The Ecology Blog

Environmentalists say that in our fight against global warming, every individual has to think globally while acting locally. In a much simpler term, the first step towards living a greener lifestyle should start at home.

There are myriad ways to live a comfortable yet sustainable life. The best thing about it is that the effects can be easily felt. We are talking about setting up an energy efficient home to help alleviate global warming while being able to save money in the process.

The first step towards this endeavor is to determine how much energy you need to save. To do this, it is important to perform an energy audit in your home to find out which of your appliances consume more energy than what is necessary. This audit does not only promote awareness so that you can save energy by reducing your consumption. By doing this, you are also guided in buying green products for your home.

Other simple alterations in your home can contribute a lot in reducing energy consumption at home. One simple thing that does wonders is replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones. Incandescent light emits more unnecessary energy because as it produces artificial light, it also produces heat energy that you really don’t need. Compact fluorescent bulbs, on the other hand, do not produce the same amount of heat as incandescent.

As for appliance usage, you can start by not using your dishwasher’s drying cycle by air drying your dishes instead. Turning off your computer and monitor saves you triple the amount of energy you still consume when you let them on standby or sleep mode. Same goes when you let other home electronics plugged into your wall socket when turned off. It is said that appliances still consume energy when not unplugged. The best solution is to plug your electronics into power strips so that you can simply turn them on and off instead of unplugging them every time.

These are just a few means to conserve energy at home and saving money at the same time. Starting off with these mundane tasks will go a long way. And if every person around the world will do the same thing for the planet, it wouldn’t be so hard to expect something better in the future.