Making a home greener and more environmentally friendly
When I sat down to write this article I realised:
- Just how little I really new about the subject of sustainable, environmentally friendly decorating or 'Green Decorating'.
- Just how confusing the information is out there and why so much mis-information is being bandied about.
Lets start at the very beginning
If you really are determined to do your bit to live a more sustainable life then you have to ask yourself:
- Why am I considering redecorating? Is it purely fashion led or do I need to solve a problem.
- If I need to redecorate can I recycle or reuse what I have rather than simply replace - It may be that I can both save time and money as well as materials and energy by looking at what I have and using it in a different way.
- If I carried out some essential maintenance could I repair rather than replace?
These questions will help you to separate out the necessary from the unnecessary decorating jobs.
Today we are surrounded by images and advertising telling us what the 'latest' colours, shapes, functions are in our home environment.
Where as 50 years ago your grandparents may have bought a 'three piece suite' and lived with it for 20 years, perhaps recovering it once or twice. Today we seem to be urged to get the latest look and replace our 'out moded' designs after as little as 5 years.
By making the conscious decision that you are buying long term, you can begin to consider the function of the furniture/ room and plan to buy a quality product that will age well and adapt to your changing lifestyle. See the articles in 'How to buy furniture' section.
For example, if you are newly married but plan to have children, and you are considering buying a sofa or seating for the home then you might well consider that a pale cream leather suite is not as suitable as one with a loose cover that is machine washable and that you can have new covers made when the old ones are beyond washing and dying.
Think about choosing a shape that will work well in different rooms or that can be moved around such as modular sofas or a two-seater and two single chairs. If you like the idea of a corner unit perhaps consider the flexibility of a standard sofa and an ottoman that can sit next to the sofa creating a corner unit, but that allows the arrangement of furniture to be moved about.
Making yourself think 'to the future' will help to weed out the spur-of-the-moment decisions that, often, in the long term, are bad decisions.
But lets say that you are starting from scratch
So you are completely reworking an old property, a total renovation job. Well Now is the perfect time to think 'green'. If you are going to be rewiring, re-plumbing, rebuilding and repainting throughout then you can plan the whole job from a sustainable living and sustainable style point of view.
As you work through the different aspects of the refurbishment think:
"How could this be done to make the process 'greener' - green materials, better use of resources, reduce heat loss, recycle water, harvest rainwater, longer lasting materials."
As the most significant environmental impact of any home is energy, in the UK a third of CO2 emissions come from the home, then this is the one to focus on
- Increase insulation, cavity, roof, floor, window and door insulation. About 1/4 of the homes heat is lost through a poorly or non un insulated roof. Look for the renewable wool or newspaper style insulation - you get double brownie points for insulating and recycling.
- Obviously fitting new double-glazing will come at a cost, but over the 20-40 year life of the windows they will recoup the money spent. Even if you are not renewing windows, make sure that general maintenance is carried out. All windows can be better draught proofed and heavy curtains are another more traditional form of winter insulation.
- Improve use of heat within the home. There are many new forms of water and central heating that are far more efficient than traditional styles. If you are building a home from scratch look into thermal generation from the earth as well as solar heating panels.
- Lag and line emersion heaters and storage tanks. Lag hot water pipes to maintain the heat as it passes through the pipes to the rest of the house.
- Replace inefficient heating with newer, more efficient forms. Old radiators can be 50% or more less efficient than new. Buy good quality radiators that will last many more years. Buy the right size radiator for the area it is heating. Site radiators where the heat is needed.
- Service your heating system regularly - have a self cleaning fluid put into the system to keep those rads running hot and clear.
- Fit thermostats onto each radiator so that you don't waste heat in unused areas of the home.
- Ensure that thermal reflecting panels are put on the walls behind the radiators to throw the heat back into the room. As much as 70% of a radiators heat can be lost into the wall it is hanging on. Foil panels alone could cut your heating bills by 10-20%.
- What about wind power? Are you in an area where this is a possibility? Look at government grants for installing renewable energy systems.
- Lighting - You used to have to put up with rather unpleasant sterile neon glare if you went for a low energy bulb. Nowadays things have moved on and there are many more acceptable alternatives to standard watt light bulbs. Many stores now sell a full range of low energy bulbs...IKEA (I didn't think I'd ever mention them in an article about sustainable living!) have a large range of low energy bulbs to choose from. Low energy bulbs use up to 80% less fuel and of course last longer making the saving even greater. Even if you can't bear the light that they give out and wouldn't use them in your main living areas, what about using them in the hallways, outside security and garage/ shed lights. Maybe swap them into those lamps that you leave on timers, for security, when you go away.
- Switch off all of those electrics on 'Stand by' - in the year 80% of the energy that those appliances use is when they are on standby...sounds incredible doesn't it?
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So much for the energy saving issues of the home where else can you look to make a home greener and more environmentally friendly?
Painting and Decorating
Avoiding the use of petrochemicals and solvents can make your choice of which paints and range of paint colours a little less daunting!
Instead of a thousand different brands offering you their take on period colours, modern textures and many other 'style' paints there are a number of 'eco friendly' paint manufacturers that have a range of simple but very attractive paint colours.
These environmentally paints use traditional materials such as linseed and citrus peel oil, which makes them rather pleasant to use. See the article Choosing and using eco paints.
Furniture, Furnishings and Homewares.
- Of course the traditional second hand shop, auctions, jumble sales and car boot sales are still a great sources of re-usable household goods. Getting over the fact that you aren't the first person to own and use this item you realise that you are buying some history and often soul. Traditionally made products, things that have a lived in look have a charm that you just don't get from today's mass-produced high street fodder. Today individuality can come at a lower cost than buying new.
- Ebay - has taken the world by storm. If you need something then just a few clicks away and you are very likely to find it somewhere in the UK or further afield. Even if you wouldn't contemplate buying large goods over the net, what about soft furnishings, cutlery, crockery, linen, lighting, art and accessories. Not only do you get a bargain, if you shop carefully, but you can have a lot of fun.
- Freecycle - is a new internet service that matches people with items to those who are looking for them, in the same area. www.freecycle.co.uk. This idea works both on the recycling front and on reducing the carbon emissions from the transport of goods around the world.
- How about putting the word out to friends and family to let them know that you are looking for X, Y or Z. How many times have you heard 'If I'd known I would have given it to you'. You may find out that someone is planning on replacing the very item you want. Why not come to some arrangement, they get a little bit of cash towards buying what they need and you get what you want too.
Water usage
At the time of writing this, June 2006, in the UK we are facing severe water shortages. This is focussing peoples attention on how they use and misuse this most vital of resources.
The issue is so much the fact that we should be able to extract more water, after all we are an island, surrounded by the stuff.
It is the fact that water needs to be filtered and treated before it can be put through the pipes to our homes and at the other end sewerage needs treating and broken down.
The chemicals and energy that these processes use are the factor that needs to be considered.
It seems ridiculous that about 30% of the water we use in our households is just flushed down the toilet! This is drinking water that needn't be used in such a way.
- Install and use a low water use toilet. Without wanting to sound too hippy like, do you need to fully flush after every pee? If you live alone (even if you don't) do you need to flush every time?
- In these dry times could you use the bathwater/ sink water/ washing-up water on the garden? If you are worried about the chemicals then consider the greener cleaners available.
- The old 'take a shower' instead of a bath only works for those of us who take shorter showers and not 'power showers'. Have you ever put the plug in when having a shower and seen how much water you really use?
- Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth.
- Only run a full machine load in the dishwasher or better still wash those dishes by hand.
- How about getting a rain water butt? these can hold up to 100 gallons of rainwater at a time.
- Plant a low maintenance garden and reduce the need to water your garden.
- Do you need to wash the car every week?
- If you are building from scratch how about thinking about installing an underground rainwater tank to harvest the rainwater.
So we have only really covered a small area of what you could do to begin to live a greener existence. In up and coming articles I will be looking at specific areas of green living such as:
Reduce, Re-use, Recycle - is it worth it and where does it all go?
What are the benefits of 'Greener' Paints?
Ways of making your home allergy free.
Month-by-Month ways of living more greenly.
Greener forms of transport.
Green shopping.
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