These days, more and more people are starting to care about their carbon footprint and the impact they have on their environment. From the type of car we drive to the places we shop at, every decision we make has some kind of effect on the planet. If everyone was more conscious of these factors, we could make a huge impact on the outlook of the planet for the next couple of years.
But did you know that living a more energy-efficient lifestyle only takes a couple of small changes to your home? There are loads of places where we can optimize our use of energy, and we’ll be going through a couple of those strategies in this article.
Lower your thermostat by a few degrees
In 2012, a paper was published by the Department of Energy & Climate Change that showed that lowering your thermostat by just two degrees from 20°C to 18°C was the best way to save energy over a year. While two degrees can be felt by most people, it’s also not a massive deal if you counter it by wearing an extra layer or just being more selective when turning on the heating. There are also a bunch of changes that you could make to your home that will help increase the overall temperature of your home so that lowering your thermostat doesn’t make a huge difference. We’ll be explaining more of those strategies below.
Harness the power of the sun
The sun is perhaps one of the most underrated ways to help heat your home, especially during the winter. We can do this in a number of ways, such as changing the windows and blinds that we use. Duette® LightLock® blinds feature noise and light reduction as well as temperature control, and you can switch to double-glazed windows to help trap more heat inside of your home.
Switching to double-glazed or even triple-glazed windows from a firm like Renewal by Andersen Windows Twin Falls is one of the best ways to make better use of the sun to heat your home in the winter, but it can also make your heating more efficient since less of the heat is lost to the outside. Another more expensive method of harnessing the sun is to consider installing solar panels, but this will take a lot more research and consideration than just switching out some windows and blinds.
Be mindful of loft conversions
A loft conversion is a great method of creating a more spacious family home, but it’s also one area that needs to be carefully considered because your roof is one of the most common places for heat transfer to happen. If it’s not properly insulated, then you could lose a huge amount of heat through your roof because of how thin and unprotected it can be with a poor loft conversion. When done correctly using insulation, you can stop the transfer of heat and save a lot of money every year since you won’t need to turn up the thermostat just to keep your home at a steady temperature. Not only does this help to keep your loft warmer, but it helps to keep the heat in your home as a whole.
