Looking to make your house more eco-friendly? Here’s a few ideas.
When it comes to emissions, housing surpasses all other categories, accounting for one-third of the U.S.’s carbon footprint, contributing to climate change.
“We all think of offices, shopping centers and parking lots with their lights left on all night as being the big ‘energy hogs’ but we can, and should, be doing much better at home,” said Michael Gibson, a licensed architect and associate professor of architecture at Kansas State University. “The bright side of this is that in the climate where we live it is actually quite easy to reduce energy and emissions in our homes, even if you don’t have a new house.”
Dr. Todd Gabbard, an associate architecture professor at K-State, does research on micro-apartments, which are used to address housing shortages in urban areas. Micro-apartments use less materials in the construction process and their occupants use less energy and often don’t use cars, as they are closer to work and other events.
“We actually use a lot more energy in buildings, just doing regular building stuff than pretty much any other sector of energy usage,” Gabbard said. “Within buildings, the largest amount of energy goes to heating and cooling and refrigeration.”
Here are a few ways to make your own home more energy-efficient.
Look for light before moving
When looking at moving into a new house or apartment complex, natural light can be key to environmentally friendly living. Just by using natural light during the day and turning off electric lights, households can save an estimated $500 a year, according to Gibson.
Natural light has been shown to boost people’s mood, concentration, alertness and energy levels.
Watch that thermostat
Once people return to work and school, households can trim their utility bills. By turning the thermostat back 10 or 15 degrees for the eight hours no one is home, the Department of Energy estimates that families can save up to 15% on their electricity bills. Additionally, programmable thermostats can setback temperatures at night to reduce energy costs.
“A carefully managed home can use almost no heating or cooling energy during mild seasons in our climate, such as during late April, May, and mid-Autumn,” Gibson said.
Other Energy Efficiency Upgrades
Insulation, high quality windows and doors and energy star rated appliances can really reduce energy consumption and save consumers money.
“Anything that saves you money on energy means you’re saving energy,” Gabbard said. “The upfront cost is the most important thing, but, over the lifetime of the house, if it’s insulated poorly, that is actually gonna add to the cost substantially.”
Location, location, location
For apartment dwellers, there is often little control over energy efficiency appliances or windows, but there are still things to consider, according to Gabbard.
“If you’re looking at an apartment complex in front of you, pick one of the apartments in the middle because if there’s an apartment on the edge, it actually acts as insulation for the apartment in the middle,” Gabbard said. “You would use less energy year-round because you would literally have a whole bunch of installation around you.”
Before building a home
Most people think of a house as a collection of rooms. Kitchens are for cooking, bedrooms are for sleeping and bathrooms are for cleaning.
But Gabbard’s research focuses on how people live, trying to remove the “room” aspect of it, to think about spaces in more fluid ways. Thinking about how you live, can redefine how much space you really need, Gabbard said.
“Our culture of living has changed .. and it’s amazing if you think about in a regular house, how much space is wasted,” Gabbard said. “I live in a very old house, and we have a formal dining room. It’s a big room that really doesn’t have any purpose, unless you have a lot of parties.”
Smaller spaces are more environmentally friendly, as they use less energy to build and to heat and cool.
“If you’re designing a small house, it’s not gonna cost you anymore to build the way that you want it to be versus just a normative plan,” Gabbard said. “You can really personalize it and have it be an extension of yourself.”
There is a plethora of ideas on Youtube, where creators like Never Too Small and Kirsten Dirksen, provide innovative and unique ideas for living small and using multipurpose furniture, according to Gabbard.
