• Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
  • Careers
  • Press Releases
  • Testimonials
  • Travel Policy
858.587.2874
Ivey Engineering
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Careers
    • Newsletter
    • Press Releases
    • Scholarship Contest
    • Travel Policy
    • Testimonials
  • Expertise
    • Overview
    • HVAC
    • Plumbing
    • Fire Suppression
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Carbon Monoxide
    • Building Codes
    • Design
    • Construction
    • Facility Condition Assessment
  • Services
    • Overview
    • Construction Claims
    • Construction Defects
    • Estimating & Cost Analysis
    • Building System Evaluation
    • Forensic Investigation & Failure Analysis
    • HVAC & Plumbing Design
    • Indoor Cultivation Facility Design
    • Professional Liability
    • Product Testing
  • Our Team
    • Conrad Gonzalez
    • Kevin Hastings, P.E.
    • Nancy Ivey
    • William Ivey, P.E.
    • Jorie Obias-Yambao
    • Joseph Palanca, P.E.
    • Gloria Rodriguez
    • Nova Sevilla
    • David Shreve, P.E.
    • Felix Touza, P.E.
    • Gregory Weintraub
    • Lisa Zollinger
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • California Office
    • Florida Office
    • Virginia Office
    • Ask an Expert
    • Request Fee Schedule
    • Request Resume
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Menu Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Careers
    • Newsletter
    • Press Releases
    • Scholarship Contest
    • Travel Policy
    • Testimonials
  • Expertise
    • Overview
    • HVAC
    • Plumbing
    • Fire Suppression
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Carbon Monoxide
    • Building Codes
    • Design
    • Construction
    • Facility Condition Assessment
  • Services
    • Overview
    • Construction Claims
    • Construction Defects
    • Estimating & Cost Analysis
    • Building System Evaluation
    • Forensic Investigation & Failure Analysis
    • HVAC & Plumbing Design
    • Indoor Cultivation Facility Design
    • Professional Liability
    • Product Testing
  • Our Team
    • Conrad Gonzalez
    • Kevin Hastings, P.E.
    • Nancy Ivey
    • William Ivey, P.E.
    • Jorie Obias-Yambao
    • Joseph Palanca, P.E.
    • Gloria Rodriguez
    • Nova Sevilla
    • David Shreve, P.E.
    • Felix Touza, P.E.
    • Gregory Weintraub
    • Lisa Zollinger
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • California Office
    • Florida Office
    • Virginia Office
    • Ask an Expert
    • Request Fee Schedule
    • Request Resume
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
two kinds of LED light bulbs

7 Simple Tips to Make Your Home More Green

in Community, Sustainable Living/by Lisa Zollinger

When it comes to the environment, being a responsible global citizen starts at home. Making your home more earth friendly doesn’t have to mean starting completely over. From recycling to using alternative cleaning materials, minor changes at home can add up to real benefits for the planet, not to mention your own health and happiness, and save you money while you’re at it. If you’re looking for ways you can reduce your carbon footprint, check out these 7 Simple Tips to Make Your Home More Green.

1. Install a Programmable Thermostat

One of the easiest ways to make your home more environmentally friendly, save energy and cut utility bills is to install a programmable thermostat. After all, it’s estimated that over half of your energy bill can go toward heating and cooling your home. Energy companies suggest setting your thermostat to 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in warm months. You can also program temperatures around your schedule to save even more on your energy bill.

thermostat

2. Implement Proactive Landscaping

Smart landscaping can make your home more energy efficient by providing shade in the summer and insulation in the winter. To gain the greatest benefits, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests planting trees that lose their leaves on the western and southern sides of your home. In the summer, the trees will provide shade and block infrared radiation, keeping your house cooler. In the winter, when the trees lose their leaves, they will allow more sunlight to reach the windows and warm your home.

By planting trees native to your area, they will thrive in your city’s environment and help support the wildlife around your home. Additionally, natural landscaping can help save money on the cost of lawn care, since it requires less water and maintenance, adding up to an average savings of $700 per year.

 

A nicely landscaped log cabin home.

3. Clean Green

Stop buying household cleaners that are potentially toxic to both your family and the environment. Check labels for specific, eco-friendly ingredients that also get the job done. These include grain alcohol instead of toxic butyl Cellosolve, commonly found in carpet cleaner and some window cleaners. Coconut or other plant oils can replace petroleum in detergents.

Look for plant-oil disinfectants like eucalyptus, rosemary or sage instead of Triclosan, an antifungal agent found in soaps and deodorant. You can also skip buying cleaning products from the store and make your own instead. By using simple ingredients such as plain soap, water, baking soda, vinegar, washing soda, lemon juice and borax, you’ll help save the environment and money at the same time.

 

green_cleaning

4. Slow the Flow

Another way to make your home more green by conserving water is to add low-flow features to toilets, faucets and showerheads. Toilets are the best place to start because they use approximately 26 percent of the water in your home. Today’s industry standard for toilets is 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). If you’re updating an old home, you will see big savings compared to older toilets that use as much as 3.5 gpf. There’s even more room for water savings when installing toilets if you go with a high-efficiency toilet which uses as little as 1.28 gpf. This can add up to a savings of 3,000 gallons of water per toilet each year.

5. Insulate

Proper insulation can have a big impact on your home’s energy efficiency. As mentioned above, heating and cooling can account for over half of a home’s energy consumption. Proper insulation will ensure that expensive energy that’s heating and cooling your home isn’t escaping out the windows or through the roof. There are plenty of green choices in modern insulation; recycled materials like old newspapers, denim, wool and hemp are now being used as replacements and improvements over fiberglass. To make your home even more of an insulated fortress, you may want to upgrade your weather stripping and sealant around the doors and windows.

6. Recycle

When it comes to making your home more green, recycling is kind of a no-brainer; but according to the EPA, the national recycling rate is just 30 percent. If material recycling increased in the United States to 60 percent, it could save the equivalent of 315 million barrels of oil per year. Home recycling requires almost no extra amount of time, yet offers significant benefits to you as a homeowner as well as the environment. To make recycling more attractive many communities offer curbside and drop-off programs. However, due to the rising cost of recycling over the last couple years, some cities have cancelled or reduced their recycling services. If you’re in one of these cities, you can take your materials to an independent recycling center or a business that accepts outside recyclable materials. The website Earth 911 has a handy search tool where you can enter your zip code to find places near you that accept recycling. The tool also lists the type of recyclable materials each business or organization accepts.

recycle_bins

7. Switch to LED light bulbs

LED and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) offer huge energy and cost savings over regular incandescent bulbs. Both options cost more upfront, but they produce less heat, use less energy and last much longer than traditional light bulbs, making them ideal for your home’s green lighting options. CFLs cost about $2 more per bulb than the incandescent variety, but offer an overall cost savings of more than $60 per bulb when compared to a 100-watt incandescent bulb.

Simple changes in the way you live can put you on the track toward reducing your carbon footprint. These earth-friendly ideas are a great place to start if you’ve been putting off living a green lifestyle. If you feel overwhelmed, start with just one thing, whether it’s swapping out an old light bulb or planting a tree. Simple things can lead to great rewards for the earth and your wallet. Which of these 7 Simple Tips to Make Your Home More Green would you start with? Did we leave out a tip that you’d add to our list? If you’re thinking of taking a more extreme approach to saving the environment, check out these six reasons why homeowners should go solar!

Tags: environmentally friendly, featured, green, home, house, recycle, sustainability
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
You might also like
outlet with plug on fire 6 Tips to Help Prevent a Home or Building Fire
A clogged kitchen sink filled with dirty water and utensils5 Things to Do if You Want to Unclog Your Kitchen Sink
plumbing pipes in building How to Overcome Gravity in High-Rise Plumbing Systems (March 2023)
smoke alarm life saving tips7 Basic Life-Saving Smoke Alarm Tips
An electric car parked at a charging station5 Reasons Why You Should Buy an Electric Vehicle
A sink filled with dirty water14 Hilarious Real-Life Plumbing Commercials (YouTube)
1 reply
  1. Taylor Bishop
    Taylor Bishop says:
    October 12, 2017 at 7:53 am

    Thanks for these tips to save energy. I’m glad that you mentioned that you should recycle, and that recycling more can save about 315 million barrels of oil. Knowing this, I’m kind of interested to learn more about what materials can be recycled, or if it should be organized in a way that can save a lot of time for the recycling company.

Comments are closed.

CONNECT on LinkedIn
FOLLOW on Twitter
CONNECT on Facebook

Recent Blog Posts

  • High rise building with lights on
    6 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Energy in Commercial BuildingsFebruary 16, 2023 - 4:56 pm
  • outlet with plug on fire
    6 Tips to Help Prevent a Home or Building FireOctober 31, 2022 - 4:59 pm
  • white pipe leaking water
    4 Common Causes of Mold in Buildings or HomesSeptember 23, 2022 - 2:15 pm
  • old copper gas boiler
    6 Most Common Causes of Carbon Monoxide PoisoningDecember 21, 2021 - 3:49 pm

Categories

  • Community
  • Construction
  • Courtroom
  • Electrical
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Fire & Life Safety
  • Fire Protection
  • HVAC
  • Newsletter
  • Plumbing
  • Press Releases
  • Sustainable Living

Archives

Tags

architecture bathroom buildings claim class action comedy court case courtroom drama energy consumption energy efficiency environmentally friendly expert witness featured fire & life safety fire protection hilarious history home house HVAC lawsuit massive irrigation system master bathroom medical imaging mistakes modern modern plumbing systems movies opinion plastic pipe plumbing plumbing code plumbing systems plumbing videos problems rainwater harvesting remodel project renewable sources renovation settlement solar panels sustainability trial verdict

About Us

Ivey Engineering is based in San Diego, California, with offices in Clearwater, Florida; and Arlington, Virginia. The firm has performed expert witness and forensic consulting services since 1994 and serves clients in over 30 states. Our staff is comprised of engineers, former construction executives and service and repair professionals who are licensed in various states.

Get in Touch

Phone: 858.587.2874

Fax: 858.587.6749

E-mail: [email protected]

Address: 8330 Juniper Creek Lane

San Diego, CA 92126

From Our Blog

  • High rise building with lights on
    6 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Energy in Commercial BuildingsFebruary 16, 2023 - 4:56 pm
  • outlet with plug on fire
    6 Tips to Help Prevent a Home or Building FireOctober 31, 2022 - 4:59 pm
  • white pipe leaking water
    4 Common Causes of Mold in Buildings or HomesSeptember 23, 2022 - 2:15 pm
© Copyright 2023 - Ivey Engineering Inc.
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Expertise
  • Services
  • Our Team
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
5 Reasons Why You Should Buy an Electric VehicleAn electric car parked at a charging stationa judge holding a gavel8 Hilarious But True Court Cases You Won’t Believe
Scroll to top