How can we have an ecological and sustainable home? To reduce environmental impact, reduce fixed costs, but also to improve our quality of life. Here are some useful and practical tips: from changing light bulbs to home automation.
Heating and thermal insulation
First of all we can make changes to our fixtures (doors, windows, glasses) eliminating the problem of thermal bridges (the discontinuity between inside and outside). For better insulation, the first element to be checked is the window – usually the weak point that is guilty of much of the heat loss. Once this is done, let’s evaluate the possibility of installing new-generation fixtures in laminated wood, in metal or in PVC.
LED bulbs
Do not forget to check what seems like small consumption : in Europe, on average, between 15% and 20% of electricity is consumed by lighting. So don’t underestimate how much electricity we use due to no-up-to-date light bulbs. For this reason, renew your old bulbs with new LED technology: you will see an immediate impact on your bill, as LED bulbs consume about half of the low consumption ones which have entered our homes by about ten years ago. Moreover, they have a lifetime of about ten times higher (100,000 hours against 10,000 of the low consumption bulbs).
Large appliances
If you have an old washing machine, refrigerator or dishwasher, change them as soon as possible with new low-consumption models, always keeping an eye on the energy classes at the time of purchase. Do not buying anything that is not at least class A +. To have an idea of the differences in consumption between different classes see here.
Home automation
Thanks to a completely smart home (where everything is interconnected, starting from the lighting and heating system) we can make sure that we don’t use even one kilowatt more than what is necessary: our new smart home will take care of our carelessness. We will no longer have to worry about having left the television on, the heating too high or the bedroom lights on: we will let “her” do everything. Or we may remotely adjust all our appliances and home devices with our smartphone.
Non-toxic paints
Finally, let’s not forget the quality of our home air. That is why, when repainting the walls, we should have the foresight to use non-toxic paints, or with a low percentage of synthetic residues, so to live in domestic environments with a low presence of solvents. On the market there are different types of non-toxic paints (for example paints based on natural resins) but, in any case, let’s make sure we buy an ECOLABEL branded paint. ECOLABEL is a European brand that certifies the low environmental impact.
Target Point, Italian Ideas.