Did you know that Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL’s) can cut your electricity costs by 75%? CFL’s use 66% less energy and last 10x longer than incandescent bulbs? You don’t have to remove all of the bulbs throughout your home today, but once the bulbs go out, replace them with CFL’s. Want to see how much money you can save using CFL’s?
This year the world has fallen into a global crisis because of the pandemic. Governments around the world are working hard to save people’s lives on the one hand and save the economy on the other. In between, there is the thorny issue of climate change, which has dogged our species since the industrial revolution.
The issue of climate change has not gone away despite our other problems, and there needs to be just as much effort to reduce our carbon output this year as there ever was. The stakes are high. The rise in global temperatures is largely our fault – that is collective humanity – so it’s up to us to change our habit and prevent runaway climate change that could transform earth into a deserted Venus-like rock.
Having an active chimney in your home may not be the best way to reduce your carbon footprint as even burning fuel efficient logs will send extra carbon into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. However, you don’t need to abandon your open winter fire altogether, nor your shallow trench drain systems in the backyard. There’s no need to switch it off at Christmas time and forget about buying your chestnuts – you can still burn your open fire and be energy efficient.
When you’re burning the fire, the chimney evacuates the smoke; that’s unless you choose to burn smokeless logs, which are available and necessary in some places. But when the fire is not burning, the chimney flue is the same as an open window in your living room. You probably feel the draft from time to time. This open flue will also evacuate the warm air from your house. To prevent it, use a chimney seal or flue balloon to block it off.
One of the best ways to reduce your carbon output is to improve your home’s energy efficiency. There are several ways to do this that will be explored through the article. The first trick is to use a fan. It might seem a bit backwaters to start using a fan in the middle of winter, but it can significantly improve the warmth of your rooms and efficiency of your home’s energy usage.
Because of the nature of thermodynamics, air rises when it becomes warm. This means that all the heat generated from your radiators and open fire will float up to the ceiling, where it’s of very little use to anyone. Put a fan on the ground and set it to low – you don’t want it to start cooling the room down. The fan’s convected air will help the warm air on the ceiling mix with the cold air further down create a cozy warm space.
For most people, radiators are the main source of heat in the home but depending on how you use them; they can be more or less efficient. If not used correctly, radiators can cost you money and increase your carbon footprint without you realizing. One way this happens is by leaving radiators on around the house. When you switch on the heating, you don’t always consider what rooms are being heated, but doing so can save you quite a bit of energy.
Make sure all your radiators are on the most efficient settings or switched off in rooms where no one is occupying them. Next, make sure the rooms that are occupied are as well insulated as possible. Heat is lost very easily through the windows, doors, and other small cracks. Remember, the best way to reduce your carbon footprint this winter is to improve your energy efficiency – it doesn’t have to cost you much if anything to do, and it can save your significant money on your annual bills.
It’s all about the insulation! The better you can insulate your home, the warmer you will be, the less you will pay, and the more you will reduce your carbon footprint. Your home is full of potential heat loss through the walls, the windows, the roof, the chimney, and the floor. This is partly why we need to keep heating our homes so much – particularly older ones are extremely inefficient. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t bring yours up to standard if you live in an older house.
Firstly, assess your options. Broadly there are two types of insulation you can use for your home. Cavity wall insulation and loose-fill insulation. Cavity wall is probably the best as it gets into all the little air pockets and seals them up. That’s probably the expensive option, although it will pay off over time. However, for a quick fix this winter, hang heavy curtains to block the windows and use door cushions to keep the heat in. If you do want to invest a little, double or triple glazed windows are an excellent choice.
You might have heard of minimalism. Actually, it’s an art movement from the 20th century, but it’s found a new path in the 21st. Minimalism now is a culture of downsizing to improve efficiency and reduce carbon output, thereby helping the planet be more sustainable. This idea extends to the home, where you can utilize an excellent practice this winter to reduce your living costs and your carbon output.
This practice involves only heating and insulating the rooms that you are using. The rest can be effectively shut down for the winter. When you turn on the heat, you know that only the rooms you are living in will be heated – there will be no heat used and lost in the rest of the house. It might make it a bit chilly to go to the upstairs bathroom, but you can feel proud about how much carbon you’re saving.
So what does it mean? In short, minimizing your home is about using the space wisely. If you’re in the evening watching television, you don’t need the whole house lit up. You only need to power the living room, and maybe the kitchen. This is a very efficient energy and cost-saving practice.
You already have a busy day at work, but then add to the mix, taking the kids to activities, marketing, appointments, preparing meals, doing housework, and all of the dozens of other things that we do every day as a parent. What does this equal? A lot for your body to handle. What can you do to boost your immunity and keep your body in tip-top shape? Here are 4 easy steps to take to boost your immunity, because you don’t have time to get sick, right?
1. Keep your Stress in Check
Think of how you deal with stressful situations. The way that you deal with stress directly affects your immunity. Try to relieve stress by practicing meditation or yoga, doing so several times a week can help to lower stress and boost immunity.
2. You are What you Eat
Eating a well-balanced diet rich in protein, leafy vegetables, low in saturated fats, and high in antioxidants can boost your immunity and your health overall. You can also look into vitamin and mineral supplements to keep your immunity high. Also, try to drink at least 64 ounces of water each day, more if you exercise extensively.
3. Get your Workout on
Getting at least 30 minutes of exercise each day can help you stay healthy and keep your immunity in check. Exercise is also excellent stress and depression reducer. I know from experience!
4. Get Some Shut-Eye
Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your immunity. You should try to get 8 hours of sleep a night. Remember sleep time is also the time that your body renews itself. Also, you deserve a good night’s rest, it is one of the best things that you can do for your overall well being.
How do you boost your immunity?
Maintaining sustainability is much harder when the temperatures get colder. The colder you are, the more demand there is for your home heating system. In summer, you can keep your heating turned off for months on end. But, when the temperature dips close to freezing, your house can get very cold. Some people are forced to keep their heating on all day long, ramping up the energy costs.
This isn’t a very sustainable way to live as you use up far too much energy. You don’t need me to remind you of the impact this has on the environment. In that case, what can you do to maintain sustainability was the days get colder?
Begin by insulating your home and making it cold-proof. Check the insulation in your attic to see if it needs to be renewed – or possibly add some more layers of protection. Look at every single window in your house to be sure there are no gaps in the seals. Similarly, buy some thick curtains to cover your windows, adding further insulation. You want to create a house that leaks as little heat as possible. It’s impossible to trap all of the heat inside your home. Still, some good insulation tactics will undoubtedly reduce the amount you lose. As a result, your house will feel warmer without the heating on. If you do still need it on, you can keep it on for fewer hours and at a lower temperature.
Snowy weather is super bad for sustainable families. If snow falls on your home, it will instantly make it colder. The longer it lingers, the colder your house will be. So, protect your home from snow as best as you can. One idea is to sprinkle salt and grit on your roof, stopping snow from settling on the tiles. Find a good snow removal service in your local area to call upon if there’s any snow. They’ll get rid of it from around your house, stopping your home from becoming too cold. Again, this decreases the demand for your home heating system, allowing it to run more efficiently.
This last tip is one of my favorites as it works brilliantly. Leave your oven open after cooking. Why? Because it will release heat out into your home, warming it up. It basically acts as a mini heating system, without the need to turn your actual system on. All ovens will emit some heat for a few minutes after cooking. This is all it takes to heat up a few rooms in your house – especially when it’s correctly insulated. As your oven is already turned on, it makes sense to take advantage of this to heat up your home.
These three tips will help you maintain sustainability and efficiency in the cold months. It stops you from keeping your heating on for too long, lowering the energy usage in your home. The best thing is, none of these tips is that extreme. You don’t have to make any crazy changes to your life throughout fall or winter – it’s just about being a bit smarter!
If you love to garden, chances are you also love the environment, and you want to do everything in your power to keep it safe and protected. The fact is that there are ways of gardening which are not quite so good for the planet, and there are ways which are much more eco-friendly. In this post, we are going to take a look at how you can design and keep a garden that is much more eco-friendly, and so feel safe knowing that you have done your part in looking after the planet a little better.
It’s perfectly okay to want to manage what animals and insects come into your garden. This can be important for keeping your plants alive, keeping your family safe and ensuring that your pets don’t get into any trouble. But you should make sure that any methods you are using are perfectly ecological and safe, and this is not always the case when it comes to pest control. One of the simplest and most elegant solutions is to ensure you have a well-manicured hedge around your garden, as this will stop most animals from getting into your garden in the first place. With good hedge maintenance, you can keep this barrier up and safely keep pests out without disturbing nature.
There is much talk of native plants in gardening, and with good reason. When you are deciding what plants you should have in your garden, it is often going to be necessary to include native ones wherever possible, as these are so much better for the ecology of the local area. Native plants are simply those that would grow naturally wherever you are in the world. Including only these in your garden will mean that you are helping to boost the ecosystem so much more, and not doing anything to harm it. It’s a simple yet powerful step that every keen gardener can take, and one which you can do today.
One of the main resources that you use in gardening is water – if not the number one resource of all. If you are keen to ensure that your garden is not harming the planet, you should be careful about how you use water. You don’t want to be using any more than necessary, after all. With that in mind, make sure you know exactly how much or how little water each plant in your garden needs. Overwatering is often going to be simply a waste, and could mean that your plants die out anyway. You should also consider collecting rainwater in a butt and using that rather than tap water wherever possible. This is also going to be healthier for the plants, so it’s a win-win. Conserve water wherever possible if you really want to be eco-friendly in the garden.
These simple changes are going to add up to make a huge difference over time, so make sure that you are taking them on board as soon as possible.