Dependable Tips for Going Green
Everybody wants to do their part to help save the planet, and there are plenty of things you can do that will help you achieve this goal and save money you at the same time. Earth Day is almost here (it’s on April 22 every year), and we thought this would be a perfect time to provide you with some dependable green living tips that you can adopt today.
1. Take Steps to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
There are many things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint, both around the house and with lifestyle changes. Some things you can do include:
- Walking more and driving less
- Recycling and reusing
- Staying away from plastics
- Taking steps to reduce your energy use and waste
2. Use the Power of Solar
Going solar will save you money on your energy bills, and it will also help reduce your carbon footprint. There are a few options for going solar, and the most Earth-friendly is installing solar panels.
You can also invest in a plug-and-play solar system that you can use to power many of the devices and appliances in your house. If that’s not feasible, you can also switch out some of your existing appliances for solar-powered ones, including your freezer, refrigerator, and phone chargers.
3. 
Use Less Energy to Heat and Cool Your House
Programmable thermostats can save you quite a bit on your energy bills. Here's how it works: set the thermostat so that during the day when nobody is home, the temperature inside the house goes up or down by about 10 degrees.
While it might be too hot or cold during the day, nobody is home to notice, and you can set the thermostat to automatically lower or increase the temperature to a more comfortable level before everybody gets home. Just by doing this, you can cut 10 percent off your energy bills.
4. Choose Energy Efficiency
One of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint, cut your energy use, and save money is to upgrade to energy-efficient electronics and appliances when it comes time for replacements around the house. There are so many products today that are available in energy-smart models, including televisions, air conditioners, furnaces, refrigerators, washing machines, tankless water heaters, and even light bulbs.
5. Seal Up the Chimney
You wouldn’t leave a window wide open when you were trying to cool the house with air conditioning, so why would you leave the chimney flue open? The thing about the flue is that most people don’t even think about it, but it’s a huge source of energy loss in many houses.
It lets hot and cold air in from outside when you're trying to keep your house comfortable with climate controlled air. To prevent this, simply close the flue when you're not having a fire in winter, and seal it up tightly in summer when you're not having fires.
6. Cool Your Home the Natural Way
Long before air conditioning existed, people used to use trees to cool their homes. Ok, well maybe the trees themselves didn’t cool the houses, but they kept them cool by preventing them from getting hot.
You can take advantage of this miraculous natural cooling method by planting trees along your east and west walls, because in summer, the trees will block the sun, provide shade, and prevent direct sunlight from entering your house and heating up your walls.
For added benefit, plant trees to cover your driveway, patios, and terraces as well.
For more information, call our Griesemer Plumbing & Mechanical Service experts in the Indianapolis, IN area at 317-881-9536.
