Green is the word in today’s world, and we’re not talking colors. Going green means you’re trying to help save energy and be more efficient in your usage. There are plenty of things you can look at around your home if you’re interested in green home energy upgrades.
The first is your home water heater. Most of us don’t need water heated as fast as its heated today, and we certainly don’t need it on all the time. These days, adding a home water heater that you can program to go off and on at different times of the day, depending on if you’re home or not, can help save money and stop wasting energy. The same goes for your heater. These days, panels can be installed that offer multiple settings for times when you can turn the heat completely off and times when you may need to boost the heat for a little while. You can also have a minimum setting if you live in a cold climate, since it’s always suggested to keep the temperature at a certain minimum to make sure your pipes don’t freeze and possibly burst.
A very important green home energy upgrade concerns your windows. If you haven’t already done it, update your windows to at least double panel glass, which adds insulation to your home and helps keep air from outside out and your heat inside. If you’re not keyed about getting new windows, at least check the sealing of your present windows and think about adding new caulking, window jams to help the glass part stay sealed better, and if need be, during the winter, put up plastic over your windows to help cut down drafts.
If you only have to heat one room at a time in the winter, think about adding a pellet stove. It will easily heat a nice sized room, burns clean, and saves both gas and electricity. They’re also not all that big, so you can put them in many places, although, for safety, you’re going to want to keep it close to a wall and have it on some kind of stone or rock bottom.
If you live in a pretty sunny area, you might think about adding skylights to your roof. In the winter, the sun will come through the lights and heat up your house, so you won’t have to turn the heat on during the day. In some areas of the world, homes will come with the ability to open up the windows to let heat escape from the house also, which helps keep it cooler in the summer.
And if you really want to find new ways of bringing energy into your home, you could try to find some used solar panels to add to your home. This may sound like an odd concept, but they are out there, and they probably work great. Any energy you can provide for yourself helps to offset costs, as well as saves in energy usage from outside sources. You’ll want a professional to install it for you, but even if it only saves you 10% of your usage, that goes a long way towards making your home more green.
