10 Ways to Make Your Home Green

Home buyers and sellers around the world are becoming more environmentally-conscious, and people in Nanaimo are no exception. Making your home green will help the environment, save you money, and help your property for sale in Nanaimo stand out from the other houses on the market.

1. Save water and cut down on water bills by fixing any annoying leaks and installing a low-flow showerhead. In fact, one low-flow shower head can save nearly 12,000 liters of water a year.
    
2. Installing a smart meter is one of the easiest ways to cut down on your heating and cooling bill. It’s easy to forget to turn the heat down in the winter before you leave for work. Smart meters can be programmed to automatically turn on and off right after you leave the house and just before you get home.
    
3. Energy efficient light bulbs have been around for a long time, and finally they’re beginning to catch on. While it’s true they cost a little more to buy than the older incandescent bulbs, eco-friendly light bulbs last longer and use less electricity, saving you money in the end.
    
4. Invest in adding some extra insulation to your home to keep the heat in during the winter and the hot air outside in the summer. Installing double-glazed, energy efficient winters also help sellers tout their property for sale in Nanaimo as being ‘green’, while area rugs over exposed hardwood floors are another stylish and surprisingly effective way to insulate your home by preventing air from slipping through microscopic cracks in the floorboards.
    
5. Nothing does a better job of saying your home is green than solar panels and a solar-powered hot water heater. Solar power is a completely clean source of electricity and some places even allow homeowners to sell back any power to the electrical grid.
    
6. Use natural cleaning products like vinegar, citric acid, and bicarbonate of soda. They smell better, to just as good of a job if not better than caustic commercial cleaners, and you won’t be polluting the water supply when you wash them down the drain.
    
7. Speaking of cleaning, using more washable rags and fewer paper towels is an easy way to start going green. Old cotton t-shirts make the perfect rags, and you can wash them with a biodegradable laundry detergent when your batch of rags runs out.
    
8. Cleaning the refrigerator coils and the filter in your clothes dryer are two easy ways to cut down on energy use while helping expensive appliances to last longer and run more efficiently. Coils on the refrigerator get covered with dust and grime that makes your frig work overtime (and use more electricity), while too much dryer lint can be one of the leading causes of expensive appliance repairs.
    
9. Natural light is bright and healthy, but that doesn’t mean you should skimp on the window coverings. Believe it or not, even a thin sheer curtain or blind can act as an extra insulation barrier to keep warm air in and cool air outside where it belongs.
    
10. Fill your dishwasher all the way up before running it and be sure to run it in the middle of the night. Let’s face it, running a full cycle when you only have wine glasses and a few dishes inside is definitely not green. Using the “delay” setting on your dishwasher lets you start the wash in the middle of the night, reducing peak energy demand on the power grid and maybe even earning a lower charge on your electric bill.