Climate change isn’t going away anytime soon, but it’s a problem we can all help to solve. If the temperature keeps rising, we will experience more extreme weather events, loss of wildlife, natural habitats and life will become increasingly challenging as we try to deal with the issues global warming creates.
One of the things that can help make a huge difference is to reduce your carbon footprint. Your carbon footprint is considered to be the amount of greenhouse gases you produce in your day to day activities.
Greenhouse gases include carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide to name but a few. It’s these greenhouse gases that trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere and cause global warming. It’s this effect that causes polar ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise and catastrophic natural events that put many people and wildlife at risk.
There are plenty of ways to help reduce our carbon footprint including responsible tourism. As well as looking at how we travel, we can look at how we live in our homes. Lots of our daily activities take place around the home and it’s a great place to start if you want to reduce your carbon footprint. You can calculate your carbon footprint for free here https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
The good thing about reducing your carbon footprint is you can make changes whatever your budget. Whether your able to release equity from your home, use your savings or sell some existing household items to fund your projects, there will definitely be changes you can make
I know lots of people who have spent time at home over the last 6 months are starting to think about their home improvements. We’ve just had a surveyor round to our own home as we are having new windows fitted in the next few weeks.
Speaking to the window company, demand is very high at the moment and we struggled to even get a quote booked. It seemed like a great time to talk about how you can reduce the carbon footprint in your home, if like us, you are considering having work done or replacing household items.
Reducing the Carbon Footprint in Hour Home
Even small changes can have a big impact on your carbon footprint. If every person made a few small changes to how they live it would make a huge difference to climate change. You may not be able to tackle everything at once, but by committing to considering your carbon footprint when upgrading your home or considering your day to day activities you can have a huge impact on the future of the planet.
The other awesome thing about considering your carbon footprint is that in the long run you will save money, and that’s a bonus everyone is going to be pleased about!
Upgrade Your Windows
I’ll talk about windows first as it’s something we are currently looking to upgrade. Old windows are often draughty and don’t retain heat efficiently. Heating the home creates the most greenhouse gases so replacing old windows can make a big difference to your carbon footprint.
We are hoping that our new windows will help reduce our heating bills and make our home more energy efficient.
Reduce Drafts
There are lots of ways you can reduce drafts in your home, which will in turn reduce your heating bills and therefore your carbon footprint. As well as replacing windows you can seal doors and letter boxes with brushes to reduce the heat escaping from your home. Putting a cover over your key holes can also help.
Retain Heat
Thinking about how you can retain heat in your home will also make your home more energy efficient. During the winter months open your curtains on sunny days to let the natural warmth in. As soon as night comes, close all curtains to retain as much heat as possible. Using lined curtains will also make a difference.
Making sure your home is well insulated will have a huge impact and can be very cost effective also. Getting your loft well insulated is relatively low cost and will soon pay for itself by reduced heating costs. If your home doesn’t have cavity wall insulation, this can also be a very effective way to reduce energy use and therefore bills.
Setting your heating thermostat to a constant temperature will also help. Before you go to turn it up, consider a jumper or cosy blanket first to keep that carbon footprint in check. Placing reflective panels behind radiators will also reflect heat back into the room and stop it being absorbed into the room.
Use Energy Efficient Appliances
If you have any old appliances or an old boiler in your home, the chances are they will be very inefficient and maybe it’s time to consider replacing them. When you are looking for a new fridge, freezer or washing machine also take a look at the energy efficient rating and buy the highest that you can afford.
Even where you place household appliances can make a big difference. Placing a fridge or freezer next to an oven for example is going to make it have to work harder to keep food fresh or frozen. Also, making sure your washing machine has a full load before beginning a wash, only filling kettles and saucepans with as much water as you need and defrosting your freezer regularly can also help to reduce your carbon footprint.
Switch to a Renewable Energy Provider
If it’s time to switch energy supplier, look at companies that supply renewable energy to help reduce your carbon footprint.
There’s so much you can do around your home to help reduce greenhouse gases. Whether it’s considering energy efficiency during home improvements tor switching to LED lightbulbs when you can climate change is a problem that we can all chip away at. It’s time to switch off the tumble dryer, spend less time in the shower and fix dripping taps to help solve one of the biggest problems we have ever faced.
