The More Efficient Home Life

More and more people are waking up to the fact that we all need to live much more efficiently if we are to help keep the planet turning. And as with any kind of charity that you might get involved in, this too starts at home, so it is a good idea to turn inwards and look at how you currently run your home. It might be that there are a number of things you could be doing to improve the efficiency of your home, in which case this is absolutely something that you are going to need to focus on. In this article, we’ll look in detail at some of the best ways to live more efficiently in the home.

Conscious Water Use

One of the most important resources in the home is water. Water is more scarce than many people think, and it also takes a surprising amount of energy to get it piped directly into your home. So anything you can do to reduce your water consumption is going to make a difference, and generally that starts with simply being a little more conscious about how much water you are using in your home. That means paying attention to how long your showers are, how many times a week you put the washing machine on, and how much you are watering your plants. You want to aim for a place where you are not simply using water as and when, but consciously and only as much as you need to use in the moment.

Better Lighting

Many of the traditional lighting methods that we tend to use around the home are actually extremely inefficient, and we need to try and avoid them as much as we possibly can. Energy saving light bulbs have certainly made a difference, but even they can be somewhat draining – and you always run the risk of thinking that they are safe to switch on and keep on, which is not really getting the point of trying to reduce your energy usage. Instead, try to keep your lights off as much as possible, and switch wherever possible to something like 240v led strip light. This is much more efficient, and you will find that it is surprisingly bright too, so you won’t really need those old style lights at all.

Growing Veg

A lot of one’s footprint on the planet comes from how you eat, what you eat, and where you get your food from. In an ideal world, you would only eat what you yourself have grown and harvested, or foraged from the natural world. Of course, that ideal is not necessarily going to be an easy one to follow, but you can go some distance towards it simply by ensuring that you are growing some fruit and veg in your garden. You can grow some veg all year round, so you should never feel as though you can’t eat from the land – and you also don’t even need that much land in order to be able to do this. You can grow a surprising amount of food from a square foot of soil, so whether it’s in an allotment down the road or a windowsill or two, it is something you can always consider doing – and it’s great for the planet, and great for you.

Insulation

It doesn’t matter how much you pay attention to your heating if your home is not set up to hold it in its walls sufficiently. This is why insulation is so important. If your heat is escaping too quickly, then you are going to have to use so much more energy to keep it warm in winter and cool in the summer. Insulation generally pays for itself pretty soon, so it is absolutely something that you should make sure you are getting as soon as you can. It really will make a profound difference to how efficient your home life is in no time.

Analog Entertainment

Finally, if you really want to keep your energy usage to a minimum, make sure that you spend some time each day avoiding television, computers and so on, and instead entertaining yourself with more traditional forms of entertainment. It might be time to rediscover your love of reading – you will find it is good for your mind, and could even turn out to be good for the planet, too, so it’s a great thing to do at this very mome