Greening Up Your Home For the Winter

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It seems like our winters are getting colder and our heating bills are getting higher.  It turns out that we, and our houses are a big cause of environmental change because all of the heating that we do in the winter as well as the lighting of our houses.  This along with air conditioners in the summer produce as much as a third of the carbon dioxide that is released into the environment.

Let’s talk about some ways that you can winterize your home this season and become little more green in the process.

The first thing you can do is to lower your water heater to 120°.  You can actually lower it even more but most people find this to be the most comfortable.  If you have it any higher you are risking the danger of burns from hot water.  You want to be careful with this. especially if you have any little ones in the home.

Wash your clothes in cold water.  Not only does this lower energy costs but your clothes will not fade as quickly.  Many clothes fade after the first wash and after as few as the 10th wash, they don’t look like the original item.  The color in your clothes will last a lot longer if you wash in cold water.

If you dry your clothes halfway in the clothes dryer and then hang them up for the rest of the drying time, you will be saving a lot of money as well as your clothes.  All the hot air from the dryer is just blown out through the exhaust say you don’t get a benefit of that.

Make sure you turn off any lights in rooms that don’t have any activity.  As you have bulbs burn out, replace them with compact fluorescents which will last much longer and take much less energy to light your home.

Take a tour of all of the windows, doors and other areas where you might be leaking heat from the home.  Seal up these areas with weather stripping and other products from your home improvement store especially made for weathering your home.

Programmable thermostats help save a lot of money for homeowners and they are not difficult to use or install.  If you are not very savvy about these sorts of things, have one installed by a professional and have them show you how to use it including programming the thermostat.  If you have an idea of what temperatures you like your home to be during the different seasons as well as night and day, have the installer program the thermostat for you.

Insulate your hot water heater.  These make a big difference regarding how much a hot water heaters have to work and consume energy in order to keep water warm for you.  They are inexpensive at home improvement stores and are easy to install.

Insulate your attic.  You can save as much as 2,142 pounds of CO2 in one year just by adding insulation to your attic.

Making your home or green for the winter has the double advantage of helping up the environment and lowering your bills.  Most of the time after you have taken these actions you won’t have to spend money next year to replace them.  In a short time greening up your home for the winter will pay for itself.