7 Eco-Friendly Home Ideas to Embrace the 21st Century

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An eco-friendly home helps you save money and ensures a better future for everyone, including your children. Additionally, it will increase the resale value as buyers look for certain expected modern features. From LED lights to AI assistance, here are some changes you can make now.
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Renovate Less Often

Home renovation is a booming industry, and we all like a change-up now and then. You can immediately make a difference by prolonging the time between renovations, which at the moment is around 15 years on average. Yet sustainable materials such as Mexican tiles not only look great in almost all decor styles, but they last for a very long time. These durable and stylish tiles last so long that almost all manufacturers offer a 50-year warranty as a guarantee.
An Eco-Friendly Home Uses LED LightsYou have probably heard this one a million times now, but switching to LED lights is a great first step to embracing technology and becoming more eco-friendly. LED lights use around 90% less energy than a standard bulb. But the great thing about these is that many brands offer smart versions to use with common systems such as Alexa. Why would you do this? Well, with smart bulbs, you can set timers and switch them off remotely, so no lights are ever accidentally left on.
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Install Smart Meters and Monitors

​Further to smart technology, smart meters are a great way to get to grips with how much energy you use. You can get meters and monitors for many products these days, including your gas and electricity supply, water tanks, and heating systems. When you can instantly see how much you use and compare usage, you can make more informed decisions as to how you use energy in your home. You also get more accurate readings which can translate to savings on your bills.
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Use Renewable Resources at Home

​Unless you are a survival expert and don’t care about modern conveniences, you need energy at home. And there are more eco-friendly options available than ever before. Some are more widely available than others, depending on where you live. These include the following:

• Solar panels are much cheaper than they once were and work more effectively.
• Rainwater harvesting tanks can take rain, store and clean it for use later on.
• Wind turbines generate power from wind, which is great for use in places like the UK.
• Geothermal heating isn’t available everywhere but provides substantial heat.
• You can switch to renewable energy suppliers that don’t use fossil fuels for energy.

Of course, these all have an initial cost. But using just one of these methods can potentially save you some money while you make a great contribution to helping reduce carbon emissions.
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Flush or Flushed?

​We all have to “go” every day. But the toilet accounts for a large portion of a home’s water usage, around 30% in fact. You can make a small but effective change to this usage by installing dual flush toilets. These come with two rather than one flush system; one for, well, “one,” and one for “two.” These ensure that only the right amount of water needed is used when you flush, which not only lowers your bills but puts less strain on the public wastewater system.

An Eco-Friendly Home Using Virtual Assistants

​Virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Nest are common these days because they have many great uses. Yes, they can switch on your lights. But the number of connected smart devices is growing and stands at over 50,000 from 5,500 manufacturers for Google alone. Devices connected to AI assistants can be controlled automatically. Alexa Hunches is a great way to reduce energy use, which will turn off devices, lights, or heating based on your usual activity.

Consider the Paint when Decorating

Not all 21st century methods of becoming more eco-friendly are based on tech. But there are some advancements to common tasks you can embrace. Paint is one of these. And as a homeowner or renter, you will probably paint a lot, especially if you want to extend the time between renovations. But as you may know, standard paint is very toxic for the environment and especially for children. Today you can get low-VOC paint made from harmless chemicals.
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Summary

Waiting a bit longer between renovations is a great start to an eco-friendly home. But there are more tools you can use, such as AI and smart devices. Although there is an initial cost, you can embrace renewable energy at home, and even using non-VOC paint will help your efforts.