Five Simple Eco-Friendly Updates for Your Home 

Making your home more eco-friendly doesn’t necessarily have to involve huge, time-consuming projects or major renovations. Sometimes, a few small, thoughtful updates can be enough to really make an impact on your environmental footprint, as well as save you money on your energy bills.

In this guide, we explore some simple but effective ways of boosting your home’s sustainability, helping you to lower your energy consumption, reduce waste, and create a greener living space.

Update your internal doors

Updating your internal doors is a great way of improving the energy efficiency of your home. As doors age, they may become warped or sag, which can leave gaps between the door and doorframe. These gaps can allow heat to escape the room, which may mean you need to turn your heating up to reach a comfortable temperature. As it’s advised to keep doors shut to help keep your home energy efficient, draughty doors can have a big impact on how sustainable your home is.

Upgrading your doors will mean you reduce any draughts throughout your home and help keep rooms warm and cosy. Not only will replacing old doors with new internal doors be an eco-friendly update, but they can also help to refresh your interiors and improve the aesthetics of your home.

Switch to LED lighting

Replacing your incandescent bulbs with LED lighting can be a quick and easy eco-friendly update for your home. LED lights use at least 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, plus they last up to 25 times longer. They also operate at a much lower temperature, so there’s little danger of burning yourself on an LED bulb.

It’s estimated that accounting for the upfront costs of buying LED bulbs (amounting to around £60 for 25 LED bulbs), you could save £20.12 on utility bills during the first month of use, and so effectively make your money back on savings within the first three months of use. LED bulbs have a life expectancy of 10 years, so you could see a total saving of £2,414 over the whole period.

Choose energy efficient appliances

When it’s time to replace your appliances, you should look for those that have high energy-efficient ratings. It’s important to remember that, for most appliances, it won’t be eco-friendly to get rid of something that works in favour of a more sustainable alternative. In the majority of cases, waiting until an appliance breaks down and isn’t repairable will be the perfect time to look for an eco-friendly replacement.

Most appliances will have an energy label with an energy rating on a scale of A to G, with A being the most efficient. Some older appliances might use a scale that starts at A+++. When looking for a new appliance, check out the energy rating for each one and aim to purchase the one that has the highest rating that also fits your budget and needs.

Typically, the energy rating will be related to the size of the appliance, so a larger freezer will have a lower rating than a smaller one. You should always aim to only buy the size of appliance that you need, to reduce wasted energy in operating it. This will have a positive impact on your energy bills as well as the environment.

Opt for sustainable furniture

When it comes to decorating your home, look for pieces made from sustainable materials. This could include reclaimed wood, recycled glass, or bamboo and other natural materials. Furniture made from recycled and reclaimed materials are especially good for the environment as they may have prevented materials from going to landfill by repurposing them.

You could also aim to shop locally and shop second-hand. Shopping second-hand not only reduces waste but also puts less demand on the supply chain, which can help contribute to lower production overall. As producing new furniture usually involves energy-intensive processes, this could lead to a more positive impact on the environment.

Shopping locally can help to reduce your carbon footprint by vastly reducing how much carbon is used to transport your item to you. In addition, this will also help to support your local economy bringing more benefits to your community.

Install a water butt for your garden

Installing a water butt in your garden is a great eco-friendly update for your outside space. Water butts collect rainwater, which you can then use to water your plants. This will reduce how much treated water you use, lowering the environmental footprint of your household.

Using rain water instead of tap water can also be better for your plant life, helping you to create a flourishing garden. Tap water can contain chemicals such as chlorine, whereas rain water will naturally be more suited to supporting plant life and can promote healthy growth.

JB Kind has a huge range of interior doors that can help to improve your home’s insulation as well as add to your interior style. Download our brochure or contact us to find out more.