and better future, which doesn’t end up destroying the very planet we live on.
For more sustainable living tips, check out the Friendly Turtle Sustainable Living blog.
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