Tips on a carbon friendly home

Tips On Carbon Friendly Home

Tackling climate change will be one of the most important revolution for this generation. Everyone needs to get involved by making small changes to their everyday life. More and more people are taking action to reduce their carbon emissions and its easy to do. Once you understand how easy it is switch you habits, it will become second nature to be eco-friendly. Just change a few light bulbs to be florescent, or displace some water in your toilet. Here are some ideas about how you can help.

Hot is Cool, and Cool is Hot Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. Turning your thermostat down by just 2°C you’ll cut as much as 10% off your heating bill.

Turn Your TV Off- At the Set Switching off your TV, video, DVD or stereo at the set stops the extra 10-60% electricity used by being on standby. If just 10 households switched off their TV sets properly, 1 tonne of CO2 would be saved.

Shopping for Appliances?

Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases. Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most efficient models.

Fridge not to Frigid Make sure your fridge and freezer run efficiently by defrosting regularly and setting to the right temperature. This will keep your CO2 emissions, and your bills, to a minimum.

Full Load of Laundry Using full loads will keep your weekly wash number down, saving you money on water, electricity, soap, and helping the environment too.

Use the Spiral Light bulbs CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save you around £10 a year, and save the atmosphere 0.8 tonnes of CO2.

Insulate your Water Tank Stop heat energy escaping by fitting a lagging jacket around your hot water tank – you’ll be amazed how much you can save. If your boiler is over 15 years old it may not be energy efficient – replacing with a condensing boiler could save you money and reduce your emissions.

Insulate your Walls Up to 35% of the heat generated in your home is lost through your walls. Installing cavity wall insulation could cut your fuel bills £70-£100 per year, and save large amounts of CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere.

Insulate your Loft

Save £20-30 on your fuel bills and a tonne of CO2, by fitting 180mm of loft insulation – it will only cost you £200, but will stop the 25% of heat from your house disappearing through the roof.

Try eco-friendly shopping The lifestyle choices that you make can make a big difference to the impact you have on the environment. By being aware of how food and clothes are made and shipped you can reduce emissions - both locally and globally. If you're looking for eco or environmentally-friendly household products then visit GoCarbonFree.com shopping portal.

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